Christopher McDonald – Tripping Through Gateways

This continues the story of Erik Stifler. And the Stifler-centric nature of things continues to not favor the franchise. This film hammers home what crappy people the Stifler Family Tree is…it appears almost every branch is rotten. Erik’s biggest struggle in life is not living up to the Stifler name. He is not good at partying or getting laid. Early in the film, his father (Christopher McDonald) provides a list of all the women he has had sex with. Erik is startled to see the list does not end with his mom. Cause nothing is good for a laugh like implying he is a terrible husband. Erik’s friend even notices his mom’s name is on the list. The Stiflers are terrible people. Why does Erik want to measure up to that? But he has no girlfriend now, so he can have a romantic interest at college in his co-ed dorms.

He joins his cousin Dwight in the Beta House and this is where the real sto-oh who am I kidding. There is no “Real Story”. It is just more cheap excuses for nudity, because that is all that happens at frat houses according to movies.

The loose plot is how the Beta House Frat Bros are being threatened by the powerful Nerds on campus. Seriously.

The film lacks any strong jokes, and at this point, I am embarrassed for Eugene Levy, and Mr. Levenstein’s strongest traits are missing entirely from the film. The film simply recycles gags from a variety of frat movie stereotypes, and reversing the Revenge of the Nerds dynamic is not creative enough to make the story remotely fresh.

Again, the same criticisms of Naked Mile appear here. It has the same problematic treatment of it’s female characters. They are empty and are used primarily for titillation. The guys only fare slightly better in that they are absurd stereotypes of college guys.

So, the Franchise continues, and it moves into full focus on the Stifler family. Not the Stiflers we know and put up with…but Steve and Matt’s cousin Erik (John White). Erik is trying to get his girlfriend Tracy (Jessy Schram) to give up her virginity. But Erik has a problem. He is not a total jerk like his cousins. He actually likes his girlfriend. But not so much that when she gives him a free pass for a weekend he does not refuse to take advantage of it.

He and his buddies are about to graduate so they go to visit a college campus. There they hang out with Erik’s popular crazy Frat living cousin Dwight (Steve Talley). They stay at the Beta House, meet women and have all sorts of shenanigans culminating in the Naked Mile. Which was started decades before as a form of protest by Jim’s Dad ,Mr. Levenstein. He still runs it, but now it is an excuse to see attractive women run the campus naked and have a huge frat party afterwards.

Which all leads to Erik realizing how much he loves Tracy and does not care if she is not ready to have sex. He is totally cool with waiting if that is what she needs. Don’t worry, his new found respect won’t have to hold out long. Because in the American Pie Cinematic Universe, as soon as you realize that sex is not quite the thing you made it out to be, you have cracked the “Get Sex Code”.

The thing is, the goal of Stiflers is to be complete jerks and this switch to focusing on them over relatives of, say Jim and Michelle or something means the film lacks heart. The purpose of most of the women are to be hot objects. They seem to have no actual goals or personalities beyond being “sexy and free” to high school kids visiting college. And I am pretty sure that no actress with a no nudity clause got through. The Guys pretend to be naked, but the women do not even get the benefit of creatively hidden but implied nudity. This is because many of the jokes surround things like seeing a running girl’s breasts bouncing. That is the level of humor in the film, which, may surprise some to learn is below the standards of the franchise. In the early films, they were at least attempting to be clever with the sex jokes.

The film embraces the biggest problems of Band Camp. The raunchiness is unpleasant and does not result in anything resembling humor. The film has no true heart or center. Director Joe Nussbaum had a hit with a short film called George Lucas in Love, but manages none of the originality in this film.

Tag: Christopher McDonald

Baked Goods Part 6 (American Pie Presents Beta House, 2007)

Baked Goods Part 5 (American Pie Presents the Naked Mile, 2006)