Director: James B. Rogers
Starring: Jason Biggs, Shannon Elizabeth, Alyson Hannigan, Chris Klein, Natasha Lyonne, Seann William Scott
Story rating: 2 1/2 discs (out of 4)
Story review: The happy bunch of high school graduates, having completed their first year of college, come home for the summer. The fab four–totally hopeless Jim (Jason Biggs), hunky Oz (Chris Klein), introspective Finch (Eddie Kaye Thomas) and adorable Kevin (Thomas Ian Nicholas), plus obnoxious Stifler (Seann William Scott)–decide to rent a Great Lake house and spend the summer painting houses for money and trying to grow up a little. All except Stifler, who, naturally, still just wants to get laid. The girls are there too: perky Vicky (Tara Reid), who just wants to be friends with Kevin; sexy Nadia (Shannon Elizabeth), who wants to visit Jim at the end of the summer; band geek Michelle (Alyson Hannigan), who helps Jim discover his true sexuality; sweet Heather (Mena Suvari), who remains true to Oz even while being in Europe for the summer; and finally the hottest “M-I-L-F” around, Stifler’s mom (Jennifer Coolidge), who keeps Finch mildly obsessed throughout the summer. There is nothing terribly new about this slice of Pie but it was fun to see some old familiar faces.–Kit Bowen, Hollywood.com
Features rating: 3 discs (out of 4)
Features review: American Pie 2 crams an inventive array of extras onto one disc. The eminently human characters of AP2 are profiled on The Baking of “American Pie 2“, a standard, 24-minute making-of feature on the new DVD. It shows many high times on the set, as does the five-minute Good Times With Cast and Crew, which is also pretty standard.
More interesting, the DVD also has a five-minute Gag Reel of bloopers, blown lines, laughing, dancing and joking on the set, and six deleted scenes spanning 10 minutes. There are also six revealing Casting Tapes for the first film. Biggs, Elizabeth, Klein and others act out brief scenes for a video camera.
Based on an Universal/MSNBC interactive fan poll of favorite scenes from both flicks, the new DVD offers 10 top scenes from the duology. The new disc also has 15 Classic Quotes, offering instant access to brief clips of notorious lines from AP2 and 30 Music Highlights through which you can access footage for any snippet of a song playing in the background of a scene.
Also included are cast and filmmaker bios; production notes; four commentary tracks; “Be Like That” music video from 3 Doors Down; and the trailer with an added intro by Biggs, who makes a mock-solemn public-service announcement about the dangers of super glue.
Bottom line: The DVD, like the movie, is all in the spirit of fun. The features are probably just as entertaining as the movie itself and make the American Pie 2 DVD a worthy purchase option.
Special features list:
• Languages: English, French and Spanish subtitles
• Special Making of American Pie 2
• Hilarious outtakes and deleted scenes
• Jason Biggs warning: Don’t Try This At Home
• Star screen tests from the original American Pie
• Behind-the-scenes craziness with stars
• Viewers top ten scenes
• Classic movie lines
• 3 Doors Down “Be Like That” music video and music highlights
• Commentaries with the director, writer and cast members
• Film production notes and filmmaker bios
• DVD-ROM features
