♥♥♥♥♥
+ Best High School Movie of the Year + Best Sex Comedy of the Year + Best Youth Movie of the Year
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| The over-night major stars of Chris and Paul Weitz's American Pie exude youthful energy on the poster |
Four friends make a pact to have sex before their high school prom. And by using such auxiliaries as apple pie, laxatives, Stifler's mother, a webcam and good, pure intentions, they eventually succeed.
American Pie, written by Adam Herz (Go Fish (2001, TV-series)) and directed by brothers Chris (About a Boy (2002)) and Paul Weitz (Grandma (2015)), is a generational hit and a modern classic in the youth sex-comedy genre. It's a sweet and funny high school-set comedy with a lot of laughs and a charming cast:
Especially Jason Biggs (All at Once (2016)) and Eugene Levy (Serendipity (2001)) as father and son work very well. The music is very contemporary for its time, and therefore, for me at least, feels very nostalgic today. Though it seems simple, the film succeeds in catching lightning in a bottle, and no wonder that American Pie was a giant, worldwide hit and spawned many sequels and rip-offs.
Related posts:
Chris Weitz: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016) or, Ginny's Fate: A Star Wars Calculation (co-writer)
1999 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess
Paul Weitz: Admission (2013) - Despite messy script, Fey is hilarious in Weitz's romcom (director)
1999 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess
Cost: 11 mil. $
Box office: 235.4 mil. $
= Mega-hit (returned 21.4 times the cost)
[American Pie premiered 7 July (Los Angeles, California) and runs 95 minutes. Shooting took place from July - September 1998 in California, including Los Angeles. Universal Pictures were not convinced of the film's promise and stupidly sold off the foreign rights in order to recoup their investment as fast as possible. The film opened #1 to an 18.7 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it spent another 2 weeks in the top 5 (#2-#3) and grossed 102.5 mil. $ (43.5 % of the total gross). Roger Ebert gave it a 3/4 star review, translating to a notch harder than this one. The film also made in excess of 109.5 mil. $ in global home video sales, further underlining its monster success. Chris and Paul Weitz returned with Down to Earth (2001). Biggs returned with an uncredited appearance in Detroit Rock City (1999) and in a real part in Boys and Girls (2000). The Weitz brothers were out, but the film spurred a franchise that continued with American Pie 2 (2001), American Wedding (2003) and American Reunion (2012) as well as 4 direct-to-video spin-offs. American Pie is fresh at 61 % with a 5.8/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]
What do you think of American Pie?
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