AMERICAN PIE: REUNION

The word ‘Reunion’ in the title should give away the pitfalls of this film. Instead of new and naughty high jinx, we’re subjected to 113 minutes of exposition, filling the audience in on the last nine years, re-establishing friendships and relationships and tying up loose ends. Think: the final episode of ‘Seinfeld’. While shenanigans are still afoot, this time around they just don’t have the same feel to them. Largely because we’ve seen them all before, - three times before in fact, and coming from people in their 30s is just a little sad. But nostalgia is the key word, and ‘Reunion’ has got it in spades, even down to the soundtrack with memory sparkers like Bic Runga’s ‘Sway’.

As always, Stifler walks away with the comic accolades, but in this slice he’s got competition – in the form of Jim’s dad (Eugene Levy), the only American Pie character to appear in all eight films. The comedic genius that is Eugene Levy is finally given his proper dues in ‘Reunion’. Normally relegated to a few choice and utterly awkward and humiliating scenes, his role has been beefed up and the film is better for it. He still may not have garnered a proper name (credited as ‘Jim’s Dad’), but then again neither has his on-screen scene partner Stifler’s Mom, and we’ll leave it at that. *wink wink*

We’ve seen this island of misfit toys through high-school, college, marriage and now children and reunions - death aside, we’ve completed the journey of life, although one can’t imagine ‘American Pie: Funeral’ hitting our screens anytime soon. Fans of the previous trilogy will enjoy this fourth helping - after all, you’re who this film was made for. It just goes to show that as much as things change, they also stay the same.