American Pie 2
Universal Studios (2001)
Comedy
In Collection
#464
6*
Seen It:  Yes
(6/13/2011)
025192176821
IMDB   6.2
105 mins USA/English
DVD  Region 1   NR
Jason Biggs Jim Levenstein
Shannon Elizabeth Nadia
Alyson Hannigan Michelle Flaherty
Chris Klein Chris 'Oz' Ostreicher
Thomas Ian Nicholas Kevin Myers
Natasha Lyonne Jessica
Tara Reid Vicky Lathum
Seann William Scott Steve Stifler
Mena Suvari Heather
Eddie Kaye Thomas Paul Finch
Chris Owen Chuck Sherman
Director James B. Rogers
Producer Chris Moore
Craig Perry
Warren Zide
Jane Bartelme
Chris Bender
Stefan Frank
Writer Adam Herz
David H. Steinberg

To the horror of prudes everywhere, American Pie 2 is even funnier than its popular predecessor, pushing the R rating with such unabashed ribaldry that you'll either be appalled or surprised by its defiant celebration of the young-adult male libido. Females will be equally shocked or delighted, because like American Pie this appealing, character-based comedy puts the women in control while offering a front-row view of horny guys in all their dubious glory. Which is to say, American Pie is mostly about sex--or, to be more specific, breasts, genitalia, "potential" lesbianism, blue silicone sex toys, crude methods of seduction, "the rule of three" (just watch the movie), a shower of "champagne," phone sex, tantric sex, and, oh yeah... superglue.

In the case of college freshman Jim (Jason Biggs), performance anxiety plagues his upcoming reunion with sexy Czech exchange student Nadia (Shannon Elizabeth), but his buddies from American Pie have a solution: rent a Lake Michigan beach house for the summer, throw wild parties to lure the local "hotties," and score big-time. Beach Party this ain't: blessed with a complete cast reunion from AP1 (including Eugene Levy as Jim's dad), this sequel is anything but innocent, and with the exception of drugs (which are conspicuously absent), pretty much anything goes. The gags are almost nonstop, and director J.B. Rogers (recovering from his debut debacle Say It Isn't So) handles them with laudable precision, allowing his young cast (particularly Biggs, who epitomizes comedic good sportsmanship) to run with lines that most people wouldn't dare utter aloud. The result is a liberating and eminently good-natured comedy that needn't apologize for its one-track mind. --Jeff Shannon
Edition Details
Edition Ultimate Edition
Series American Pie
Chapters 20
Release Date 1/15/2002
Packaging Keep Case
Screen Ratio 1.85:1
Subtitles French
Audio Tracks ENGLISH: Dolby Digital 5.1 [CC]
ENGLISH: DTS 5.1 [CC]
Layers Single Side, Dual Layer
No. of Disks/Tapes 2
Personal Details
Purchase Date 1/15/2002
Owner Thomas Eisenmann
Store Best Buy
Purchase Price $17.99
Condition Excellent
Reviewed Widescreen Review
Bit Rate 448 KB
Anamophic Yes
Links IMDB

Features
Disc 01 Anamophic
Includes an unrated 111-minute alternate cut of the movie and identical supplemental features as the R-rated DVD, which are: behind-the-scenes hijinks with the cast and crew, a five-minute gag reel, ten minutes worth of deleted scenes, six casting tapes for the original American Pie (though the DVD menu labels them for AP2), a 3 Doors Down music video, cast and filmmaker biographies, the 24-minute featurette: “The Baking Of American Pie 2.” Feature length commentary tracks include one by director J.B. Rogers; another with writer Adam Herz; a third with cast members Jason Biggs, Mena Suvari, and Thomas Ian Nicholas; and a fourth one with Eddie Kaye Thomas, who has little to say about scenes which don’t include his character Finch. Your Piece Of Pie includes 10 favorite scenes from AP and AP2, introduced by Seann William Scott. Classic Quotes and Music Highlights are self explanatory and not very exciting. The theatrical trailer is introduced by Jason Biggs. Finally, there are DVD-ROM features and Universal Studios promos and offers. The special features included on this disc should keep fans happily occupied for hours, but if you want to escape a featurette to go back to the special feature menu, you can only get there via the main menu.

Widescreen Review
Story Synopsis:
American Pie 2 takes you to one year following the high school hijinks depicted in the original. Following his freshman year of college, Jim (Biggs) reunites with his pals Stifler (Scott), Oz (Klein), Kevin (Nicholas), and Finch (Thomas). When he learns that Czech beauty Nadia (Elizabeth) will be coming to visit, Jim calls on flutist Michelle (Hannigan) for sexual advice. Of course, getting to a piece of the pie includes lots of practice with a nudie and some lube, but Jim is not smart enough to double check the label on the bottle before getting down to business. And so it goes...these guys will never learn. This unrated edition runs six minutes longer than the R-rated theatrical version. (Suzanne Hodges)

DVD Picture:
The anamorphically enhanced 1.85:1 DVD picture exhibits pleasing image quality, with colors that are rich and fully saturated, with accurate fleshtones, and deep blacks. Images are sharp and detailed, with good contrast and shadow delineation. While most aspects of picture quality are quite pleasing, there is noticeable shimmering, pixelization, and edge enhancement, which can all be bothersome at times. (Suzanne Hodges)

Soundtrack:
Both 5.1-channel discrete soundtracks are somewhat reserved in dimension, as might be expected given the nature of the film. The music is a nice recording overall, and serves as the predominant multichannel element. The low-end content associated with the music isn’t particularly distinguished, yet is nonetheless quite palatable with minor .1 LFE activity. Imaging across the screen is amply wide and deep. The surrounds are substantially reserved in the absence of the music, but otherwise are engaged quite prominently. Voices sound remarkably natural, with notable spatial consistency with the visuals. The DTS® Digital Surround™ version sounds every so slightly more coherent spatially, but otherwise both sound the same. This soundtrack seems to serve appropriately for this film’s genre. (Perry Sun)