Guess who's back-back, back again-gain-gain, Stifler's back-back tell a friend-friend!
Do you remember when Jim violated an apple pie? Do you remember when Stifler's Mom was the hottest thing around? Do you remember the amazing life pep talks from Jim's Dad? Do you remember this one time at band camp?
If you don't then, I'm not gonna lie, I am a little bit disappointed. As disgraceful as it may be to older generations the American Pie movies (as horrific as they may be from an analytical approach) played a major part in our lives growing up. From 1999 onwards teenagers were on the floor laughing at the cringe-worthy antics of these American high school students with Jim being the butt of everyone's jokes.
Let's hear it for the boys! Kevin, Jim, Oz, Finch and of course the legen-wait for it-dary Stifler are all set to go back to school this spring as the latest instalment of the franchise hits our screens on May 2nd 2012 (UK release date) with all of our favourite faces from the 1999 classic (Chris Klein who plays Oz did not appear in the third film - American Wedding). The film
written and directed by Jon Wurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg basically is what it says on the tin - the class of '99 return to East Great Falls for their High School Reunion ten years after they left. Jim (Jason Biggs) is still married to band
geek Michelle (Alyson Hannigan aka Lily from the successful sitcom How I Met Your Mother) but they're suffering a severe sexual slump after becoming new parents. The video of Nadia (Shannon Elizabeth) and Jim has made him a Youtube sensation and his next door neighbour develops a crush on him. Oz has found fame as a sportscaster on an NFL show and has moved to Malibu after appearing on a televised dance competition however he and Heather (the beautiful Mena Suvari) have split up since we last saw them in American Pie 2 (2001) and have not spoken to each other in quite some time - drama alert! According to reports, Suvari found this the most compelling elements of the plot of The Reunion film;
"I liked how it didn't just go into the reunion with the obvious (plot of) Heather and Oz being together. I liked that twist" she said. "I also really enjoyed how they gave Heather this moment of breaking out of her shell and really sticking up for herself and showing this different side of her. That was really refreshing." Mena Suvari to reporters.
Not much has been revealed about Kevin (Thomas Ian Nicholas) or Finch (Eddie Kaye Thomas) except for the fact that Kevin is now married and works from home as an architect and Finch has still got an incredible way with the ladies. However, he may have met his match in the lovely Selena, "the ugly duckling nobody noticed in high school who has since grown into a beautiful swan", who is played by Dania Ramirez who gave an outstanding performance in Season Two of hit tv series Heroes as the vulnerable yet lethal Maya.
However, the question on everyone's minds is, "What's new with The Stifmeister?" The last we saw of Stifler he was a semi-changed man (a closet scene with Jim's Grandmother in American Wedding made his transformation to 'nice guy Steve' incomplete) and was dating Michelle's younger sister Cadence (Mad Men's superstar January Jones). However, this time around Steve (strictly comedy actor Seann William Scott) is rumoured to be unlucky in love and struggling with work as a temp. Stifler has always had a little trouble fitting in solely down to the fact that he can at times, i.e all the time, be a bit of a douche. Even to his friends - he put laxatives in Finch's 'moccachino' in American Pie which led to an embarrassingly gross incident in the ladies loo's of their school. In an interview with Seann William Scott he says that when he returned to his home town after the first film some people he had grown up with still had "a hard time differentiating between reality and the film."
He does have that same crude sense of humour but nowadays who doesn't? Despite being one of the more successful actors to come out of American Pie and despite a couple of stints in rehab (come on an actor in rehab hardly a shocker any more!) he has remained down-to-earth, humble and sort of like the guy next door. He was voted Homecoming King at his Prom and was also voted 'Most Friendly' in his yearbook which he jokes about in an article in Glamour Magazine. So what can we expect from Stifler in the new movie? Well definitely more hilarity and I'm personally rooting for another romantic interest (albeit I'm rather sad it's not me..)
Who should we expect to see at the reunion? Well look out for old favourites such as Vicky (Tara Reid) and Jessica (Natasha Lyonne) as well as cameos from unforgettable classmates, exchange student Nadia (Shannon Elizabeth), dorky Chuck Sherman aka ' The Shermanator' (Chris Owen) and the guy who coined the term MILF i.e. John (John Cho of Star Trek (2009) and the Harold & Kumar films). Basically just about the entire cast of the first film plus a few new faces (Katrina Bowden, Neil Patrick Harris, Vik Sahay, Ali Cobrin, Jay Harrington and Charlene Amoia.) Should be quite interesting to see how each of the characters have evolved since the last time we saw them.
The film also sees the return of old favourites such as the legend that is Jim's Dad (funny-man Eugene Levy) and 'the absolute MILF' Stifler's Mom (played by the unforgettable Jennifer Coolidge). Levy is the only character to appear in all three original films (American Pie, American Pie 2 and American Wedding) and all four direct-to-dvd spin-offs (American Pie: Band Camp, American Pie: The Naked Mile, American Pie: Beta House and American Pie: The Book of Love).
It's no secret that there was some initial hesitation from some members of the cast to film another movie - especially after the spin-offs had not been well received. There was the fear that it would not be good enough to maintain the integrity of the original trilogy. In an interview, Jason Biggs stated;
"I think with each sequel we did, OK, we might have digressed a bit in (American Pie) 2 or 3 but I feel we still did a good job... But you don't want to do the one that sinks the franchise because people don't like it."
Seann William Scott, Jason Biggs and Chris Klein have all managed to maintain rather high-profile film careers (obviously at differing levels) whereas, Eddie Kaye Thomas and Thomas Ian Nicholas only pop up occasionally on screen in TV programmes. The leading ladies of the series have also had a tough time of it. Natasha Lyonne tottered through a decade of drug and alcohol related issues and Tara Reid became a tabloid favourite for her outrageous public behaviour. Mena Suvari has been more successful although some critics argue that her peak was in 1999 which saw her star in both American Pie and the academy award winning American Beauty. 
Although she has had minor parts in more recent films such as Rumour Has It (2005) alongside the incredibly talented Jennifer Aniston and Shirley MacLaine, Domino (2005) alongside Miss Keira Knightley, Factory Girl (2006) with Sienna Miller and romantic comedy You May Not Kiss The Bride (2011) alongside Katherine McPhee and Kathy Bates. 
However, the real shining star of the American Pie trilogy is Alyson Hannigan who people across the world have fallen in love with as Marshall Eriksen's (Jason Segel) wife Lily Aldrin in the CBS worldwide star How I Met Your Mother which is currently in its seventh season with an eighth confirmed!
The real answer to which actor/actress is the most successful is really all down to those all important figures that the producers of American Pie: The Reunion will put into their bank accounts! Hollywood Reporter provides a breakdown of all those big numbers I think we'd all love to see on our payslips..
For starters, a little background into the production of the $50million film, production was moved to Georgia to cleverly abuse the advantage of a generous tax credit. Reportedly, Universal is forking out a pretty impressive $5million each to Seann William Scott and Jason Biggs (plus a small slice of first-dollar gross pie) to reprise their roles putting them in joint first. Alyson Hannigan comes in closely at joint second place with Eugene Levy with a cheeky wee estimated $3million. 
The rest of the cast (including Chris Klein, Eddie Kaye Thomas, Thomas Ian Nicholas, Natasha Lyonne, Jennifer Coolidge, Mena Suvari and Shannon Elizabeth) are all reported to be paid far less, with most in the $500,000 - $700,000 region - still quite a nice little lift in the old bank I reckon. Coming in at last place is Tara Reid who is rumoured to have agreed to join the film for a measly $250,000 (well not really measly to you or I but compared to her co-stars..)Well I don't know about you but I will definitely be going to see it when it comes to our screens on May 2nd (April 6th USA and Australia release) and more than likely (whether it's horrific, mediocre or brilliant - I'm hoping for the latter) I will still buy the DVD to complete my set of American Pies. I think the films (despite how terrible they must seem compared to epics such as Titanic and The Hurt Locker) were really quite important in defining particular aspects of film. For example, it was one of the first few 'gross-out films' which now fill our screens (The Change Up and The Hangover for example) but aspects of the film are quite on-par with the youth of today... To keep up-to-date follow the official American Pie:The Reunion on Twitter - their tweets are actually really quite funny at times! (https://twitter.com/#!/AmericanPie)
Watch the official trailer here - as you can probably guess Jim's back to his old sock habits...
Hope to see you all at the Cinema!
