Final helping of American pie

They howled with laughter at Jim’s intimate moment with home-baked desserts and curled their toes at Stifler’s offensive off-the-cuff comments, but at the belly of the beast there was a warm bond between all five not-so-innocent heroes that chimed true with all ages of the audience.

American Pie Reunion resurrects the crew from a spectrum of post-high school fates, including Jim’s (Jason Biggs) marriage rut, Oz’s (Chris Klein) lingering feelings for his first love and Stifler’s (Seann William Scott) inability to do anything with his life except host high school parties.

A weekend of activities is organised for the gang and their spouses to catch up and shake off some of those burdening responsibilities. It all culminates in the reunion at their old school dance hall where they shared that special night of firsts in the original film.

Directors Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg forcefully pursue the eternal romance of high school friendships which is highlighted in the boys’ unfortunate lapse back into their accident-prone selves.

With this being the film’s main drive, there are opportunities to laugh out loud, which derive mostly from the cringe-worthy exchanges between the boys and Jim’s dad (Eugene Levy) and the puerile lengths the characters will still sink to, to be seen as the coolest kids on campus.

For me, there’s no harm in having seconds, or fourths, of the MILF chant, nudity in the kitchen, awkward first dates or explicitly open discussions with the parents.

The fourth instalment of American Pie proved to me to be a straightforward recipe for a fun, harmless and entirely edible piece of American comedy.

It lacked the bite of British teen films, and don’t expect to feel the urge to make contact with all your high school chums when you leave the cinema. But having said that it definitely filled a spot.