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American Wedding Movie Review

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Actors: Jason Bigg, Sean William Scott, Alyson Hannigan
Review Summary and Plot Commentary about American Wedding
In the final chapter of the American Pie series, Jim and Michelle are getting married. This means that Stifler will be there and he will be planning the bachelor party.
--Jack Bauer, Resident Scholar

Jim (Biggs) has decided three years is long enough to have been dating Michelle (Hannigan). They've graduated from college and it's time to pop the question. The proposal goes off with a series of mishaps and it appears the wedding may follow suit. They just have to keep it quiet from the crude, rude and loud dude, Stifler (Scott).

Stifler finds out Jim is getting married despite the gang's best efforts. The only way to appease him is to let him plan the bachelor party. Meanwhile, Jim is worried about not being able to dance at the reception and making a favorable impression on his in-laws. Dad (Levy) is ready to assist with any advice he can muster. Jim's friends -- Stifler and Finch (Eddie K. Thomas) -- are ga-ga over Cadence (Jones), Michelle's younger sister in town to help with the preparations. Now can the couple make it happily down the aisle?

The third installment in the American Pie series.

--ldpaulson, Resident Scholar

American Wedding is the unnecessary final slice in the American Pie trilogy. It reteams approximately half the original cast for Jim (Jason Biggs) and Michelle's (Alyson Hannigan) wedding. Weddings offer a lot of prime opportunities for crazy things to happen. There's the planning, cake, flowers, personal hygiene, distant relatives, random homosexuals and of course the bachelor party planned by none other than Stifler (Sean William Scott). Unfortunately for the guys, eye candy in the form of Tara Reid, Mena Suvari and Shannon Elizabeth is notably missing, and the ladies will have to do without Chris Klein. Is this really a spectacular loss? In many ways the answer is yes. American Pie has always been billed as a gross-out teen movie with heart. For me the heart came from the cast; and with half the cast missing so was half of what made American Pie a sweet movie. The remaining cast members are so familiar with their characters that they have turned them into caricatures of what they once were, taking actions and situations a few steps past funny and into the realm of annoying.

Anything mimicked as much as American Pie is bound to get tiresome and so is the case here. Too often there is a been there done that feeling about certain scenes which leads the audience to laugh more out of habit than out of genuine appreciation of a humorous situation. Basically every plot point in the movie is nothing more than a set up for what is supposed to be another disgusting and utterly uncomfortable moment aimed at getting laughs. A little more story would have gone a long way.

With that being said it is fun to see many of the actors reprising their roles. Biggs is still as naive as ever and his scenes with Eugene Levy are priceless. In some ways Sean William Scott saves this movie, in others he slaughters it. American Pie simply wouldn't be American Pie without Stifler, but Scott doesn't seem to take this role seriously anymore (honestly who could), he walks through the role being as silly as possible almost to a condescending degree. Alyson Hannigan's character who stole the show with her trademark “what's my name bitch?” is too domesticated in this third installment when we just want to watch her make Biggs her bitch again and again. I'm not sure what the purpose of Thomas Ian Nicholas' character was here other than to have another returning member of the original cast. Eddie Kaye Thomas is back as Finch; however this time around it seems as though sleeping with Stifler's mom is more of an obligation than a tantric experience.

American Wedding offers some laugh out loud moments, but with each successive film they become fewer and farther between. Even so, the third helping of pie is more enjoyable and still more original than many of this summer's offerings.

--Christopher Bryan, Resident Scholar




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Analysis of American Wedding
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Plot
Time/era of movie: - present (2000-2010)
Family, struggling with Yes
Struggle with: - wedding preparations

Main Character
Identity: - Male
Profession/status: - student
Age: - 20's-30's
Is this an ordinary person caught up in events? Yes
Hair color? - brunette (Black)
Hair type - (man) short/standard straight
Body type - (man) average
Events of movie makes character more... - sensitive
Ethnicity/Nationality - White (American)
How sensitive is this character? - sensitive to others' feelings
Intelligence - Average intelligence
Physique - average physique

Secondary Main Character
Identity: - Male
Hair color - blonde
Hair style - (man) short/standard straight
Body type - (man) muscular
Ethnicity/Nationality - White (American)

Main Adversary
Identity: - general circumstances

Setting
United States Yes
The US: - Midwest
City? Yes
City: - Chicago

Style
Accounts of torture and death? - no torture/death
Movie makes you feel... - full of laughter
Sex/nudity in movie? Yes
What kind of sex: - kissing - touching of personal anatomy - licking - seeing breasts - seeing nude female butt - seeing nude male butt
If soundtrack VERY NOTICEABLE... - Modern rock/pop
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