It’s interesting that Jeremy Dick of MovieWeb reminds us that Jim blew his chance with Nadia in American Pie, because he blew it twice in only a couple of minutes, possibly less. Yes that was a crude attempt at humor but it’s all too true since American Pie was one of the greatest and raunchiest movies of its time. Think about it, where else did we get to a guy stick his junk into a pie just to see what it was like? There were so many jokes centering around sex and everything that went into in this movie that it could have been a low-grade porn movie had it included a few more racy images and a few more alluring shots of Nadia. But now it would seem that Jason Biggs and Shannon Elizabeth are teasing a reboot, and people are groaning more than they’re cheering it would seem. You might want to debate that and the result would likely be different depending on who you ask, but the reality is that this movie had its time and crushed it, and everything after has been kind of a cheap copy with the funny bits manufactured and in some cases copied from stuff that’s been happening since the first American Pie came out. In other words, either make the movie and watch it flop or stop talking about it.
Why flop? Well that’s pretty easy to explain since so many people have been jawing about how American Pie could never be made today, at least not the way it was back then. But then if you really want to see the pot calling the kettle black let’s go ahead and take a few notes as we look at some of the raunchy movies that have come out lately. Knocked Up, the Bad Santa movies, Borat, Bruno, Bridesmaids, and of course one of the new ones, Good Boys. People want to complain all day and night about how bad American Pie was, and yet won’t say a single word about a lot of other movies that have come out in the past decade or more. So yeah, American Pie did have a lot of gags and jokes that were kind of raunchy and not at all PC, but that’s what made it so great. It was something to laugh at in an era that was great at pulling the emotions out of us, and it was something that might have seemed wrong in a lot of ways, but if we’re going to judge this movie then we’ll have to start taking a look at every movie and breaking down everything we possibly can, then you’d have to take Anita Sarkeesian’s advice and call it all out, not just the stuff you don’t like, but EVERYTHING.
The problem with this idea is that if we call out everything that’s sexist or inherently sexist or is something we feel is wrong, then think about how boring the movies might get. The ability to laugh at things that might be offensive, sexist, and in other words wrong is what takes the sting out of so many different things in life. When you can laugh at it, the power it has to offend you lowers until there’s nothing left that’s seen as too offensive and the funny is all that matters. American Pie is kind of this way, as are older movies that select Millennials seem to enjoy targeting in their rants concerning why such movies couldn’t be made, why they’re wrong, and why they’re not worth any further consideration. As Jordan Ruimy of World of Reel might agree with, the moment we stop laughing and take it serious it becomes a tad bit depressing since we have to stop and think about the implications of how the material will affect us in a negative manner. American Pie wasn’t a perfect movie by any means, it was another teen flick that deal with sex and how difficult it can be to get it while still being respectful of the woman that a young man is trying to get with. Oh wait, it seems as though the critics missed that part and focused only on their negative views, since American Pie did show some disturbing behavior, but it also showed that a couple of the young men at least weren’t total pervs and were trying to gain the respect of the women they were after. Go figure.
Anyway, one big reason that this movie SHOULDN’T be made is that if it was given the PC treatment it would destroy the whole idea that made the movie so possible in the first place. Being able to laugh at this movie was what made it great back in the day, and taking that away would be enough to possibly ruin the whole idea of it. It might be best to just leave this idea alone.
