American Wedding, also known as American Pie 3 or American Pie: The Wedding outside of America, is a 2003 sequel to the comedy films American Pie and American Pie 2; it is the third film in the American Pie series. It was written by Adam Herz and directed by Jesse Dylan. The story has the friends from the first two films getting together again, this time to celebrate the wedding of Jim (Jason Biggs) and Michelle (Alyson Hannigan).
Plot
The film begins with Jim Levenstein and Michelle Flaherty having dinner, celebrating their college graduation. Jim intends to propose to Michelle, but receives a phone call from his dad, who says he forgot to give Jim the engagement ring and was on his way. As Jim tries to stall, Michelle gets the impression that he wants a public sex act and proceeds to perform oral sex on him under the table. When Mr. Levenstein (Eugene Levy) arrives, Jim tries to hide the fact that he's being fellated. Not knowing Michelle is under the table, Jim's dad expresses his excitement at the proposal. Then, after Michelle bumps her head under the table in shock at hearing about the proposal, all chaos ensues as Jim ends up exposed and has to hike his pants up quickly. Saving face, he swallows what's left of his pride and asks Michelle to marry him. She readily says yes.
As planning begins, Jim worries that the wedding will be a disaster. Michelle's parents hate him after an accidental scene in which Jim appears to be having sex with their two dogs. Michelle's wedding dress is made by only one designer working for one store, so Jim sets out to find the dress maker for her. And Jim can't dance, but salvation comes in the form of Stifler (Seann William Scott), who took dance lessons. Stifler only teaches Jim to dance on the condition he be allowed to attend the wedding and plan the bachelor party. (Jim and Michelle had planned to leave Stifler in the dark about the whole event, but he found out accidentally after crashing their engagement party.)
In the mean time Stifler arranges a bachelor party on Jim's house except Jim who unknowingly has arranged dinner for Michelle's parents for what they call a 'special dinner' before marriage.These three are introduced to Fraulein Brandi and Officer Krystal by Mr. Belvedere and then play Bondage and Submissive roles with these three. While they do some hilarious things, Jim enters the house and Michelle's parents are badly embarrassed. Steve finally saves the act by saying it was showcased to get the impression that Jim is a superhero.
Michelle's sister Cadence (January Jones) attends the wedding, and Finch (Eddie Kaye Thomas) is quickly attracted to her. Sadly, so is Stifler. Upon hearing that Cadence is hoping to attract a decent guy, Stifler adopts a more meek attitude and acts like Finch, and avoids swearing and speaks of philosophy and art, mostly just quoting things Finch has said in the past. But when Finch realizes that Cadence is beginning to tire of the intellectual Stifler, Finch acts immature, rude, and perverted: in other words, like Stifler as he heard Cadence being tired of 'decent guys' while eavesdropping on Michelle and Cadence's conversation at the airport lavatory. Cadence begins to catch on that her two suitors are acting like each other, so the question of who she'll choose becomes more complicated. Stifler unintentionally kills the flowers the night before the wedding, and actually feels bad about it, prompting him to bring in the football team he coaches to set up the entire room with new flowers. Cadence chooses Stifler, and Finch admits that Stifler was probably better for her anyway. Stifler, angry that he can't hate Finch after such a noble remark calls Finch a 'motherfucker'. He is quickly reminded by Finch that "Ya know, I did fuck your mom. Twice"
The film features several trademark infamous scenes like the first two films. Stifler is charged with taking care of the bride's wedding ring, but he accidentally feeds it to a dog. Waiting for the dog to defecate, Stifler retrieves the ring in a chocolate wrapper and goes to wash it, but is intercepted by Michelle's mother. Mistaking it for a truffle, Michelle's mother attempts to eat it, giving Stifler no other choice but to eat it himself to save face. Later, during the ceremony, Stifler takes a moment to quickly sniff the ring before handing it to Jim.
Michelle and Jim eventually get married. At the reception, they dance while Stifler dances with Cadence. Finch is sitting by himself when Stifler's mom (Jennifer Coolidge) arrives. They tell each other they are over each other. At the end of the movie it shows Stifler's mom and Finch in the tub having sex. The two men who were supposed to be watching Jim's grandma (John Cho and Justin Isfield), the ushers for the wedding, are watching in awe from the window as Finch goes under the bubbles. Stiffler also ends up accidentally having sex with Jim's grandmother when he goes to a closet to have sex with Cadence and Jim's grandma is thrown in and he doesn't realize who it is.
Cast
Music
The film's soundtrack includes songs by Van Morrison, Blue October, The Working Title, Foo Fighters, Feeder, Avril Lavigne, American Hi-Fi, Sum 41, the All-American Rejects, Joseph Arthur, New Found Glory and Hot Action Cop. Badly Drawn Boy and The Libertines also have songs in the feature. Note that most songs used were already singles. And, this is the first film to feature the song "Laid" (Matt Nathanson covering the band James) in both the trailers and the opening sequence. Notably, it is also the only film to not play the song "Mrs. Robinson" in a scene where Finch has sex with Stifler's mother. Also it is the first of the American Pie movies not to feature a blink-182 song.
The song "Into the Mystic", played at the end of the movie when Jim and Michelle take to the dance floor at the reception, begins as Van Morrison's recording, but midway through it changes to The Wallflowers' cover version.
Soundtrack
- Foo Fighters - "Times Like These"
- Good Charlotte - "The Anthem"
- New Found Glory - "Forget Everything"
- Sum 41 - "The Hell Song"
- The All-American Rejects - "Swing Swing"
- Avril Lavigne - "I Don't Give"
- Matt Nathanson - "Laid"
- American Hi-Fi - "The Art Of Losing"
- Hot Action Cop - "Fever For The Flava"
- Gob - "Give Up The Grudge"
- Sugarcult - "Bouncing Off The Walls"
- Feeder - "Come Back Around"
- NU - "Any Other Girl"
- The Working Title - "Beloved"
- Blue October - "Calling You"
- Joseph Arthur - "Honey & The Moon"
- The Wallflowers - "Into The Mystic"
- The Libertines - "Time for Heroes"
Production
Originally, there was going to be a subplot about Stifler's Mom remarrying Stifler's Dad, with Finch rushing to the ceremony to try and stop it. Tim Allen and Chris Penn were both attached at various points in the film's production to play the part.
The film is notable for the absences of several of its supporting characters from the first two films, including: Oz (Chris Klein), Sherman (Chris Owen), Heather (Mena Suvari), Vicky (Tara Reid), Nadia (Shannon Elizabeth), and Jessica (Natasha Lyonne). This is because the creators of the previous movies noted it was near impossible to create interesting story lines for all of the main characters, exception being the character Oz, who was originally going to be included, but was written out due to scheduling conflicts.
It is also the first (and only) film in the series to be shot in a 2.35:1 aspect ratio.
Release
The film was released in the United States on August 1, 2003, and grossed $104 million in the USA and $123 million overseas on a budget of $55 million.[1]
Rotten Tomatoes gave the film a rating of 55% based on 146 reviews.[2]
Home media
Two versions of the movie have been released: the R-Rated and the Unrated Version. The R-Rated Version was not cut for theatrical release in the USA. Rather, a new version was made especially for the release of the DVD and for that reason additional scenes were filmed.[3]
References
External links
