Formulaic but funny

Rating: 8/10 (14 September 2005)

This film isn't going to win awards for originality - for all intents and purposes it's American Pie but it simply transposes the role of Jim and co onto a group of people more than twice their age. The film isn't the funniest that you'll see and at times it IS essentially a teen comedy but it manages to steer clear of more of the lowest common denominator which blights that genre.
In many respects, this has taken the awkward humour from that but aged it up and taken the pointless schmaltz and replaced it with a more realistic and less saccharine romance.
This film is rather gently paced, you won't be reeling from continuous never ending jokes but there is a gentle and pervasive character humour here that is what makes the film more interesting than most. While the ending is pretty obvious from the start, you still will our hero and his friends to it.
All in all, this film despite it's somewhat limited nature, manages to be amusing and at times quite endearing. So much so you might not mind the simplistic message it hammers home.