| American Wedding | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Jesse Dylan |
| Written by | Adam Herz |
| Based on | Characters by Adam Herz |
| Produced by | Chris Moore Warren Zide Craig Perry Adam Herz Chris Bender |
| Starring | Jason Biggs Alyson Hannigan January Jones Thomas Ian Nicholas Seann William Scott Eddie Kaye Thomas Fred Willard Eugene Levy |
| Cinematography | Lloyd Ahern |
| Edited by | Stuart Pappé |
| Music by | Christophe Beck |
Production companies | LivePlanet Zide/Perry Productions |
| Distributed by | Universal Pictures |
Release date |
|
Running time | 96 minutes[2] |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $55 million[3] |
| Box office | $232.7 million[4] |
American Wedding (known asAmerican Pie 3: The Wedding orAmerican Pie: The Wedding, in some countries) is a 2003 Americansex comedy film written byAdam Herz and directed byJesse Dylan. It is the sequel toAmerican Pie (1999) andAmerican Pie 2 (2001), and the third of theAmerican Pie franchise.
The film's main plot focuses on the wedding ceremony of Jim Levenstein (Jason Biggs) and Michelle Flaherty (Alyson Hannigan), while its subplot centers on Steve Stifler (Seann William Scott), and his outrageous antics including his attempt to organize abachelor party, teaching Jim to dance for the wedding, and competing with Finch (Eddie Kaye Thomas) to win the heart of Michelle's sister, Cadence (January Jones). It is the last film in the series to be written by Herz, who conceptualized the franchise, and also the only theatrical film in the series in whichChris Klein (Oz),Chris Owen (Sherman),Mena Suvari (Heather),Tara Reid (Vicky),Shannon Elizabeth (Nadia) andNatasha Lyonne (Jessica) do not appear.
Released on August 1, 2003 byUniversal Pictures,American Wedding is the lowest-grossing installment in the theatricalAmerican Pie film series, although it was still a box office success, grossing $232.7 million worldwide on a $55 million budget. Like the previous two films,American Wedding received mixed reviews from critics, who were again divided on its humor but praised the cast's performances, especially Scott's.[5]
The franchise was later expanded into a series ofdirect-to-DVD standalone spin-offs, under the umbrella titleAmerican Pie Presents, that began with the release ofBand Camp (2005). A direct sequel toWedding, titledAmerican Reunion, was released in 2012.
In a restaurant in East Great Falls,Michigan, Jim Levenstein hints to his girlfriend Michelle that he is about to propose, until his dad calls to inform him he left the ring at home. She misinterprets his hints and performsfellatio on him under the table, as his dad arrives with the ring so they are publicly exposed. Despite the awkwardness, Michelle accepts Jim's proposal.
Jim and Michelle exclude their acquaintance, the boorish and vulgar Steven Stifler, from the wedding plans, but he notices the celebration party while passing and insists on taking part, seeing an opportunity to have sex with the bridesmaids. Jim agrees to let Stifler join in exchange for teaching him to dance, so he can surprise Michelle.
Stifler, Jim, and his friends Paul Finch and Kevin Myers, travel to Chicago to secure Michelle's dream wedding dress, and trace the designer to a gay bar. Stifler's insecurity around homosexuals annoys the patrons, but he wins them over during a dance off with a large gay man called Bear. Entertained, Bear offers to provide strippers for Jim's bachelor party, while the dress designer agrees to make Michelle's dress.
Michelle's younger sister Cadence returns to Michigan for the wedding, after breaking up with her boyfriend because he would not take her virginity. Hoping to win Cadence over, Stifler acts refined and intelligent like Finch, while Finch acts like Stifler, and Cadence takes a liking to them both.
Meanwhile, Jim begins to have doubts about marriage, worried that he has only ever really been with one woman. His father's awkward reassurances fail to convince Jim. Stifler, Finch, and Kevin break into Jim's parents house to surprise him with the bachelor party and Bear's strippers, unaware Jim is bringing Michelle's parents over for dinner.
The boys conceal the party from Michelle's parents until her mother finds a stripped and bound Kevin in the closet. They convince her parents that it is an elaborate plot to impress them by portraying Jim as a hero who rescues Kevin.
InGrand Traverse County, Michigan, wedding preparations are underway, despite mishaps: when Jim's shaved pubic hair is sucked into a kitchen vent which destroys the wedding cake, his grandmother expresses dislike for Michelle not being Jewish, and Stifler accidentally feeds the wedding ring to a dog. Cadence admits she likes Stifler but questions if he is pretending to be different around her.
After Cadence agrees to sleep with Stifler, he steals a bottle of champagne from the kitchen, inadvertently turning off the cold room and killing the wedding flowers within. Jim and Michelle demand he leaves, supported by Cadence, who has learned of his true personality and intentions.
Feeling guilty, Stifler works through the night to convince the florist to put together new floral displays, and enlists the help of his high school football team players and Bear. Seeing the new display, Michelle and Jim forgive Stifler, and Cadence reconciles with him, seeing he does genuinely care about his friends, and agrees to have sex with him in a supply closet before the wedding.
Stifler is delayed by Jim, who thanks him, Finch, and Kevin for their help and support over the years. Unaware that Cadence was also delayed, Stifler enters the dark closet and has sex with someone, revealed to be Jim's grandmother, who was put there by ushers because of her unlikable personality. Jim's grandmother becomes more pleasant afterward to the delight of Jim's dad and Michelle.
Struggling to convey her feelings through her vows, Michelle asks Jim's dad for help. He explains that love is not just a feeling, but the actions they do for each other; she happily thanks and calls him dad.
Michelle and Jim get married and share their first dance together, privately acknowledging their shared awkwardness and perversions that make them perfect for each other. Stifler dances with Cadence, while the rejected Finch sits alone until Stifler's mom arrives. Though agreeing they are over each other following their previous trysts,[a] they both retire to her room.
The outdoor wedding scene was filmed at theRitz-Carlton Half Moon Bay nearSan Francisco.[6]
The film's soundtrack includes songs byVan Morrison,Blue October,The Working Title,Foo Fighters,Feeder,Avril Lavigne,American Hi-Fi,Sum 41, theAll-American Rejects,Joseph Arthur,New Found Glory, andHot Action Cop.Everclear,Badly Drawn Boy andThe 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 bandJames) 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.
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 asVan Morrison's recording, but midway through it changes toThe Wallflowers' cover version due to licensing reasons.[citation needed] The band's lead singerJakob Dylan is the brother of the film's director Jesse Dylan.
The film's soundtrack peaked at number 23 on theBillboard 200 chart.[7]
| American Wedding | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Soundtrack album by Various Artists | ||||
| Released | August 1, 2003 | |||
| Genre | Pop punk,alternative rock | |||
| Length | 1:00:13 | |||
| Label | Uptown/Universal | |||
| Various Artists chronology | ||||
| ||||
| No. | Title | Performed by | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Times Like These" | Foo Fighters | 4:26 |
| 2. | "The Anthem" | Good Charlotte | 2:55 |
| 3. | "Forget Everything" | New Found Glory | 2:33 |
| 4. | "The Hell Song" | Sum 41 | 3:19 |
| 5. | "Swing, Swing" | The All-American Rejects | 3:54 |
| 6. | "I Don't Give" | Avril Lavigne | 3:37 |
| 7. | "Laid" | Matt Nathanson | 3:03 |
| 8. | "The Art of Losing" | American Hi-Fi | 3:22 |
| 9. | "Fever for the Flava" | Hot Action Cop | 4:03 |
| 10. | "Give Up the Grudge" | Gob | 2:58 |
| 11. | "Bouncing Off The Walls" | Sugarcult | 2:22 |
| 12. | "Come Back Around" | Feeder | 3:12 |
| 13. | "Any Other Girl" | NU | 3:23 |
| 14. | "Beloved" | The Working Title | 4:28 |
| 15. | "Calling You" | Blue October | 3:58 |
| 16. | "Honey and the Moon" | Joseph Arthur | 4:44 |
| 17. | "Into the Mystic" | The Wallflowers (Van Morrison cover) | 3:39 |
Songs that appear during Stifler's dance in thegay bar:
Songs that appear during the bachelor party:
American Wedding was released in the United States on August 1, 2003.
American Wedding premiered onDVD andVHS on January 2, 2004.[8] It grossed $15.85 million on DVD and was the number seven DVD rental in 2004.[9]
American Wedding opened at #1 at the box office with $33,369,440.[10] It dropped by 53.7% the next weekend, landing at #3 behind the new releases ofS.W.A.T. andFreaky Friday.[11][12] 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 thanAmerican Reunion would in 2012.
American Wedding received mixed reviews from critics.Rotten Tomatoes, areview aggregator, assigns the film a rating of 53%, based on 156 reviews, with an average rating of 5.8/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Raunchier and even more gross than the first twoAmerican Pies,American Wedding ought to please fans of the series."[5] OnMetacritic, the film has a score of 43 out of 100, based on 34 critics, which indicates "mixed or average" reviews.[13] Audiences polled byCinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale.[14]
Robert Koeler ofVariety compared it to the works ofJohn Waters and called it a "strong finish" for the franchise.[15]Roger Ebert rated it 3/4 stars and wrote that the film "is proof of the hypothesis that no genre is beyond redemption."[16] Elvis Mitchell ofThe New York Times wrote that the film "struggles so hard to be tasteless that it's almost quaint."[17]Mick LaSalle of theSan Francisco Chronicle rated it 2/5 stars and called it strained and desperate to find jokes.[18]
Wins
Nominations
In October 2008, a fourth theatricalAmerican Pie film was greenlit byUniversal Pictures.[19] The film entered pre-production in April 2010.[20] Despite being absent fromWedding, lead ensemble cast members Chris Klein, Mena Suvari, Tara Reid, Shannon Elizabeth, and Natasha Lyonne all signed on to return for the fourth installment.[21][22]
The film, titledAmerican Reunion, was released on April 6, 2012. Klein, Suvari, and Reid all had lead ensemble roles, whilst Lyonne and Elizabeth had cameo appearances.
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