For all the talk about American Pie being the descendant of Porky's, its spirit is far more in tune with the recent rash of teen comedies like Ten Things I Hate About You or She's All That, sharing their sunny good nature, appealing cast (Is it just me, or are there a lot of fine young actors in their early 20s/late teens these days?), and creaky, ancient plotting. The only spice it adds is raunchiness and an overreliance on shock value for humor. I adore Alyson Hannigan, but her geeky flutist here is a one-joke character, created solely to utter one line.[1] American Pie isn't helped by the clumsiest and most artless direction I've seen in a Hollywood film in ages; Kevin Smith would have made a more visually interesting movie. The only time the film really works is the 90s Jennicam twist it performs on that de rigeur element of 80s teen sex comedies: our oversexed heroes engaging in voyeurism. It's a long but perfectly paced scene that becomes fascinating halfway through, when the watcher becomes the watchee and climaxes in a painfully funny moment of sexual humilation. Special note must be also made of Eddie Kaye Thomas' Finch, played as an oddball neurotic who apparently wandered off the set of Rushmore.

[1]And the combination of kinky sexual frisson w/r/t the lovely Ms. Hannigan was more than amply provided this year by the Buffy episode "Doppelgangerland".