Review of American Pie (Unrated)

Introduction

This movie does not contain any surprises, being a typical teen coming of age comedy.

This version is the American ‘Unrated’ version (Ooooh!) which supposedly is ‘the uncensored version of America’s #1 comedy hit, re-edited to include the scenes you couldn’t see in theatres’ so the inlay proudly states. Testosterone filled adolescents will no doubt rave for American Pie, and I dare say it will appeal to many older viewers also, but there will no doubt be the vast majority who write it off as cheap American smut! Having seen this film should certainly make you wary about drinking other people’s beer at a party…

Of course there will be the inevitable comparisons with the earlier teenage sex comedies of the 70s and 80s such as Porkies and Batchelor Party, and this is certainly similar but updated for the 90s. What other film features a live Internet broadcast of the exploits of a 17 year olds attempts to lose his virginity?!

Video

As soon as the movie starts, a new Universal logo is displayed which includes short extracts of some of their other big movies, such as The Mummy. It looks like a specific trailer for their DVD releases and I expect this will become common on the other Universal discs from now on. When this blatant piece of self publicity is over, you get to the movie starting with the usual logo.

A few small clicks and pops were noticed towards the end of the movie, which is surprising for a recent print. The transfer is presented in 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen, and is generally very sharp throughout. Colours are vivid and non saturated, and contrast is good, although some scenes did appear a little dark at times.

18 chapters split up the movie.

Audio

The soundtrack is Dolby Digital 5.1 but this is not really a ‘sound’ movie as it is mainly dialogue based rather than bursting with loud sound effects.

Of course it has its moments and 5.1 sound is always preferable, and I was surprised to learn that there were 22 songs in the soundtrack! You just don’t notice them.

Features

The fully animated menus are in the form of a monitor of an Apple Mac, and the menu options are presented on the ‘screen’, with snippets of the film appearing to the right of the menu. Surround sound accompanies them. Overall they are pretty original. When an option is selected a rolling apple pie clears the screen.

Firstly you get a ‘Spotlight on Location’ feature, which is basically a few cast interviews intermixed with clips from the movie, interviews with the directors and some behind the scenes footage lasting about 10 minutes. There are about seven ‘Outtakes’, which are mildly amusing, and also a full advert for the ‘official movie soundtrack’, which leads into a hidden music video.

‘Music Highlights’ follows the themes that are available on some DVDs. This will allow you to select any of the 22 tracks in the movie directly. However all this does is play the relevant part of the movie with original dialogue, rather than just playing the background track.

Commentaries are always welcome and this disc features one with the producer, director, writer and some cast members, and they sound like they had a right larf recording it. ‘Classic Quotes’ is just that – 20 short quotes from the movie. Quite what the point of this is I am not sure. Each selection could last from as short as one second to ten.

The ‘Production Notes’ are text based screens but are pretty comprehensive and are worth a read, and compares American Pie with Porkies, Stripes, Fast Times at Ridgemont High and similar films. ‘Cast and Filmmakers Bios’ is standard text based stuff.

No self respecting extras laiden DVD would be complete without the original trailer, and this of course is included. Another blatant piece of self promotion by Universal includes the trailers for two forthcoming movies – ‘Man on the Moon’ and ‘Snow Falling on Cedars’. In the ‘Recommendations’ section you get the trailers for ‘The Blues Brothers’, ‘Animal House’ and ‘American Graffiti’.

Finally there are some DVD ROM only extras which include additional movie information, sound clips, behind the scenes interviews and other general information.

Conclusion

American Pie is a far more ‘gentle’ film that the often compared 80s sex comedies. The Weitz brothers who directed the movie previously had worked together on the animated Antz, and have spent a lot of time developing the characters far more than some of the other films of this ilk. The female characters play stronger roles than the other movies than just the objects of the teenage boys’ lust.

The emotional issues in the movie are covered in a lot of depth and shows that the boys are totally at the mercy of the girls who appear to them as wielding ultimate power as to whether the lads get laid or not, and their insecurities are portrayed throughout the movie.

Apart from the main four lead roles, some of the supporting characters provide a lot of the fun of the movie – just check out Jim’s dad and those scenes where he has the little ‘man to man’ chats with his teenage son that result from the apple pie shagging scene! Also that annoying Michelle is an excellent supporting role.

This version is classed as ‘Unrated’ but there is not much difference between this and the standard American Pie. The major difference is the apple pie scene, where Jim is seen horizontal on the kitchen worktop shagging the pie, and in the Rated version of the film, is seen standing up. However you get these scenes in the extras on this version anyway, so you don’t miss anything. In the UK this film has an 15 certificate and you get the feeling us Brits are far more open minded than our American friends! This version also features a lot more of the character Nadia.

There are not many differences between this Region 1 version and our Region 2, and you are left with the thought that the ‘Unrated’ label is a little ‘overated’. The DVD is generally a quality product with good picture and audio quality and a large clutch of extras.

So the choice really depends on which orientation you want to see Jim shagging that pie…