By Tricia Olszewski
Michelle, the bride of American Wedding, didn't have to worry about procuring something blue for her big day. Like its predecessors, American Pies I and II, the film is all about balls-out bawdiness. Wedding reunites the majority of the cast from the earlier flicks to make two of the happy humpers respectable: Pie lover Jim (Jason Biggs) and band-geek-***-nympho Michelle (Alyson Hannigan) are getting married, and best pals Kevin (Thomas Ian Nicholas), Finch (Eddie Kaye Thomas), and Stifler (Seann William Scott) are there to support.
Even with new director Jesse Dylan (How High) at the wheel, the movie hums along much like its predecessors, with humor almost exclusively of the humiliation (Jim can't even groom himself without the world finding out) or gross-out variety (Stifler's continuing ingestion of unfortunate substances takes just the progression you suspected). The first half wavers slightly in tone with the appearance of Stifler: Whereas battles between the irresponsible Stifmeister and the others were previously innocuous bickering, a deeper resentment seems to be present here, with no one wanting him a part of the celebration and the usual curse-laced name-calling taking an angry edge—which, to borrow his word, blows.
But the movie soon rights itself with a relatively inspired script move—having Stifler play the intelligent sophisticate to win the heart of Michelle's sister, Cadence (January Jones), forcing a similarly swooning Finch to adopt the party-boy personality, and giving both actors a welcome change in repertoire. The creators of the series like to crow about all the heart that lies beneath the smut, and Wedding winds up feeling very warm and fuzzy indeed, with lots of pep talks and discussions about love. No one ever loses her inner freak, though, even when the bride is struggling to write her wedding vows: "Love isn't just a feeling," she squeals. "It's shaving your balls!"