Say I Don't to American Wedding
West Life News (8/13/03)
Review by: Terri Clark
The thing about weddings is they take a long time to plan and something
inevitably goes wrong. Once it's over you tend to forget most of what
happened,
but if you're lucky you'll have a few good memories. And that sums up
"American
Wedding," the third, and supposedly final, installment in the "American Pie"
trilogy.
When Jim Levinstein (Jason Biggs) proposes to his band camp girlfriend,
Michelle Flaherty (Alyson Hannigan), he vows to give her the wedding of her
dreams. Chances of that happening seem highly unlikely when Steve Stiffler
(Seann William Scott) shows up and kinky chaos ensues.
Make no mistake, although the story revolves around Jim and Michelle's wedding
plans the film belongs to the Stiffmeister. After meeting the bride-to-be's
refined sister Cadence (January Jones), the foul-mouthed football coach dons
Izod and argyle and tries to seduce her with preppy pleasantries. An equally
smitten Paul Finch (Eddie Kaye Thomas) learns she prefers men who are little
less cultivated so he attempts to win her favor by acting as vulgar as
Stiffler
usually does. Unfortunately Thomas is never given the opportunity to fully
embrace this clever personality switch, but Scott is hilarious as he jockey's
between nice and nasty.
Of course, the piece de resistance to any Pie is its groan-worthy gross outs
and sexploits and "American Wedding" does offer a few memorable moments. Jim
gives new meaning to the term groom and Stiffler will have you thinking twice
before you touch another truffle.
Where "American Wedding" falters is at the altar. As the film moves toward the
I Do's, crass comedy is replaced with sappy sentiment. Excise humor, implant
heart.
It doesn't work here.
Just as Steve Stiffler was never meant to be saccharin, neither was one of
these films. Fans are liable to be disappointed by the mature makeover. It
doesn't help that several original cast members (Chris Klein, Mena Suvari,
Tara
Reid and Natasha Lyonne) are inexplicably absent. Even the superb addition of
Fred Willard as Michelle's dad is a disappointment. Neither Willard, nor
favorite father Eugene Levy, is given good material to work with. Perhaps
Cadence said it best when explaining her desire for a bad boy, "Sometimes nice
isn't too nice."
"American Wedding" is an unbalanced confection of sweet romantic comedy and
raunchy romp. There's nothing better than that first piece of Pie. If you're
going to be a glutton and go for three helpings, wait for "American Wedding"
to
hit video. Some vows just aren't worth taking.
MOVIE FACTS
Title: American Wedding
Grade: C
Rating: R for sexual content, language and crude humor.
Distributor: Universal Pictures
Director: Jesse Dylan
Screenplay: Adam Herz
Cast: Jason Biggs, Alyson Hannigan, Sean William Scott, Eddie Kaye Thomas,
Thomas Ian Nicholas, Eugene Levy
Time: 102 min
Genre: Comedy
Terri Clark (TerriClark4@aol.com) is a freelance movie critic. She writes
reviews for West Life News, Moviefone.com and the Apollo Guide.
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/author-5505/
==========
X-RAMR-ID: 35506
X-Language: en
X-RT-ReviewID: 1188159
X-RT-TitleID: 1124446
X-RT-SourceID: 1446
X-RT-AuthorID: 5505
X-RT-RatingText: C
NOTE: This review was posted on the usenet
to the rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup.
Mooviees.com accepts no responsibility for the contents of the review.
Unless stated otherwise, the copyright belongs to the author.
Movie Database
In Theaters
