Not as funny as it thinks it is

Rating: Null/10 (6 June 2001)

I just watched *American Pie*, the much-talked about blockbuster hit of the summer of '99, the year that many, many far superior movies came out.
The Matrix. eXistenZ. Run Lola Run. The Blair Witch Project. Three Kings. American Beauty. Go. And those are just some of the ones I've *seen*.
Highlights of *American Pie* include the presence of Alyson Hannigan, Natasha Lyonne, and Tara Reid having an orgasm. And scattered amusing scenes, and a couple good lines.
But it's really not that funny, unless you find it funny. Sex can be funny, yes. *Sex and the City*, *Election*, and countless others have proved that sex can be done very humorously to affect me. I'm not going to try to analyze what they do, but I do know what *American Pie* does: It assumes that anything involving sex is inherently funny. A guy screwing an apple pie? Okay, kind of amusing, but the scene's a huge letdown since you basically see everything you could possibly see in the trailer. It's like the *Scary Movie* philosophy: People having sex is funny.
And then there's the scene where the stereotypical jerk spikes the oddball's mochaccino with laxatives. Okay, now how many freaking times have I seen someone's drink spiked with laxatives for comic effect? I think I've lost count. It may have been a bit funny the first time, but it's not now, and we definitely don't need to see anyone on a toilet with repulsive sound effects. Is this the best Adam Herz could do? Perhaps my idea of clever is different from everyone else's.
So *American Pie* didn't suck, per se. It had its moments, and I laughed more at it than I laughed at *Big Momma's House* (I think that made me laugh...twice), although I'm sure the filmmakers thought I would laugh more.