Review of American Pie

Introduction

Another film in the long tradition of teen movies from the 1970s and 1980s such as Porky`s, Weird Science, The Hollywood Knights and Animal House. American Pie is in fact set firmly in the 1990s, but its modern take on the teen genre owes a lot to some of those predecessors.

Combining that all-American tradition of Prom Night with a very obvious set of male characters wanting to lose their virginity to a very obvious set of female characters, this is no Oscar winning screenplay. But there are some good laughs along the way as the film spirals towards its inevitable conclusion.

Video

A 1.85:1 anamorphic transfer is on offer here which does its job well. There`s not too much to say about it really, as the film`s not really about ground-breaking cinematography, or stunning location shots. Everything looks good on the whole, although as others have commented it does appear overly dark at times.

Audio

A DD5.1 soundtrack is on offer and it only really comes to life when the music starts to play. The rest of the time it`s just dialogue all the way. The songs on offer are pretty much as you would expect for this type of film, and they come at you thick and fast.

Features

A reasonable selection of extras are on offer, although they do vary in quality.

You get the original trailer, a brief behind the scenes type featurette which doesn`t really tell you much, a small selection of out-takes, and the usual production notes plus cast and crew biographies.

There are also options to jump to specific scenes in order to hear a piece of music, or to jump to specific quotes from the film. It`s not the most quotable film in the world though so you might not find yourself returning to this feature!

I`ve saved the best extra until last - a commentary track featuring various principal crew members plus a selection of cast members. It`s a very amusing commentary track, with quite a bit of background information about the film, stories about on-set antics and plenty more. If you enjoyed the film you`ll definitely enjoy the commentary, perhaps even more than the film!

Conclusion

American Pie is a lightweight but amusing 1990s take on the classic teen film. Obvious jokes featuring bodily functions are combined with one or two more subtle moments of humour to create something that`s funny yet predictable and instantly forgettable.

The DVD itself is a pretty good package with good sound and video. If you`re looking to buy and you don`t like films that have been censored, you might want to consider the unrated Region 1 version, which contains some more footage of the infamous pie scene, but is otherwise pretty similar to the region 2 release.

An enjoyable rental but not a recommended purchase.