American Reunion
American Reunion is a 2012 American ensemble sex comedy film written and directed by Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg. It is the fourth installment in the American Pie theatrical series.
The film received mixed reviews from critics, and grossed $250 million worldwide.
Plot
Thirteen years after graduating from high school, Jim, Oz, Kevin Myers, Finch, and Stifler are well-established in their lives and careers. Jim lives in the Chicago area and remains married to Michelle, and now has a two-year-old son, Evan. Oz is an NFL sportscaster living in Los Angeles with his supermodel girlfriend Mia. Kevin is married to a woman named Ellie and works from home as an architect. Finch tells his friends that he has been traveling the world, and still searching for his one true love. Stifler works as a temp at an investment firm, where he is the victim of humiliating verbal abuse by his employer.Former classmate John, one half of the 'MILF' duo, organizes a Class of 1999 high school reunion in East Great Falls. Jim and Michelle return to Jim's old home, where he encounters his neighbor Kara, whom he used to babysit, and will soon turn 18. Jim meets Oz, Kevin, and Finch at a bar, where they meet Selena, Michelle's best friend from band. Stifler appears unexpectedly, and joins them for weekend activities.
The next day, the group goes to the beach. Oz meets his high school girlfriend, Heather, who is dating a cardiologist named Ron, who is abusive and Kevin reconnects with Vicky. That night, most of the group go to the falls and find a high school party celebrating Kara's birthday. Kara gets drunk; Jim drives her home, and she tries to seduce him. Kevin wakes up next to Vicky and assumes they had sex.
Jim and Michelle attend a party hosted by Stifler, and bring Jim's dad along. Kevin confronts Vicky about the night before, but she insists there was no sex. Mia takes ecstasy, and Ron humiliates Oz. A newly sympathetic Heather comforts Oz, and they reconcile. Jim has a misunderstanding with Michelle and tells Kara that he does not care for her. The police arrest Finch for stealing a motorcycle. Stifler is amused believing he finally got his revenge on Finch for sleeping with his mother, Jeanine. Exasperated by his immaturity and needless sense of revenge, the guys rally to Finch's side. Jim, Oz and Kevin finally admit that no one in general likes Stifler at all. They mention it's his crude and immature behavior is the reason why they don't like inviting him to their gathering as he has always ruined them like in the past. Distraught, Stifler ends the party.
At the reunion, Finch admits to being an assistant manager at Staples and stole the motorcycle from his boss when a promised raise was not received. The boys apologize to Stifler, and insist that he is their friend saying that without him, high school would not have been any fun. Kevin reconciles with Vicky. Finch makes amends for lying to Selena, and they have sex in the bathroom. Oz reunites with Heather and beats up Ron for abusing and humiliating her and Jim reconciles with Michelle. Jessica reveals that she is a lesbian, and with Stifler's help, Sherman hooks up with Loni. After Rachel, Finch's Mom, makes a brazen sexual pass at Stifler using lacrosse-related innuendos, they proceed to have sex on the lacrosse field, while Rachel loudly and passionately agrees with Stifler's proclamations about his manliness. John is reunited with his estranged buddy, Justin, and they watch Stifler having sex.
The next morning, Jim and Kara apologize for their behavior to each other. Oz plans to stay in town with Heather, Finch plans a trip with Selena to Europe, and Stifler drops subtle hints about sleeping with Finch's mom. Kevin proposes a pact for them to reunite once a year. As the credits roll, Stifler says, "I fucked Finch's mom!" in a half-whisper, leaving Finch disgusted, having now known what Stifler went through when he had sex with his mom.
Cast
Production
Development
In October 2008, Universal Pictures announced it was planning to produce a fourth theatrically released sequel to the first film. In, the film entered pre-production, with Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg signing on to write and direct with plans to reunite the whole cast of the primary series.Casting
In, it was announced that Jason Biggs, Seann William Scott and Eugene Levy had signed on to reprise their roles. Biggs and Scott were granted executive producer credits and also helped convince the other previous cast members to return. In, Alyson Hannigan, Chris Klein, and Mena Suvari signed on. The following month, Thomas Ian Nicholas, Tara Reid, Eddie Kaye Thomas, Shannon Elizabeth, and Jennifer Coolidge signed on. In June and, John Cho and Natasha Lyonne were the last returning cast to sign on.On, a casting call went out for the character "Kara", a role that involved "upper frontal nudity". Ali Cobrin was cast in the role. National Football League wide receiver Chad Ochocinco has a cameo.
Jason Biggs and Seann William Scott each received a reported $5 million plus a percentage of the profits for their performances. Alyson Hannigan and Eugene Levy were said to have been paid $3 million each, with the rest of the cast receiving payments within the $500,000 to $700,000 range, except Tara Reid who was paid $250,000.
Filming
On a budget of $50 million, principal photography took place from early June to in metro Atlanta, Georgia. In late June, filming took place at Conyers, Monroe and Woodruff Park. While in Conyers, filming took place at Heritage High School’s football stadium and band room. Production filmed at Newton High School in Covington from to. Scenes were filmed at the school's gym for a reunion prom set, football field, commons area and hallways; which included 200 extras. Under the deal the production company paid $10,000 to the Newton County School System for using the school.During the last week of July, production moved to Cumming to film at Mary Alice Park on Lake Lanier and included about 100 extras. Moore said the beach at the lake looks similar to a Lake Michigan setting, which is the state in which the film is set. The production company paid $23,000 to have full access to the property for a week. Suvari finished filming her scenes on.
Release
Box office
American Reunion opened in North America on April 6, 2012 in 3,192 theaters for a weekend total of $21,514,080, putting it at number 2 at the box office behind The Hunger Games.On its second week of release it dropped to number 5 at the box office with a weekend total of $10,473,810.
The film earned $56,758,835 in North America and $177,978,063 internationally, for a worldwide total of $234,736,898.
Home video
The DVD and Blu-ray discs were released on July 10, 2012 in North America. The film was also released in a box set titled the "American Pie Quadrilogy" on August 22, 2012 in Australia. The R-rated version was available on iTunes a few days ahead of time, as an "Early Digital Release". It was released on September 10, 2012 in the United Kingdom.Reception
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film a holds an approval rating of 45% based on 183 reviews, with an average rating of 5.21/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "It'll provide sweetly nostalgic comfort food for fans of the franchise, but American Reunion fails to do anything truly new or interesting – or even very funny – with the characters." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 49 out of 100, based on 34 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale.According to Roger Ebert, who gave the film three out of four stars:
The charm of American Pie was the relative youth and naïveté of the characters. It was all happening for the first time, and they had the single-minded obsession with sex typical of many teenagers. American Reunion has a sense of déjà-vu, but it still delivers a lot of nice laughs. Most of them for me came thanks to Stifler... If you liked the earlier films, I suppose you gotta see this one. Otherwise, I dunno.
The Village Voice concludes its review with the following:
After some strained "Remember the time..." callbacks to 13-year-old gags, American Reunion gets comfortable and funny, as Hurwitz and Schlossberg hit familiar marks from unexpected angles, while the ensemble interplay is "routine" in the best sense of the word. Taken altogether, the Pie movies offer a cohesive worldview, showing each of life's stages as the setting for fresh-yet-familiar catastrophes, relieved by a belief in sex, however ridiculous it might look, as a restorative force. The recipe is so durable and the sustained character work so second-skin by now, one can imagine the Pie films keeping with the dramatis personae through middle age and into the problems of geriatric love, a raunch-comic version of Britain's documentary Up series. American Midlife Crisis? American Retirement? American Funeral? Let's go!
Peter Travers of Rolling Stone gave American Reunion a positive review of two and half stars out of four saying, "American Reunion reminds us what we liked about the original: the way the movie sweetened its raunch to build a rooting interest in these characters."
Accolades
| Year | Award | Category | Recipients | Result |
| 2012 | Teen Choice Awards | Choice Movie: Comedy | ||
| 2012 | Teen Choice Awards | Choice Movie Actor: Comedy | Jason Biggs | |
| 2012 | Teen Choice Awards | Choice Movie Actress: Comedy | Alyson Hannigan |
Soundtrack
The two score tracks were recorded by a 60-70 piece orchestraconducted by John Ashton Thomas who also orchestrated Workman's score
for the orchestral sessions.
The orchestra was recorded at the Eastwood Scoring Stage at the
Warner Bros. lot by Shawn Murphy who also mixed the score.