A Slice of American Reunion

When the American Pie series launched in 1999, I was a mere 7 years old: far too young and innocent to be permitted into the theater, much less understand what the heck was happening.  Fast forward thirteen years, and I'm sitting in the theater thinking that even at its raunchiest, American Reunion can't really shock me anymore. While the first American Pie movie might have been revolutionary in its explicit, bawdy humor, it's since spawned generations of dirty, dirty high school/college movies, which might be why I wasn't really impressed with this one.  

It's most likely, though, that my ambivalence stemmed from never having watched the other movies in the franchise.  Since this was a reunion movie, it seems like it was extra-important to have had previous affection for the characters.  I could sense that certain scenes were supposed to be a-ha moments for existing fans, but all references to previous movies went over my head. (Although I did get excited to see John Cho, aka MILF guy, though that's because he's Sulu.)  All in all, though I giggled and cringed at the appropriate scenes, I left the movie feeling pretty glad that I hadn't had to pay for my ticket.