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American Pie: Book of Love is a tragedy. I'm a huge fan of the series, I actually saw all of the direct2DVD sequels multiple times and didn't actually hate them, so I'm not expecting much from these movies. I know they aren't masterpieces, but the original series holds a place in my heart and the spinoffs usually contain bits and pieces of the charm of the originals.
Not so with Book of Love. I really couldn't find one redeeming thing about this godforsaken film. I guess Eugene Levy helped a little bit. But unlike other "American Pie Presents" spinoffs, this movie didn't try to expand on a different area of the American Pie story (such as Erik Stifler in Naked Mile and Beta House, or Matt Stifler in Band Camp). Instead, this takes places 10 years after the original and besides Scott Stifler (I forget how he's supposed to be related) and a few small references to Nadia (incorrectly pronounced) the film might as well not be using the American Pie name. I suppose you could say the same about the other direct2DVD movies, but at least those were not so terrible that I want to forget the exist.
The characters are incredibly bland, forgettable and don't evoke any sympathy; most of all Scott Stifler, who delivers his lines as if he is reciting tax code. Maybe it's just my nostalgia, but in the original American Pie, the guys were sex obsessed, sure, but they actually had sympathy for other human beings. The character who is basically a clone of Kevin in this movie is a complete asshole. The fat character does nothing but fantasize about the cheerleader character for her body and then makes some eye-rolling impassioned speech 5 minutes to the end of the movie about how he actually just cares about her as a person. THAT IS COMPLETELY INCONSISTENT WITH THE ENTIRE MOVIE.
All of the actions in the movie feel like they come out of some bizzaro world where female's thoughts and actions are controlled by 12-year-old boys. Girls have absolutely no issue with open mouth tongue kissing in front of a camera, girls immediately decide to have sex with a guy who is propositioning a completely different girl just because he said he would pleasure her, girls drag guys into changing rooms at a lingerie store and strip for them before coercing them into shoplifting, anything.
Every scene is so incredibly disjointed and utterly pointless. You would think a movie about the BOOK OF LOVE would actually focus on said book. No. Instead it is introduced and they try out 1 single technique-- the mystical art of flattery before the writers seem to completely forget about the book until the "putting it back together montage" at which point the book is reassembled.... and there is 20 minutes left. God damn it.
This is what the book should have been about: contacting all of the people who previously wrote in the book and reconstructing it. Instead it is condensed into a 5 minute montage and used for no other reason than to tie up what is essentially a subplot based on how little importance it is given in terms of the actual story. Even after the book is reconstructed the guys basically make no use of it besides doing the "tongue tornado".
I don't even want to talk about the scene where Stifler is literally raped by a CGI moose. That is basically a big middle finger to the American Pie series, it's fans, and basically anyone watching. Just their way of saying "hey, we don't care about this garbage film at all".
The entire movie boils down to some shoehorned "message" about having sex with someone you really care about, I guess. It's more like they were obligated by some organization to put in a mandatory moral message. It's pretty hard to take such a message seriously when the previous scene literally involved someone being raped by a moose (seriously, I can't get over that).
score 1/10
rschutz8 12 December 2014
Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw3140508/ |
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29-11-2019 07:56:45
