American Reunion movie review (2012)

Stifler's mom (Jennifer Coolidge) and Stifler himself (Seann William Scott) seem to be trapped in a warp in time. The other members of the old high school gang, now in their early 30s, have moved on in one way or another. So much have they matured, indeed, that when three of the guys plan to get together three days early in the old hometown to get an early start on the class reunion, they actually don't even let Stifler know their plans. They still like the Stifmeister, but they keenly recall the trouble that he got them into in their previous meetings.

"American Pie" (1999), "American Pie 2" (2001) and "American Wedding" (2003) have made the cast so familiar that this movie actually feels sort of like our reunion with them. We get an update. Oz (Chris Klein) has become a sports expert on an ESPN-like channel. Jim and Michelle (Jason Biggs and Alyson Hannigan) are still married and have a baby boy as consolation for the fact that their sex life has ground to a halt. Finch (Eddie Kaye Thomas) has apparently morphed into an adventurer who scales mountains and roars through exotic nightclubs.

Though Jim is a straight-arrow type, he finds himself alarmingly aroused by Kara (Ali Cobrin), once the little neighbor he baby-sat, who's now disturbingly older and nubile.

Another familiar face is back: Jim's dad (Eugene Levy), who you may recall was all too willing to provide his son with tips on masturbation and other topics that Jim recoiled from. A film that seems to have been constructed by typing in cross-references to the earlier films, "American Reunion" breaks new ground in a way by dealing fearlessly with the famous Levy eyebrows; when a girl offers to thin them a little for a makeover, he gets defensive ("They're sort of a trademark"), but she is able to pluck enough hairs to stuff a pillow while making little visible difference.