American Wedding (2003)

This bland installment of American Pie should only be watched to see Stifler in action, with his usual hilarious shenanigans. Other than that, the jokes are few and far in between, there is no real plot, and worst of all, half the main cast is missing. No Oz, Heather, Vicky, or Nadia. Stifler and Finch are in more scenes than Jim. Maybe that's a good thing. Jim doesn't offers little humor to the movie. He's just the guy that's getting married. Michelle has few lines, and isn't her band geek self. Very forgettable film. I rewatched it for the first time since American Reunion came out (much better movie) and had forgotten most of it. Reunion really got everything back on track. Happy to see that at least. Wedding gets a 5/10, only for Stifler and Finch. 1/10 for the remainder.

It's the wedding of Jim and Michelle and the gathering of their families and friends, including Jim's old friends from high school and Michelle's little sister.I was never very big on the whole crude humor craze of the late 1990s. The "American Pie" films and "Van Wilder" were funny, to be sure, but also stunted by their juvenile and often grotesque situations. With "Van Wilder", the dog cream pies should never have happened, and in this film there are a few moments that might be disgusting to many viewers.But there is a little bit of sweetness to this one. Despite all the sex and poop, there is still a bond of friendship and a romantic love. Well, sort of. So, in many ways, this is on par with the original, maybe even better in some ways. But, of course, why am I so concerned about a film series most known for Jason Biggs making love to a pie?

Not all the cast from the original movie return this time around, but that doesn't mean that their is a shortage of laughs, as this for me is on par with the original movie.Plot In A Paragraph: Jim and Michelle are getting married, but in true American Pie style their are a few mishaps on the way to the alter, as Jim tries to impress Michelle's parents and Stiffler and Finch compete for a bridesmaid. The genius of this movie is that although the movies main plot focuses on the wedding of Jim (Jason Biggs) and Michelle Flaherty (Alyson Flannigan) for the first time in the franchise, the movies main sub plot focus's on Stifler, and his crazy antics including trying to organise a legendary bachelor party for Jim, accidentally going to a gay bar, teaching Jim to dance for the wedding, and competing with Finch to win Michelle's younger sister.Nadia (Shannon Elizabeth) doesn't return, and isn't really missed, ditto Sherman (Chris Owen). Vicky (Tara Reid) doesn't return either, which may be down to Reid's problems in real life (However this leaves Kevin (Thomas Ian Nicholas) with less to do. Jessica (Natasha Lyonne) doesn't return, but with no Vicky, she is not needed. The big miss is Oz (Chris Klein) who also does not reappear in this movie and his absence isn't explained. Although according to the trivia section on here, a deleted scene mentions that he and Heather (Mena Suvari) are in Spain. In reality Klein was filming "We Were Soldiers" with Mel Gibson and scheduling conflicts meant he could not make it. If all the absences made it possible to give Seann William Scott more screen time as Stifler, I'm all for it, as he completely stole this movie. Eugene Levy is again brilliant as Jim's dad, January Jones is OK as Candice, Michelle's sister Candice, Fred Wilard and Deborah Rush are both a lot of fun as Michelle's parents, as is Eric Allen Kramer as Bear. Sadly, despite her wedding being the main focus of the movie. Alyson Hannigan isn't given as much to do as one would hope, but is as great as she always in the scenes she has. With several laugh out loud moments I rate this on par with the original and I find it is maybe more rewatchable that the first movie. Stifler having a dance off at the gay bar was comedy gold and is hilarious.

American Wedding (2003) ** 1/2 (out of 4) When Jim (Jason Biggs) and Michelle (Alyson Hannigan) decide to get married everyone agrees that Stifler (Seann William Scott) shouldn't be invited but he keeps popping up no matter what and soon he puts the entire thing at risk. American WEDDING is certainly a step up from the previous installment but it still falls well short of being a good movie. I think the biggest problem here is that the Stifler character leaves the supporting bit behind and becomes a major player in the game. Yes, he had a fairly big part in the first two movies but he had certain limits on him, which isn't the case here. I found there to be simply too much of his character and after a while the over-the-top nature just became rather annoying. I think the director could have calmed down his act a little bit and it probably would have gone a lot better. The screenplay also has a rather boring subplot involving Stifler and Finch trying to seduce Michelle's sister. This includes the two of them "acting" like the other and while we do get a couple laughs from this it really ends up dragging the film down. With that said, there are still some very funny moments scattered throughout the film. This includes a pretty funny opening bit where the proposal doesn't work out as planned and a raunchy but hilarious bit dealing with dogs. I won't ruin the gag but Jim and Stifler getting mixed up with cake and dogs made for a great gag. Another funny bit happens towards the end and again involves Stifler but the less said the better. As with the previous film, the entire cast has no problem getting back into their characters and we're greeted with some fine performances from all. American WEDDING could have used from a re-write and there's clearly an overall feel of just wanting to milk the series but there are enough laughs to make it worth viewing even if the film doesn't completely come together.