Review of American Pie Presents: Band Camp

Introduction

I have often theorised that the worse a DVD is, then the less time it takes to write the review, seeing as it is much easier to write vitriolic prose than it is to put together a competent report on the merits of something that you genuinely loved. To test this notion, I will be noting the time taken to write this particular review.

There will no doubt be thousands of people out there in Movie-buying land who will be eagerly awaiting this fourth slice of pie. On the other side of the humour-developed fence, just as many will scream and run for cover when they hear not only the title `American Pie Presents; Band Camp`, but also the phrase `Straight to Video`.

Before you even put the DVD in your player, you can map the entire route of the film from A-Z. With only Eugine Levy surviving from the original films (that`s if you discount the brief cameo from `the Sherminator`), the entire cast is new to the American Pie brand, yet it is all sinisterly similar.

Tad Hilgenbrinck is Matt Stifler (and looks almost EXACTLY like Sean William Scott), the younger brother of Steve Stifler and budding voyeur film maker with a propensity to use the F word constantly. After getting into trouble at school, he is sent away to `band camp` with a view to improving his behaviour, but Stifler has other ideas … as well as destroying the band geek`s fun, he also aims to collect enough footage of semi naked girls to produce a video worthy of the `Stifmeister` tag. Unfortunately, `American Pie presents: Band Camp` isn`t even worthy of the `Hoffmeister` tag.

Video

Don`t go expecting anything different or unusual in the aesthetics department — everything is as expected, and mind numbingly tedious as a consequence. Other than the actors and the camp (no pun intended) setting, everything else looks exactly the same as the previous trilogy of `American Pie` movies. For those of you for whom it is essential information, the cleavage and pectoral muscle count is unsurprisingly high.

The good news is that, if you`re going to buy this anyway, the picture quality is extremely good, with the widescreen presentation almost perfect. This should in no way be taken as an endorsement of this film, but if you`re going to watch it then you might as well do it properly ... and use protection.

Audio

The minimum quota of punk pop tomfoolery and `thoughtful` slowies are present, just like every other teen movie made since 1982. Unfortunately, the `music` related theme hasn`t managed to lift the soundtrack out of the mundane, and so nothing comes as a surprise — not even a female-sung version of `Jimmy Eat World`s `The Middle`. Ok, maybe that did come as a surprise.

As with the picture, there are no complaints as regards the technical quality of the audio output, in both Dolby 2.0 and 5.1 it sounds good.

Features

If the film wasn`t filling enough, you can have second helpings with the vast array of extras that are included on the DVD; Outtakes, deleted scenes, rover cam, a behind the scenes documentary, an on-set documentary, and a music video including some of the women from the picture cavorting semi naked for your delight/displeasure.

Of all of these, it`s only the `Behind the scenes` parts that are worthy of your attention. Giving a small incite into the lives and careers of actors Tad Hilgenbrinck and Arielle Kebbel, it`s more than the usual back-patting affairs that so often fill up space on Discs and worth a gander if you`re into that sort of thing. As is, funnily enough, the aforementioned music video!

Conclusion

The fourth instalment of this saga is everything you would expect; a half-baked, mildly rude parody of itself with only the name to drag it kicking and screaming onto DVD. The younger Stifler brother goes from unwanted letch to unwanted nice guy, and finally gains acceptance from his peers to the amusement and joy of, well, nobody.

My sympathy is directed at the main actors, whose brave attempts at a first break are squandered by a quite frankly rubbish story and embarrassing script. Nothing is unexpected, but when it happens, you find yourself wincing at the realisation that it made the final cut. This is especially the case when Matt Stifler and company replace an enemy`s sunscreen with semen. Yes, semen.

Ok, so it`s easy to criticise, but there will be countless people reading this saying "A lot of people like this sort of film", to which my reply is that, even though this might be correct, it doesn`t have to be the case. If you`re looking for a film cleverly catching the spirit of the self obsessed middle class American youth, then do yourself a favour and spend the money on the forthcoming `Clueless` 10th Anniversary edition - a film that genuinely surpasses anything which has come since.

Stop the clock - Ten seconds. Wow, that is fast!