Despite some genuinely funny and true to form moments, American Reunion fails to recapture the magic of previous installments while managing to  eat itself by falling prey to the very lesson it is attempting to teach.

It has been awhile since we have caught up with the gang from American Pie, a film that went a long way to resurrect the gross out comedy genre while maintaining a heart at its core that made all those vulgar hi-jinks okay. American Reunion finds these characters, all in different stages of their lives, returning home for a 13 year reunion (explained only by saying they missed their 10th reunion) and finding themselves in an existential crisis involving the nature of growing up, accepting responsibility and the legality of shitting in some punkass’s beer cooler and taking off with his jet skis.

Series lead Jim (Jason Biggs) finds himself in a sexless malaise with his wife Michelle (Alyson Hannigan) as they struggle to find sense of themselves as a couple while caring for their child. Returning home is especially challenging as he is trying to help his dad (Eugene Levy) come to terms with the loss of Jim’s mom. Kevin (Thomas Ian Nichols), the character I would most like to see hit by a bus, is married and feels stifled by it and is looking to try to regain some of the magic of youth regardless of how generally sweet his life seems and finds himself conflicted when he encounters ex-girlfriend Vickie (Tara Reid). Oz (Chris Klein) is a sports announcer who is going out with an upwardly mobile model who may or may not be sleeping with Mario Lopez and wants out in a pretty bad way and thinks he may have found it with ex-girlfriend Heather (Mena Suvari). Finch (Eddie Kaye Thomas) has apparently been having globe trotting adventures that make him look like a badass but seems oddly unfulfilled and Stifler (Sean William Scott) is an ill treated corporate drone who is still a crazy asshole but not nearly as much as his school bus driving, dance battle winning, always ‘on’ version in American Wedding. And wacky, gross and inappropriate hilarity ensues.

I really liked the first two American Pie movies and thought American Wedding was OK. I am also very fond of most of these characters if you ignore Kevin and Vicki. I really wanted to like this movie a lot and I found myself disappointed. The comedy here is hit and miss. There are the big set pieces that the series is known for that hit pretty big along with some smaller laughs here and there but there is a lot of material that misses very badly and a great deal of it feels tacked on in an ill fitting way because the writers seemed to feel like they had to include it to make it an American something or other movie. The ratio of hits to misses is fairly even but what really takes the movie over the edge into the more negative column is the abject failure to supply any real heart to the movie and it feels really manipulative and really obvious.

Setting aside for a moment that they are essentially going back to the same mine that they worked from in American Wedding, the message that there comes a time when you have to let go of your past and embrace the present and can do so without sacrificing who you are as a person is well worn territory and this film brings nothing new to the party. Aside from that, the delivery of those message moments do not feel genuine and are inorganically wedged in becoming a buzz kill at the same time as they are insultingly obvious. ‘Stifler, we can’t do that anymore! We are adults now!’ becomes a mantra repeated over and over again and is very annoying. They are trying to ground the antics of the film with the reality of growing up and all it does is point out how unlikely and ridiculous the antics are and robs them of some their comedic potency. While I was laughing at what was playing out on screen I wasn’t stopping to think about how preposterous it was until one of the characters pointed out that they were adults now and had to live in the real world and I started thinking about how absurd the whole thing was in the first place. It is like lampshade hanging has backfired and retroactively damaged the movie.

That being said, there are some very nice moments between Jim and his Dad regarding Jim’s Mom’s death. It might be because I lost my mom 10 months ago but those scenes resonated very deeply and Eugene Levy’s performance was perfect in those moments. It, like most of the interactions between Jim and his Dad throughout the series, felt genuine and touching. This is also problematic because it highlights what they should have been going for in those other moments of sentiment and what they got instead.

The performances were generally good for what they were and were consistent with what we have gotten in the previous movies. Thankfully, Stifler is more restrained here than he was in American Wedding where he never had any quiet moments or moments when he wasn’t big and crazy. Sean William Scott is able to play him the way he should be played and he does so with perfection. Chris Klein, after sitting American Wedding out, is back to form with his Oz and manages to pull of Oz’s conflict and good naturedness without feeling to obvious and manipulative. This comes as a relief to anyone who had to endure his performance in Street Fighter: the Legend of Chun Li. Alyson Hannigan did well with what she was offered but for the most part Michelle was relegated to the ‘get left at home with the kid while Jim is out trying to find himself and not get hurt while masturbating’ so there wasn’t much for her to do. Jason Biggs did what he does as Jim which is pretty much perfect for the character. Eddie Kaye Thomas is also not given all that much to do as Finch but does a fine job with what he has to work with. Thomas Ian Nichols and Tara Reid were also there.

Conclusion [6.5 out of 10]

Even where it is, the score might seem a bit high for the film based on the comments but I didn’t hate the movie as much as I was just very disappointed in it. There are flashes of comedy and drama that suggest that somewhere there is a version of this movie that was awesome. Unfortunately, I don’t get to review that movie and I am stuck with this. There are funny moments and if you are into the series and invested in the characters then you should probably give it a look on DVD or cable. Paying anything for it in the theater is probably a mistake and even at matinee prices it would be hard not to feel cheated.