Another Piece of Pie

This past Sunday was Easter, a holiday that I spent sitting by myself in a movie theater. While my parents were in another screen watching Wrath of the Titans, I was watching American Reunion. And while I didn't think it was that bad, I left the theater thinking I probably would have had more fun watching The Hunger Games instead.

The latest in the American Pie franchise, American Reunion is much like high school reunions in real life. You get to catch up with people from your youth that you haven't seen in forever. But the whole movie is just superfluous. There is absolutely zero plot to speak of, which leaves us spending two hours watching a group of actors move around on auto-pilot.

The movie is just one set of gags after another with no moments in between to make us care about the characters. Yeah, a lot of the jokes are funny, but at the same time, they feel forced. Much like how it depicts Seann William Scott's "Stifler" character, American Reunion seems stuck trying to relive the franchise's glory days from back in 1999. It's fun seeing all these characters back on the big screen, but maybe they just have just stayed in the past.

I mean, the American Pie franchise might have been the top dog in comedy back when the first three movies were released. But it's been nine years since the last one (I'm not counting those direct-to-video spinoffs, since American Reunion doesn't count them either), and in that time American Pie has been succeeded by movies like the Harold and Kumar trilogy. and the various works of Judd Apatow. It's fun seeing the American Pie back on the big screen, but maybe they should have just stayed in the past. American Reunion gets two and a half stars and I really can't recommend it unless you're a diehard fan of the franchise.

And in other movie-related news, I hope you've been following the "Sutton at the Movies" blog. I talk a lot more there than I do here.