Wash it down with milk

You’re going to need a tall glass of milk to wash down this third slice of the “American… You’re going to need a tall glass of milk to wash down this third slice of the “American Pie” series. Still full of raunchy humor and gross-out gags, the plot in “American Wedding” is quite thin and often seems contrived just to produce laughs.

As with the first two films, the movie wastes no time in placing Jim (Jason Biggs) in an embarrassing situation. About to propose to nympho band-geek Michelle (Alyson Hannigan), he realizes he doesn’t have the ring. But not to worry. His Dad, funnyman Eugene Levy, is on the way to rescue his son once again.

When Jim’s unassuming dad arrives at the restaurant, he is unaware that Michelle is being naughty under the table. The comedy is heightened when Jim stands up, his pants around his ankles, and tries to control the situation. Seeming to have grown accustomed to public embarrassment, Jim finally pops the question, Michelle accepts, and so the story begins.

Jim’s high school pals Finch (Eddie Kaye Thomas) and Kevin (Thomas Ian Nicholas) are there to help him through the wedding preparations. Buddy “Oz,” played by Chris Klein, is absent from this film. But as the engagement party gets underway and the Levinsteins meet the Flahertys, the focus shifts from Jim and Michelle to everyone’s favorite crude and lewd loud mouth, Steve Stifler (Seann William Scott), who shows up as an uninvited guest thinking it’s a graduation party for Jim.

Ruffling his friends’ feathers with his crass behavior and macho attitude, he unexpectedly dons a boy-next-door persona complete with a sweater over the shoulders as he enters into an amusing competition with Finch to win Michelle’s sister Cadence (January Jones). Laughs ensue as Stifler discusses philosophy and Finch flashes the moon out the car window.

Stifler takes charge of much of the laughter as he throws a bachelor party, is put in charge of Michelle’s wedding ring, has a rendezvous with Jim’s grandmother, and unwittingly goes to a gay bar. After offending everyone around him at the bar, including the wedding dress designer; he enters into a dance-off with a hulk of a man, named Bear. Shaking his stuff with the overconfidence of the “Stiffmeister,” he begins to win the hearts and smiles of both the bar crowd and the audience.

While, in the first two “American Pie” movies, we loved to hate Stifler and were glad when the jerk ingested different bodily fluids – not to worry, there’s a similar gag here as well – in this movie his character evolves into something more than the macho, sexist pig of the earlier “Pies.” He becomes a team player, and we find that, despite his vulgarity, or maybe because of it, we’re rooting for Stifler to come out on top of the situation. After all, he just needs someone to love him, right?

Seann William Scott plays his character over the top, as we’ve come to expect, and keeps the energy high throughout the entire movie. All of the actors do a fine job with their roles. Eugene Levy doesn’t disappoint as Jim’s advice-giving, ever-understanding father. And Jason Biggs still does a great job with the charmingly awkward Jim, this time finding himself in embarrassing situations ranging from dance lessons to interacting with in-laws to a new grooming tactic for his wedding night.

While the movie is fun, enjoyable and still shocks with elements of vulgar and scatological humor, bestiality and much more, it can’t overcome its weak plot and, at times, it becomes nothing more than gag after gag feebly strung together. But if you liked the two “American Pies,” you’ll most likely enjoy the awkward situations and raunchy jokes of “American Wedding.”