Perhaps we're taking this movie a bit too seriously?

Rating: Null/10 (26 February 2002)

I was shocked to read all the negative feedback on this movie. I mean, I can understand that it's formulaic, been done 100 times, etc. All that I understand. But that's for the critics to discuss. I don't care about that. What I want to know is how someone can watch this movie and look me in the eye and honestly say it wasn't funny. This movie isn't groundbreaking, it's not eye-opening, and it's not supposed to be. It's funny, and in many cases extremely funny, and it appears obvious to me that much of the high-brow disdain for this movie comes from people who can't or choose not to relate to the situations that occur in American Pie. While I realize that most of these situations are to the extreme, the fact remains that all teenagers have gone through embarrassing moments similar to the ones shown in American Pie, and to not be able to laugh about it means you might be taking yourself, or perhaps the intent of the movie, far too seriously.

Beyond the obvious comedic value of the film (and the scenes are too numerous to mention), there really is a message here. It appears at first glance that there's nothing going on except crude humor, etc, but in reality, by the end of the film, the entire cast has learned something about themselves, sex, and the relative importance of sex in their every day life. I think Oz is the best example of a lesson learned in this film. In the end, after all his posturing and grandstanding, he tells his friends that nothing happened on prom night, when something obviously did. Each character learned a little something about themselves and how they fit in to society. I don't know, maybe I'm way off here, but the criticism I've read on this site about American Pie seems way off base to me.