American Pie is a great comedy

Rating: Null/10 (13 July 1999)

Before I begin reviewing the movie, I would like to ask those of you who have panned this film for being juvenile, why something with sex jokes, or masturbation jokes, is automatically immature and unintelligent. After all these things certainly go on in our society and in the lives of teens today. Any subject, as long as the the way it is presented is clever, can make a good joke.
Now, I have to say that this movie was hilarious, but it also had a lot of heart. The point of this movie was not to gross the audience out or to satirize teenage life, but to be a celebration of a difficult but fun time which all of us go through. These characters are not one-dimensional losers as in satires like Beavis and Butthead which attack the stupidity of the generation, but real likeable people going through an extremely tough time which all of us know about. The gross out jokes work so well in the movie, cause we all know they are true. All of us probably know someone who would masturbate with an apple pie to get a better feeling.
The performances in this movie were mostly excellent. I especially liked Mena Suvari as Heather. Not only is she beautiful, but she seems destined to be a romantic lead in the class of a Meg Ryan. Jason Biggs and Eddie Kaye Thomas were brilliant as two awkward teens. Eugene Levy is hilarious as Bigg's awkward dad. Although she was not given much to do in the movie, I think that Natasha Lyonne could be the standout of this film. She is so great at playing girls with tough exteriors, like in Slums of Beverly Hills. In this movie, she steps up the attitude, and crudeness, giving some of the funniest lines in the script. All in all, I would say this is a great teen movie, up there with the Pretty in Pink's and Say Anything's of the late eighties. American Pie is hilarious not because of it's crudeness, nor is it insensitive towards women like Porkies, but because it shows in a humane way the insecurities of an everyday teen.