Film Review 1 - American Pie

This is the first film that sparked my interest into researching Screenwriting. The reason why? Because the portrayal of young teenagers at High School is absolutely spot on in comparison to what I observed in my experience at school. Even in England the events at house parties appeared to unfold in similar fashion.

Four young teenagers are in their last year of High School and are concerned they will go to College as virgins. Therefore they make a 'pact' for all four to lose their virginity by Prom night.

The entertainment provided is faultless with a simple, but necessary structure. The four teenagers use completely diverse methods to lose their virginity, which keeps the story moving from scene to scene at a consistent pace with so much controversy and hilarious incidents that makes it difficult to take the eye away from the screen.

The personalities of the main four characters also provide the film with a well executed split between comedy and romance from the hilarious stupidity that revolves mainly around Jim (Jason Biggs) and also later on with Finch, (Eddie Kaye Thomas) to the sensitive side of young-adult relationships where Kevin (Thomas Ian Nicholas) and Oz (Chris Klein) each try to develop a better understanding of their girlfriends before achieving the ultimate prize.

All parts are played with great conviction, most notably from Jim's Dad (Eugiene Levy) whose the father everyone wants to have unless you feel uncomfortable with his over enthusiastic advice about sex, as Jim certainly does. In addition the role of Stifler (Seann William Scott) is played exceptionally well as the over-confident, self-obsessed trouble maker who is arguably one of the most amusing film characters of the modern era. A minor weakness is perhaps the occasional poor delivery and timing from Tara Reid with her character of Vicky, (Kevin's girlfriend) but nonetheless plays her part well enough to be an adorable high school girlfriend.

Any other weakness would only be the fact it would not pick up many regular viewers from the audience of film-noir or Sci-fi. However for teenagers or anyone who wants to enjoy comedy at it's best from any generation, this film is unavoidable.