American Reunion

IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: Yes
Watched With: Myself

I have my 10 year high school reunion this year. A horrifying thought. That was predominantly on my mind watching this film. I have only seen the first film in this series but by the sounds of it, these two bookends are the most complimentary. (Seriously, how are the already 7 American Pie films? And why is Eugene Levy the one that's in all of them?) It certainly feels like the original and follows its structure and emotional beats exactly, even if the scenarios have changed. Fans of the original will have a blast.

I'm loathe to admit I have not seen any Harold and Kumar films (I feel a marathon coming on) but Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg taking over as writers and directors could explain the unexpected Neil Patrick Harris cameo and John Cho's expanded role. I don't remember him at all from the first film but he's here reprising his role as MILF Guy #2 which is hilarious in and of itself but that they gave him  his own mini emotional journey with that character is just brilliant.

Everyone gets their own little arc, like the first film. And they all culminate at the big reunion party at the end of the film , the last 10 minutes of which becomes a big cameo parade, trotting out faces from the original film and giving everyone a line or two. They actually make that work rather well though.

Most surprising is how they managed to take probably the most beloved (god knows why, I can't stand him) character, Stifler, and flesh him out just enough to get a shade of sadness out of him.

The gross out humour never really did anything for me and there's not much in this that is gonna push the bar but it's definitely a worthy sequel for what the original film was.