American Pie: Beta House (DVD)
Let us all have a moment of silence for the passing of Eugene Levy’s … career.
Tags: American Pie Categories: DVD/TV Reviews, Reviews
Posted by Craig "American Idle" Hansen on Feb 18th, 2008
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Although crass, rude and crude at times, the original American Pie trilogy, concluding with American Wedding, had a redeeming quality to it: talented actors. Despite the scripts’ flaws, stars Jason Biggs and Alyson Hannigan ultimately proved likeable and the sort of characters you want to root for. Masquerading as a crude-and-rude comedy, the original American Pie trilogy was ultimately a somewhat twisted, but ultimately good-hearted love story about how those two characters found each other.
Since then, the series has gone south. Way south. Long gone are the classic gang that included such up and coming stars as Chris Klein, Eddie Kay Thomas, Sean William Scott, Shannon Elizabeth, Menu Suvari, Tara Reid and Natasha Leonne. In fact, the only star desperate enough to still be found in each and every American Pie is Eugene Levy – Lord knows why.
Instead, the cast of American Pie: Beta House reads more like a list of one-hit wonder bands; you keep on asking, “Who?” It’s no surprise that even behind the camera, original writer Adam Herz and co-directors Paul and Chris Weitz are also long-gone. The “big star” in Beta House is supposed to be Steve Talley as Dwight Stiffler; here’s some of Talley’s co-stars… stop me if you’ve heard of any of them, or expect to in the future: John White, Jake Siegel, Meghan Heffern, Pilar Cazares, Joe Eigo, Nick Nicotera, Christine Barger, Jonathan Keltz, Angela Besharah, Tyrone Savage, Jaclyn A. Smith, and Robbie Amell.
And of course, then there’s Eugene Levy, who’s still playing “Jim’s dad” even though Jim is nowhere to be found. Someone buy the poor man a meal so he can stop flogging his career into obscurity in this sad series, OK? The man’s an SCTV alum. A relative needs power of attorney over him to choose better movies for him; did Christopher Guest stop making independent comedies where Levy could hang out with Parker Posey? The writer’s strike is over, people, rescue your fallen comrade!
Of course, the female members of this cast of never-will-be actresses are more than willing to go nude to extend their 15 seconds of fame to a minute or two, which is unfortunate, since their sacrifice will go mostly unnoticed in this filmed radioactive waste.
American Pie: Beta House is the latest in a series of three direct-to-DVD chapters in the destruction of this series’ reputation. The crimes began with American Pie Presents: Band Camp, continued with American Pie: The Naked Mile and, unfortunately, doesn’t seem likely to conclude with American Pie: Beta House. The series has become a brand name, much like National Lampoon, except, well… most of the National Lampoon movies were somewhat funny, at least when Chevy Chase was still starring in them.
American Pie: Beta House has plenty of DVD extras; the only downside is most of them are too embarrassing to play with your wife or girlfriend in the same room… or even alone. What started out, in the Biggs-Hannigan trilogy, as an edgy sex comedy with a good heart under a lot of filth has been transformed into a worse pile of filth, but the heart already removed and transplanted in some other poor soul who at least has a fighting chance to live. Lowest recommendation possible. Lose this one.
| What Works | Score |
|---|---|
| + Ummm.... ummm... ummm.... | 2.1 |
| What Doesn't | |
| - Nearly everything. | |
| Under the Shrink-wrap | |
| Eugene Levy's friends must hate him to let him continue appearing in these direct-to-DVD films. American Pie was over when Jason Biggs and Alyson Hannigan got hitched. Move on. All the stars and creators of the original trilogy have... expect poor Eugene Levy... | |
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Tags: American Pie
Posted by Craig "American Idle" Hansen on Feb 18th, 2008 and is filed under DVD/TV Reviews, Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can post a comment, or trackback from your own site.
