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American Reunion

American Reunion: Egyptian Censors’ Latest Casualty

  • Alyson HanniganChris Klein...
  • ComedyRomance
  • Hayden SchlossbergJon Hurwitz
reviewed by
Yasmin Shehab
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American Reunion: Egyptian Censors’ Latest Casualty

The American
Pie
gang are getting back together for their high school reunion and are
bringing all their baggage with them. Jim (Biggs) and Michelle (Hannigan) are
stuck in a sexless marriage; Oz (Klein) is being turned into a superficial dolt
by his supermodel wife; Kevin (Nicholas) spends his time at home watching
trashy reality TV, while Stifler (Scott) still acts like an obnoxious high
school idiot. Finch (Thomas) is the only one who seems to be living the dream.
He apparently spends his time biking across South America. Back home, problems
arise in the form of ex girlfriends, Stifler’s mum, a band geek turned gorgeous
and an old babysitter who’s now hot and legal.

The
parts of the film that survived the censors’ onslaught aren’t particularly funny,
though there are a few laugh-out-loud moments sandwiched in between the
painfully awkward and the plain dull. The film is crammed with characters but
focuses mainly on Jim and Michelle- one of the flatter storylines in the film.
Far more interesting are the arcs of Finch and aforementioned band-geek Selena
(Ramirez). But compared to the rest of the guys, Finch’s story is more of an
afterthought. Another bum move is that the set-ups for some of the gags are
particularly forced. Kara (Cobrin), the old babysitter, throws herself at Jim
for no apparent reason and is determined to make him her first even though they
haven’t seen each other in years. In another scene, Jim and Michelle-
determined to spice up their nonexistent sex life- decide to have sex at
Stifler’s house during a party and change into S&M wear to do so. Who does
that? It’s not funny, it’s just baffling. 

Seeing
as the whole franchise’s sense of humour is based on sex and nudity, two things
that have been scrubbed away diligently, the jokes barely make any sense. At
least twenty minutes were cut out – the sanitized version is less than an
hour-and-a-half, while the original clocks in at 113 minutes. American
Reunion
might be a good film- even hilarious. Unfortunately, it is
impossible to judge it properly because it’s been butchered by the censors. At
least twenty minutes were cut out – the sanitized version is less than an hour
and a half while the original clocks in at 113 minutes.  While you’re watching, you’re frantically
trying to fill in the gaps to make sense of whatever it is that’s happening on
screen. The most irritating part of all though is that releasing an incoherent film
in the cinema is plain dishonest and seriously, it’s about time we implemented
a rating system already.

Like This? Try

The Change Up, I Love You Man, Bridesmaids.

360 Tip

Eugene Levy, who plays Jim’s dad, is the only actor to have appeared in every single one of the eight American Pie films.

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