American Wedding (2003)
Directed by Jesse Dylan
Written by Adam Herz

Though belabored and still mostly painful to watch, American Wedding is a step up from the limp rehash of a sequel. This one finds the American Pie crew fresh out of college, significantly more mature, and less caricatures of themselves than in the previous installments.

Not that they're not still caricatures. But only Stifler retains the exaggerated cartoonishness that passed for characterization in the other two films. Here, his cartoonishness is intensified and put in constant contrast to the relative mellowing out of everyone else, usually to funny effect, although it's still real tedious.

The lame plot, which concerns Jason Biggs and Alyson Hannigan planning their wedding, allows for all the embarrassing sexual shenanigans you'd expect, plus clichéd misunderstandings as the two diametrically-opposed families come together. This is all window-dressing, however, for what is really a movie about Stifler finding some kind of balance between his out-of-control dickness and his hidden sweet side.

It's the film's surprisingly sincere heart that makes this one watchable. Eugene Levy is allowed to be a little wise here, instead of the babbling buffoon we've seen before, as he consistently provides the sentiments about love and marriage that you wish anyone else in the film would get in touch with, if they weren't so busy eating dog shit or shaving their pubic hair.

Wedding also gets a notable reality-check midway through when the boys find themselves at a gay bar (a setup straight out of Police Academy), where they are ridiculed for being the cluelessly self-obsessed band of non-starters that they are. It's the only time in the entire series that someone steps in to say the truth: that there is no reason to care about any of these people.

This is immediately neutralized by an extended dance-off between the main gay guy and Stifler, which results in the group's utter acceptance and validation. I guess I can't really expect the filmmakers to puncture this self-protected universe with some thoughtful commentary, but in any event, it's a total cop-out.

Things grind to a complete halt with a draggy and entirely unfunny "bachelor party" sequence, but ultimately resolve in the misty emotion of the wedding itself. It's a warm-and-fuzzy resolution entirely out of step with the rest of the series, but at least it's honest.

What I liked most about American Wedding is that it's the last American Pie movie. I hope.

Review by Garry Bacon