Gross, disgusting, raunchy, perverted, and excellent.

Rating: 9/10 (6 July 1999)

Gross comedies, some work (THERE SOMETHING ABOUT MARY & BASEketBALL), others don't work too well (AUSTIN POWERS 2 & SOUTH PARK: BIGGER, LONGER, & UNCUT). AMERICAN PIE is different, it's not a movie like AUSTIN or SOUTH that relies on it's gross humor to save the muddle script. No, instead the gross humor is a medium for a decent script that winds up working well, very well! The plot is about four high-school seniors (Jason Biggs, Chris Klein, Thomas Ian Nicholas, & Eddie Kaye Thomas) who make a pact, that they are to lose thier virginity by the time they graduate. The idel time to "score" is on prom night, so all four guys are working and preparing for prom night. Oz (Chris Klein), a jock, joins the jazz choir to impress another choir member, Heather (Mena Suvari) and to show that he too can be a sensitive guy. Kevin (Thomas Ian Nicholas) wants to give his current girlfriend Vicky (Tara Reid) the perfect moment while having sex. Finch (Eddie Kaye Thomas), is acting very smooth and charming, trying to impress the entire senior female class with his outrageous rumors. And then there's poor Jim (Jason Biggs) a young man who is at his sexual peak, and has a crush on the foreign exchage student named Nadia (Shannon Elizabeth). From there on is a rollercoaster with the same equivalent as a Six Flags rollercoaster, of non-stop laughs and gross out jokes. How would I compare this to other comedies as thrill rides? AUSTIN POWERS 2 and SOUTH PARK are the scary "kiddie" rollercoasters. BIG DADDY is the wild, but not scary of the rollercoasters, like a medium thrill. ANALYZE THIS and AMERICAN PIE are the monster coasters of laughs. The ones that people wait 3 hours in line, freak out while on the ride, and want more! Well, that is what you get after seeing AMERICAN PIE, you want more! These young actors are all going to be famous, the same way AMERICAN GRAFFITI, FAST TIMES, & DAZED & CONFUSED made most of thier stars big. I'm sure 15 years from now, their will be a collector's edition similar to GRAFFITTI and FAST TIMES. This is the FAST TIMES for the 90's teens, but it also appeals to the 20 something crowd, like me. I really did enjoy seeing Chris Klein play the same type of person he played in ELECTION. Jason Biggs was very funny as the unfortunate Jim, who is unlucky most of the time. Tara Reid and Mena Suvari are both very good as the girls who are wondering if they are making the right decision. But the two I thought stand-out are Shannon Elizabeth and Eddie Kaye Thomas. Elizabeth is GORGEOUS, she will get tons of iternet hits by the end of the summer. And Thomas is both very smooth and calm, he's very similar to a calm David Schwimmer. People are calling this the PORKYS of the summer. It isn't PORKYS was very silly, immature, and cruel. The guys were sex-hungry idiots, and the girls were brainless sex objects. I would rank this film with the better comedy of 1982, FAST TIMES AT RIDGEMONT HIGH. Like FAST TIMES, it's full of laughs, and it has heart. PORKYS didn't have any heart, just cruel jokes. AMERICAN PIE will tickle the young adults funny bones the same way ANALYZE THIS tickled the adults and seniors funny bones. But this film isn't for those only under 30, I'm sure that older people will enjoy this film the same way they enjoyed THERE'S SOMETHING ABOUT MARY. Will the pre-teens will try to sneek into SOUTH PARK or go watch AUSTIN POWERS 2. The real men and women will be watching AMERICAN PIE, and lovin' it. Just like I did. ***** (out of *****)