American Wedding

American Wedding (known as American Pie 3: The Wedding or American Pie: The Wedding, in some countries) is a 2003 American sex comedy film and a sequel to American Pie and American Pie 2. It is the third (originally intended final) installment in the American Pie theatrical series. It was written by Adam Herz and directed by Jesse Dylan. Another sequel, American Reunion, was released nine years later. This stands as the last film in the series to be written by Herz, who conceptualized the franchise, and also the only film in the series that does not star Chris Klein, who plays Oz.

American Wedding
Theatrical release poster
Directed byJesse Dylan
Produced byChris Moore
Warren Zide
Craig Perry
Adam Herz
Chris Bender
Paul Weitz
Chris Weitz
Written byAdam Herz
Based onCharacters
by Adam Herz
StarringJason Biggs
Alyson Hannigan
January Jones
Thomas Ian Nicholas
Seann William Scott
Eddie Kaye Thomas
Fred Willard
Eugene Levy
Music byChristophe Beck
CinematographyLloyd Ahern
Edited byStuart Pappé
Production
company
Distributed byUniversal Pictures
Release date
  • August 1, 2003 (2003-08-01)[1]
Running time
96 minutes[2]
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$55 million[3]
Box office$231.5 million[4]

Though the film mainly focuses on the union of Jim Levenstein and Michelle Flaherty, for the first time in the series, the story centers on Steve Stifler, and his outrageous antics including his attempt to organize a bachelor party, teaching Jim to dance for the wedding, and competing with Finch to win the heart of Michelle's sister, Cadence.

Plot

While on a date in a fancy restaurant with Michelle Flaherty, Jim Levenstein is ready to propose to her. Jim's dad calls to inform him that he has the ring. Michelle misinterprets when Jim stalls the question. Jim's dad arrives as Jim is receiving fellatio, and a mishap grasps the restaurant's attention. Jim proposes and Michelle accepts.

Jim wants to exclude Steve Stifler from the wedding, having concerns that Stifler's behavior is not socially acceptable. When Jim is worried about learning to dance, Stifler agrees to teach him. Jim also asks Stifler to tone down his obnoxious personality, in exchange that he be allowed to attend the wedding and host a bachelor party. The boys go on a road trip when they discover there is only one designer who makes the dress that Michelle wants. They go to Chicago looking for "Leslie Summers"; Stifler unwittingly walks into a gay bar, and his raucous behavior gets him into a dispute with several patrons. Stifler challenges one of these patrons, Bear, to a dance-off. Stifler wins, and Bear offers to provide strippers for the bachelor party. Leslie reveals himself and agrees to make the dress for Michelle and hits on Kevin Myers, who is uncomfortable with the unrequited attention. Michelle's parents, who were initially skeptical of Jim, agree to have a preliminary dinner with him.

Michelle's younger sister, Cadence, flies in for the wedding. Both Paul Finch and Stifler are attracted to her, and in an effort to win her over, they each adopt the other's personality and mannerisms. Stifler arranges the bachelor party, including strippers, for everyone at Jim's house except Jim, who unknowingly has arranged dinner with Michelle's parents there. The party is abruptly halted by the unexpected return of the three. With assistance from Bear, who poses as a butler named "Mr. Belvedere", Jim nearly succeeds in keeping the activities a secret, until Michelle's mother opens a closet door and is shocked to find Kevin inside, stripped to his boxers and tied to a chair. The boys explain that it was an attempt to make Jim seem like a hero that went wrong, and Michelle's parents accept this and tell him that if he puts that much effort into the upcoming marriage, they can give their blessing.

Michelle is concerned that Jim's paternal grandmother may dislike her for not being Jewish. She is also concerned about Stifler having been invited to the wedding. On the night before the wedding, Stifler inadvertently disrupts the walk-in refrigerator's power supply while retrieving a bottle of champagne in an attempt to seduce Cadence. Previously, Stifler—unaware of Cadence's presence—had revealed his true rude and obnoxious personality. When Stifler later returns, the flowers are dead. Jim asks him to leave, and all the others, including Cadence, support Jim's decision.

Feeling guilty for his thoughtless behavior, Stifler convinces the florist to put together a new batch of flowers, and he enlists the help of his football players and Bear. As a gesture of remorse, he also gives a rose to Cadence, much to the amazement of Jim and Michelle. Moved by his actions, Cadence agrees to have sex with him in a supply closet before the ceremony, but Stifler's presence is delayed by a brief thank-you meeting Jim calls among his groomsmen, citing how he is grateful to have friends like them to back him up.

Quickly returning to the hotel, Stifler hears someone in the supply closet and steps inside, unaware that Cadence was interrupted by wedding preparations and that the ushers, the MILF guys from high school, placed Jim's grandmother in that closet to sustain her hostility about the wedding; Stifler only realizes this upon walk-in by Finch and Kevin. She becomes pleasant, particularly towards Stifler, making Michelle and Jim's dad unknowingly happy.

Despite the chaotic events leading up to it, Michelle and Jim get married. At the reception, the couple dances while Stifler dances with Cadence. Finch is sitting by himself when Stifler's mom arrives. Although agreeing they are over each other, Stifler's mom mentions having a double suite and invites Finch to join her. The film ends with the MILF guys spying on Stifler's mom and Finch in her suite's couple-size bathtub, having oral sex.

Cast

Soundtrack

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 in the series to not play the song "Mrs. Robinson" in a scene where Finch has sex with Stifler's mother. It is also the first of the American Pie films not to feature a blink-182 song.

The song "Into the Mystic", played at the end of the film 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 due to licensing reasons. The band's lead singer Jakob Dylan is the brother of the film's director Jesse Dylan.

The film's soundtrack peaked at number 23 on the Billboard 200 chart.[5]

American Wedding
Soundtrack album by
Various Artists
ReleasedAugust 1, 2003
GenrePop punk, alternative rock
Length1:00:13
LabelUptown/Universal
Various Artists chronology
American Pie 2
(2001)		 American Wedding
(2003)		 American Reunion
(2012)
No.TitlePerformed byLength
1."Times Like These"Foo Fighters4:26
2."The Anthem"Good Charlotte2:55
3."Forget Everything"New Found Glory2:33
4."The Hell Song"Sum 413:19
5."Swing, Swing"The All-American Rejects3:54
6."I Don't Give"Avril Lavigne3:37
7."Laid"Matt Nathanson3:03
8."The Art of Losing"American Hi-Fi3:22
9."Fever for the Flava"Hot Action Cop4:03
10."Give Up the Grudge"Gob2:58
11."Bouncing Off The Walls"Sugarcult2:22
12."Come Back Around"Feeder3:12
13."Any Other Girl"NU3:23
14."Beloved"The Working Title4:28
15."Calling You"Blue October3:58
16."Honey and the Moon"Joseph Arthur4:44
17."Into the Mystic"The Wallflowers (Van Morrison cover)3:39

Songs that appear during Stifler's dance in the gay bar:

Songs that appear during the bachelor party:

Release

American Wedding was released in the United States on August 1, 2003 and opened at #1 with $33,369,440 before dropping 53.7% the next weekend, landing at #3 behind the new releases of S.W.A.T. and Freaky Friday.[6] Closing about 3.5 months later (November 20, 2003), the film had grossed a domestic total of $104,565,114 and $126,884,089 overseas for a worldwide total of $231,449,203, based on a $55 million budget.[4] Despite being a huge box office success, it is the lowest-grossing film in the series, making roughly $3 million less than American Reunion would in 2012.

American Wedding grossed $15.85 million on DVD and was the number seven DVD rental in 2004.[7]

Reception

American Wedding received mixed reviews from critics. Rotten Tomatoes, a review aggregator, assigns the film a rating of 54%, based on 155 reviews, with an average rating of 5.8/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Raunchier and even more gross than the first two American Pies, American Wedding ought to please fans of the series."[8] On Metacritic, the film has a score of 43 out of 100, based on 34 critics, which indicates "mixed or average reviews".[9]

Robert Koeler of Variety compared it to the works of John Waters and called it a "strong finish" for the franchise.[10] Roger Ebert rated it 3/4 stars and wrote that the film "is proof of the hypothesis that no genre is beyond redemption."[11] Elvis Mitchell of The New York Times wrote that the film "struggles so hard to be tasteless that it's almost quaint."[12] Mick LaSalle of the San Francisco Chronicle rated it 2/5 stars and called it strained and desperate to find jokes.[13]

Awards
Wins
Nominations
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References
  1. DiOrio, Carl (2003-06-15). "H'w'd: A sequel opportunity town". Variety. Retrieved 2014-01-22.
  2. "AMERICAN PIE: THE WEDDING (15)". British Board of Film Classification. 2003-07-29. Retrieved 2012-12-02.
  3. McNary, Dave (2003-08-03). "'Pie' pals humble Jen & Ben". Variety. Retrieved 2014-01-22.
  4. "American Wedding (2003)". Box Office Mojo. Archived from the original on 17 April 2009. Retrieved 2009-04-25.
  5. "American Wedding - Original Soundtrack - Awards - AllMusic". AllMusic. Retrieved October 21, 2013.
  6. "Weekend Box Office Results for August 8-10, 2003". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2012-01-14.
  7. "Year End 2004 Top-renting VHS titles". Variety. 2004-12-30. Retrieved 2014-01-22.
  8. "American Wedding (2003)". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 2014-01-22.
  9. "American Wedding". Metacritic. Retrieved 2014-01-22.
  10. Koehler, Robert (2003-08-03). "Review: 'American Wedding'". Variety. Retrieved 2014-01-22.
  11. Ebert, Roger (2003-08-01). "American Wedding". RogerEbert.com. Retrieved 2014-01-22.
  12. Mitchell, Elvis (2003-08-01). "'American Pie' Reaches for a Wedding Cake". The New York Times. Retrieved 2014-01-22.
  13. LaSalle, Mick (2003-08-01). "'American Wedding' is a pie in the face to its once-funny premise". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 2014-01-22.
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