Extras: The Baking of American Pie 2, Outtakes, Deleted Scenes,
3 Doors Down music video, Your Favourite Piece of Pie, Classic Quotes, Music
Highlights, Theatrical trailer, Production Notes, Cast and Filmmakers,
DVD-ROM features, Four audio commentaries
Director:
J.B. Rogers
(American Pie 2, Say It Isn't So)
Producers:
Warren Zide, Craig Perry and Chris Moore
Screenplay:
Adam Herz
Music:
David Lawrence
Cast:
Jim: Jason Biggs
Nadia: Shannon Elizabeth
Michele: Alyson Hannigan
Oz: Chris Klein
Stiffler: Seann William Scott
Jessica: Natasha Lyonne
Kevin: Thomas Ian Nicholas
Vicky: Tara Reid
Heather: Mena Suvari
Finch: Eddie Kaye Thomas
Jim's Dad: Eugene Levy
Sherman: Chris Owen
Danielle: Denise Faye
Amber: Lisa Arturo
Stifler's Mom: Jennifer Coolidge
American Pie 2
sees the return of the four teenage nerds from the first film after a year
on after they've finish their first year of college and head down to the beach
at Grand Harbor for the summer to work and get laid, accompanied by the man
who throws the best parties in town.
Jim's (Jason Biggs) still the main man who isn't getting much but has
the prospect of the return of Nadia (Shannon Elizabeth) to come at the
end of the summer. He's still got the hots for nerdy, flute-playing Michele
(Alyson Hannigan - Willow in
Buffy the Vampire Slayer)
who's now teaching flute class, but has some bad news for him.
Oz (Chris Klein) is still being a one-woman man for Heather
(American Beauty's
Mena Suvari); Kevin (Thomas Ian Nicholas) has an on-off relationship
with the gorgeous Vicky (Tara Reid) and is planning a massive party by
the end of the summer, while Finch (Eddie Kaye Thomas) is up on
Buddhist prophecies and tantric sex.
Of course, there's still tension between him and Stiffler (Seann William Scott)
since the former slept with the latter's mother in the first film and this acts
as a plot device for the two to play off each other during their summer trip.
Classic scenes here include an early one where Stiffler gets accidently pissed
on, a momentary slip when Jim finds Michele sticking a trumpet up his ass
and a brilliant lesbian scene. Sadly, such scenes are few and far between
and you realise that there's just not as many comedic moments this time round
and that it's more like just an extension to the first film, set a year later
but for all the difference it makes it may as well be the next day (but,
thankfully, not like
Porky's II: The Next Day)
and it doesn't seem as fresh as the original film. No doubt it'll make a mint
and will lead to a third film, which I'll certainly watch but not with as much
anticipation as this one.
Raindrops keep falling on his head...
The picture is presented in an anamorphic 1.85:1 widescreen ratio with an
overly dark look. Scenes that are outside in the daytime don't look bright
enough. They look as if they were shot in early evening as opposed to around
early morning or midday. All other scenes are affected similarly.
The sound is fine and in both Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS 5.1, but is mostly
used for the pop tunes that denote the teenage youth, such as Sum 41's
Fat Lip, Alien Ant Farm's Smooth Criminal and
Weezer's Hash Pipe.
The original DVD, the sequel and the boxset.
The extras begin with a 24-minute made-for-TV special, The Baking of
American Pie 2, with all the usual suspects on display talking about the
film and it being interspersed with clips in letterboxed 1.85:1 widescreen.
In fact, all the extras are letterboxed and not anamorphic, apart from the
'classic quotes'.
The Out-takes section runs for 5½ minutes and is a combination
of genuine out-takes and the cast messing about. There are 7 Deleted Scenes
(11 mins), but not all deserved to be put back in. Those that did are the one of Finch
meditating while a girl called Sandra tries to get his attention and the
library scene, which was highlighted in the trailer. A band I've never heard
of before, 3 Doors Down, provide a music video, Be Like That.
which is a bit too soft and slow for my tastes and doesn't differentiate from
anything that's gone before.
Your Favourite Piece of Pie is a series of 10 best clips from both
films including the aforementioned scenes above, as well as a few from the
first one such as the internet scene, the sex with the pie, Finch getting
diarrhoea and Jim with the sock on. The Classic Quotes section works
just like the first DVD. For example, selecting:
"Brilliant, you found lesbians."
becomes "Brilliant, you found le...", because for some weird reason
they tend to cut out right before the very end, often losing
the last word or two.
The Music Highlights section helpfully tells you which tunes were used
in the film and where, so you can easily remember what they sounded like.
The Theatrical trailer runs for over 3 minutes and is introduced by
Jason Biggs as well as featuring footage not included in the final
version.
On top of this you have the usual Production Notes, Cast and Filmmakers
notes, some DVD-ROM features and Four audio commentaries
are also available: director J.B. Rogers; writer Adam
Herz; cast members Jason Biggs, Mena Suvari and Thomas Ian Nicholas; and finally
cast member Eddie Kaye Thomas.
Worthy of note too is that most of the extras feature English subtitles too
including the audio commentaries. The only other subtitled language, strangely,
is Hindi, but this is only for the film. The menus are all static and contain
short, looped, incidental music pieces.
DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TXW32R4 32" widescreen TV
connected to either a Creative Dxr2 DVD-ROM player or Microsoft Xbox and
played through a Sony STR-DB930 amplifier.
PC games reviewed by the editor are on:
Since Nov 2005: Intel Pentium D 830 3.0Ghz, 1Gb RAM, 128Mb nVidia GeForce 6700XL, Windows XP
Since Aug 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.66Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb GeForce4 MX440 graphics, Windows XP
Since May 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.6Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb ATI Radeon 9600TX graphics, Windows XP
Since Jun 2002: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, 64Mb ATI Radeon 8500LE
Since May 2000: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, Voodoo 3 3000 AGP
