a genre revisited in a pleasing way

Rating: 7/10 (19 July 1999)

It's been a long time since there was a teen sex comedy - most of the teen movies coming out lately have been so cynical (Jawbreaker, 10 Thing I Hate About You, She's All That) that you kind of forget the Porky's/Risky Business genre exist. If Risky Business is the high point of the genre and Porky's the lowpoint, American Pie is much closer to RB. The characters are dealt with in a fashion that isn't highbrow, the filmmakers continually surprise you with how the situations evolve, especially regarding the Czech exchange lovely, and there is nothing mean about it, although it depends too much on social embarrassment for its laughs. Only one sincere gross-out joke that just doesn't work and has been done before and recently, regarding a bodily fluid. The high school characters feel real to a certain extent. I wasn't charmed by it, but parts were charming. If I were in high school now I would have loved it. B.