Just like there are few reasons to attend a high school reunion if you didn’t go to that high school, you shouldn’t see “American Reunion” if you didn’t see the first three “American Pie” films. But if you did, you’re in for two hours of good times, several laughs and the familiar, refreshing “American Pie” shenanigans.
The R-rated “American Reunion,” directed and written by Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg, reunites the original cast for a final hurrah; except now, the foursome of seniors – Jim, Kevin, Oz and Finch – are grown men, each leading responsible adult lives away from their hometown of East Grand Rapids, Michigan.
After tying the knot in the 2003 “American Wedding,” Jim and Michelle are parents with a two-year-old son, a development that is threatening their sex life and marring their marriage. They decide to return home for a weekend to get some “Jim and Michelle time” and attend their 13-year high school reunion. (The idea of a 13-year reunion is rather appropriate for this fourth and perhaps final film of the franchise.)
Kevin, now a married architect who works from home, is also back in town for the reunion. So too is the self-proclaimed world-travelling Finch, as well as Oz, a celebrity sportscaster living life large in Los Angeles. (You may remember Oz missed Jim’s wedding.)
They collectively decide to exclude Stifler from the reunion Facebook event because, by all accounts, he’s still the same obnoxious, sex-obsessed troublemaker who never moved away from home. Fatefully, the four guys run into him at a local bar they used to frequent, and with a few shots of liquor they’re back to the late-night high school hijinks that befitted them in the first two films.
As a result, Jim gets wedged between reliving his adolescence with his childhood buddies and trying to maintain a mature MO; caught in that limbo, his problems with Michelle are effectively put on the backburner, which further strains their marriage. Ironically, Jim’s issue in the original “American Pie” resurfaces: He can’t get laid.
Meanwhile, Kevin is (unintentionally) rekindling the teenage love affair with his high school girlfriend Vicky; Finch meets a female who just so happens to be his age; and Oz is regretfully realizing his fame and fortune – which includes a super model for a girlfriend – isn’t what he imagined his life would become back when he was a lacrosse star in high school. In short, their problems that once concerned getting laid and partying have now become question marks about fidelity, parenthood and careers.
Trying to recreate the old days, Stifler throws a pre-reunion party at his mom’s house, but he’s the only one who treats it as such. Jim and Michelle are preoccupied with their problems, and the other three guys are searching for answers of their own. By the end of the party, everyone’s conflicts have escalated to new highs, and one of the guys gets arrested.
Finally, the much-anticipated East Great Falls reunion rolls around, albeit with somewhat of a damper from the night before. The guys reconvene with the hopes of ending the weekend on the right foot, but they quickly realize Stifler is a no-show. In the end it works out for the gang, as it always did throughout the other films.
All in all, the filmmakers do a great job of incorporating almost every “American Pie” character from the previous three films; when and how they appear in this latest version is equally entertaining.
But more than anything, “American Reunion” accomplishes what other sequels ineffectively did: It recreates the essence of the original “American Pie,” while modifying the storyline to manufacture a worthwhile movie-going experience for fans of the franchise.
