American Pie 2

American Pie 2 is, for all intents and purposes, a collection of gags that might have ended up on the cutting room floor of American Pie. Yes, the characters are all a year older, they’ve put a year of college behind them, and they’ve all had sex. But they’ve remained so exactly the same that it’s hard to imagine a creative team actually wanted to make this film. It’s no secret that successful movies spawn sequels, or that sequels are spawned for economic reasons over artistic integrity. Still, one would hope that when push came to shove, an effort would be made to live up to the magic formula that was the original. Especially when the original was as cool as American Pie.

Not to say that American Pie 2 fails on every front. It’s just that it didn’t take the best of American Pie, opting instead to put its funniest moments on loop. The best of the first film were its hilarious gags, but only because they were approached via developed characters (or at least types), and a black, edgy wit. Its premise – four virgin guys want to have sex before high school ends – was fodder for many a mishap and gag, and it was a damn good idea. The story’s been told before, no doubt, but it had been awhile, allowing the filmmakers to bring a new, updated sensibility to it. And so despite its clichés – including the nerdy, backwards, well-meaning dad, the suburban setting, the out-of-reach object of the main character, Jim’s, lust – it also took audiences for a ride. Nice guy next door doesn’t learn a moral lesson and find the right girl. Instead he gave up on his dream girl and slept with a closet sex fiend who disguises herself as a band camp geek. And in between, he ejaculates prematurely on the internet, garnering an enormous amount of audience sympathy along the way. In short, the gags worked because the story was right.

The second installment focuses on the slapstick/gag aspect of the film for its inspiration. Presumably, we know the characters well enough (all of them returned for this film), so that we don’t need to learn anything new about them, including how the first year of college changed their lives or goals. Instead, the easy route was chosen. Minus Oz, who is still with Heather (Mena Suvari), their sex lives have pretty much stayed the same, and it remains their goal to expand the bounds of their sexual prowess.

The main difference between their current goals and their initial ones is that in the first film, they were still in high school and their social group had been locked for years. Here, they have to look for a way to stick together, college having driven an unexplained and unfelt wedge between them. The solution: spend the summer at a house by the lake. The amended goal: throw a big party at the end of the summer so that they could hook up with the same medley of girls who populated the first film. For Jim, this means nailing Russian goddess Nadia, who is still (unfathomably) interested in him; for Kevin, girl-next-door turned hottie Vicki, and for Finch, it’s still … yes, sexaholic Stifler’s mom.

It was a smart decision to keep the cast virtually identical. Wit in tone aside, they were the best part of the first movie, and are immediately engaging as the second one begins. But a good cast doesn’t excuse a storyline that is next to non-existent. If it was the first film’s edginess that put it a step above the other teen flicks, and propelled it into the realm of cult classic, than the lack of this same edge brings American Pie 2 back a few decades to the era of Porky’s and Animal House. Many of the scenes are completely useless, serving as gaps between gags.

Some of these are hilarious, although they will be more effective if you haven’t seen the trailer, which is essentially a “Best of American Pie 2” reel, so I won’t further ruin them for you here. Eugene Levy is once again hysterical as Kevin’s hopelessly geeky dad, who in this installment even more successfully blends overprotective parent and son’s most ardent cheerleader in his quest to get laid. Too much father-son interaction, of course, would have brought the film closer to having an emotional core and developed characters, so savor the character during the precious few screen minutes you have him.