American Reunion

Movie Review: «American Reunion».

English Title: American Reunion.
Production: USA, 2012.
Release Date: 06.04.2012 (USA).
Russian Distributor: UPI (05.04.2012).
Official Website:
Genre: Comedy (R).
Directors: Jon Hurwitz, Hayden Schlossberg.
Starring: Jason Biggs, Alyson Hannigan, Seann William Scott, Tara Reid.
Running Time: 120 minutes.

On the other hand, the return of the Sherminator shows that not everything has changed. Here it is quite the opposite, and this character’s part is one of the best in the movie, though lasts barely a few seconds. Overall, the humor retains its original style from the first film, while not trying to abandon it in the favor of a milder age rating. Our biggest criticism goes to the part of Finch in the screenplay, which nearly doesn’t have a good usage for his great charisma, since only Finch from the American Pie series mainly plays with mimics, gestures poses accompanied by smart and very funny lines. In the new movie his part is the shortest from the main cast, he is mainly static, and his potential wasn’t used to the fullerst because of the modern plot, which gives much more screen time to Oz and his life.

The Russian dubbing of the American Reunion was good enough. Our local distributors here at UPI have done a good job with it. During the movie’s localization to Russian, the translations have worked with slang and a massive number of word associations, which are all explaining everything very clearly, but do not use the words that should be covered with the sound beeps. Only a couple of obscene things here called by their original names, but that is only because they are consistent with the nature of the specific characters, speaking them out.

Apart from the hottest parties, not going without the usual exposure of the American Pie series, there was one young actress, who had to play topless, and her scene is amongst some others, which are the funniest in the new film. By the way, here you will see more of Jason Biggs, what is a surpise, since usually filmmakers tend to avoid such open shots. It is even more surprising, considering the much more innocent upper nudity episode with Stifler and the two girls on the beach.

Soundtrack was recorded in the typical style of the Comedy genre. There is a dedicated album title American Reunion (2012), which is following some musical themes of the previous episodes, for example, Laid (2003) by Matt Nathanson. The tribute to the grown-up audience is presented by the Wannabe (1996) track originally recorded by Spice Girls. The rest songs are dominated by the influence of pop, rock and some dance music brought to the disk by Cobra Starship featuring Sabi and 3Oh3! in the duet with Ke$ha playing out their tunes You Make Me Feel (2011) and My First Kiss (2010), respectively. Not to be forgotten, there is a cheerful melody heard in the official Trailer. It is included int he package, and the song is called Last Night (2010) performed by the famous American rock band – Good Charlotte.

The Music in the American Reunion movie was also used as a topic for a few screenplay’s jokes, showing, how the generation tastes can change over years. The best songs for this Soundtrack album are two the melodic ones composed by Lyle Workman. This American guitarist was also writing the music for such Comedies as Yes Man (2008) and Forgetting Sarah Marshall (2008). In this case, he made two new ear-pleasing tracks named American Reunion and Class Of ’99 respectively.

GameScope Verdict

The American Reunion film successfully shows its trademark. Certianly, it isn’t like any of the weak Spin-Off movies, which were meant to temporarily occupy the fans’ attention waiting just for such a sequel. This adult comedy honestly delivers everything it promises with bringing back all the familiar faces of the original cast, which can already play their heroes brilliantly making them recognizable from the first glance, even if they start doing it with their eyes closed. Also here you will once again meet the unique and frankly bold humor, skillfully balancing on the verge of vulgarity and the lackness of extra clothing.

American Reunion Trailer

Movie Score by GameScope:

8.0 / 10