Four Slices of American Pie

[School of Movies 2022]

WARNING: This episode contains foul language and repeated references to very crude sexual situations, bodily fluids and some nasty-as-hell behaviour. Thou art warned!

This began as a simple re-watch of the original 1999 film "American Pie", but it quickly spiralled into a look back on the gross, frat-house movie craze of the early 2000s. We go through each film in turn and mine them for anything even remotely positive, before spanking the living hell out of them for their awful, creepy and sometimes disturbing attempts to wrestle laughs out of an audience that was growing up faster than they were.

American Pie 2 (2001) reunited the gang for spring break, American Wedding (2003) saw two of the more wholesome characters get married, whilst also depicting what I dubbed then and now as the death of comedy, maybe even the death of narrative cinema! And then the one with the most potential for retrospection on our own filthy, mistake-filled youths American Reunion (2012) brought everyone back as adults, thinning hairlines and disappointment all-round. And somehow, despite all the ingredients being present, they managed to bake their most rotten apple pie last! And yet despite all this, we managed to pull together one of the most fun shows we've done. This is going to be a favourite for some listeners.