American Reunion

AMERICAN REUNION:
It’s been 13 years since the gang graduated from high school in American Pie and that means it’s time for a high school reunion. Gong back to East Great Falls a few days early, Jim (played by Jason Biggs), Oz (played by Chris Klein), Kevin (played by Thomas Ian Nicholas), and Finch (played by Eddie Kaye Thomas) all decide that they are going to make their reunion the most memorable high school reunion ever. Not to be left out, Stifler (played by Sean William Scott) crashes in on the reunion to make sure his friends remember what it was like having fun.

THE REUNION:
The plot was simple, bring together the original gang for their 13th year reunion at high school, which I guess is part of the American Pie style since high school reunions happen at the 10th year but hey who am I to say that one wouldn’t do it after 13 years. At any rate, what happens to this movie felt too much like real life being forced to have the comedy of the first movie. Where the story revolves around the original cast members being adults, some married, two even have a kid, and one might still be his old rude, senseless self, he seems to be realizing that his old carefree fun days as a teen and early 20’s are gone and his adult life is here. Now they all want to go have one last hoorah at their reunion but when they do it really does feel like these adults trying to do what the now teenagers do but without any of the comedy that made the first time around so funny. It also felt like the rest of the cast of Jims dad Noah (played by Eugene Levy, who is one of the funnier moments in the movie at the party), Vicky (played by Tara Reid), Heather (played by Mena Suvari), and even Jessica (played by Natasha Lyonne) and Nadia (played by Shannon Elizabeth) all seem to be forced into the script of the movie that their roles almost hurt the flow for them being there.

I was a fan of the first movie, it was the new edgier teen comedies that featured a cast that was good in each of their perspective roles. The plot was well written, it was witty, and even with such a huge cast of characters each one had their own separate personalities that made this unruly bunch blend together. But that was the first movie, American Reunion does one thing that the first movie did, bring together the whole cast again but they’ve lost that edge that made the first movie so funny. The cast did good, they brought back what made their characters funny that first time but without the witty writing from the first one American Reunion turned out to be another just ok comedy.

As I was watching this movie it felt like the writing was trying to be this raunchy comedy that made these movie so funny but instead it was just another comedy. Sure there was some pretty funny moments in the American Reunion but considering I had one of the worst weekends at work I’ve ever had in 6 years, I was completely stressed out, I was on the verge of screaming, and all I wanted to do was laugh. Which I was surprised that I didn’t laugh as much as I thought I would be with this movie since I did like the first one so much, and I even watched the unrated version which didn’t seem too unrated.

AMERICAN REUNION ON BLU RAY:
As for the quality of this Blu Ray it’s not the best that I’ve seen for a Blu Ray. Most of the movie did have a good, clear picture with sharp colors, but there where moments in this movie that it looked no better than some of the DVD’s I’ve played on my DVD up converter. These moments were during the night scenes and it’s not too noticeable but there is enough distortion to the picture that it can be seen. The best aspect of this Blu Ray is the audio levels and the bonus features. Being able to hear the movie clearly even with my noisy air conditioner running was nice, and I didn’t even have to turn up the volume any. As for the special features, there are many, enough to make other Blu Rays realize that this is how you’re supposed to do special features.