American Pie 2 (R, 2001)

AMERICAN PIE 2 takes place a year after the first movie ends, as guys are finishing their first year in college and reuniting for what they hope will be a wild summer. Oz (Chris Klein) is devoted to his girlfriend (Mena Suvari), who is in Europe for the summer. Finch (Eddie Kaye Thomas) spends the summer preparing to Stifler's mom (Jennifer Coolidge) again by learning about tantric sex. Kevin (Thomas Ian Nicholas), who could not bring himself to say "I love you" to his girlfriend (Tara Reid) in the first movie, is surprised to find that he is hurt and even a little lost to find out that she has moved on. Jim, who was never able to get together with exchange student Nadia (Shannon Elizabeth) in the first movie, is overjoyed to hear that she will be coming to visit him at the end of the summer. His top priority is to become more expert in bed, so he visits the "band camp geek" he had sex with in the first movie to get some pointers. Only Stifler (Seann William Scott) continues to act unrestrained, and even so, the closest he gets to having sex is when two women trick him into kissing Jim by promising to have sex with each other and let him watch. As in the first movie, it ends with one big night in which each of the characters more or less gets what he was looking for.

Teenagers will want to see this movie because it is raunchy and gross. But like the original, the gross and raunchy moments, though frequent, are less important than the movie's core sensibility, which is sweetly old-fashioned. Let's be very clear: It very, very, raunchy and very, very, gross, with references to every kind of humiliation, sexual act, and bodily function. No one will call it wholesome. However, in the end, almost every sexual encounter is in a context of respect and sincere affection.

This is not a particularly good movie, but it is not a particularly bad one, either. It deserves some credit for treating its female characters like real people comfortable with their own sexuality, practically revolutionary for movies of this genre, and for completely avoiding the usual sitcom-style painfully artificial mix-ups and misunderstandings. And there are some very funny moments, especially those featuring Eugene Levy as Jim's magnificently unhip but understanding and loving father.