all those who were offended by there's something about mary should not tread in the waters of american pie , a gratuitously sexual rollercoaster ride of raunch . and while this uproariously funny , gross-out summer movie is basically an exercise in bad taste , it also demonstrates a surprising sweetness in the end . american pie is the latest entry to the offensive teenage-targeted fare this season . i must question the studio that releases a movie like this . the producers are aiming these films at the 15-24 crowd , but while pushing the limit of possible sex and violence in an r-rated film . some have even been narrowly avoiding the dreaded nc-17 , a rating the mpaa gives when the adult content surpasses even that of a restricted movie . american pie was threatened with an nc-17 , but after snipping a few scenes from the finished product , it was given an r . but at least this new addition is not as careless and unforgiving as something like south park . it is sick , perverse , and ultimately disgusting - not to mention extremely funny . american pie is about four desperate teenagers who make a pact to lose their virginity by prom night . jim ( jason biggs ) , kevin ( thomas ian nicholas ) , oz ( chris klein ) and finch ( eddie kaye thomas ) are a quartet of high school students in their senior year who think sex is something they must experience to be successful in their lives ahead . jim inquires what it feels like when you reach third base , to which one of his friends replies : `like warm apple pie . . . ' . of course , this prompts the scene unfairly exposed in the trailers , in which jim and a freshly baked pie have a very intimate moment in the kitchen corner . there are many moments , such as this , in which director paul weitz uses a game-plan similar to the one frequently displayed in mary : to cause the audience to break down laughing in disgusting disbelief . american pie is a hard-fought effort that has replenishing rewards if you manage to stick with it . i loved the young cast in this movie . consider the subject matter that these actors have dealt with , obviously suggestiveness never rivaled in any of their previous projects , and you should appreciate their performances . biggs is more than enjoyable , and chris klein ( who recently played a similar jock in election ) is obviously a young talent on the rise . but in a teen-dominated movie , the best performance comes from comedian eugene levy ( of television's sctv ) , who is unexpectedly brilliant as jim's uneasy father . scenes in which the familiar father-son conversations are brought to interesting new levels are the funniest moments to be found in american pie . after levy discovers jim's new use for apple pie , he tells him , `i did a fare share of that sort of thing when i was your age . but i never used baked goods . ' it is performances such as his , and bill murray's in rushmore , that are often unfairly dismissed when awards are handed out . there are some less-than-original aspects of the film . a bathroom incident involving finch and a bottle of ex-lax is something we've seen before . if weitz is planning to take after the farrelly brothers , then this is a decidedly unwise move : the same prank was pulled in the brother's dumb and dumber , and used to greater effect . secondly , the characters are forced into a half-hearted climax that seems more artificial than amusing . but at one point , in which we discover that american pie does have a heart of it's own , biggs asks his buddies why he's going through so much pressure for something that's `not very important anyway . ' and so we realize that while the film is expressive about a subject that is hardly appropriate , it still manages to be mature . in it's own way . 
