National Lampoon has a long and storied history originating with a humour magazine at Harvard. In the 1970’s thy branched out into film and scored a huge hit in Animal House, still widely considered on of the best comedies ever made. While no other film rose to that level of success, for the next ten years National Lampoon put out a run of films in theatres and video (most notably the Chevy Chase “Vacation” series) establishing the brand as reliably entertaining. Since about 2003 National Lampoon moved to mostly a distribution model, acquiring third party concepts and even completed films and then slapping on the National Lampoon name and throwing out on video. This means that not only has the output dramatically increased, but the quality it much more varied. Walk into any video store now, and there will probably be four or five National Lampoon movies in the new release section alone (IMDB lists 30 movies since 2003). They almost all follow the teen sex comedy model, and look uniformly low budget and mediocre-to-bad.
One the other side we have American Pie, a 1999 Universal Pictures film that surprised everyone by earning over $100 Million domestic, one of the highest grosses ever for an R rated film. Throughout the 1990’s teen comedies had been neutered as studios did not think they could make any money with adult ratings (I recall specifically on the Can’t Hardly Wait commentary the creators said they were forced to change significantly for a PG-13), and American Pie turned that perception on its head. As with everything in Hollywood, if it makes money, it gets a sequel. American Pie got two – both performing extremely well and also managed to be good movies. And then I was surprised – they put out direct-to-video movies, only tenuously related to the original trilogy. The first, Band Camp say Stifler’s brother at Band Camp. The next, Naked Mile, has Stifler’s cousin (see a pattern?) going to visit some university. I find it extremely interesting that Stifler (Seann William Scott) in the first movie was ostensibly the villain, but so popular that he became more and more ingrained in subsequent films to the point his character history becomes the focus of the spin-offs.
I’m not morally offended by these direct-to-video releases, and I understand that brand recognition automatically moves units regardless of quality, but it just makes me sad to see a quality trilogy stretched out into irrelevance. So, with that absurdly long introduction, let’s get into American Pie Presents: The Naked Mile.
I’m a big believer in pedigree for films – looking at who’s behind it and their past work to evaluate expectations and relative quality. On that note, I want to look at those behind this most recent effort compared to the original.
Technically Naked Mile has two writers, although Adam Herz (the original American Pie writer) is credited only with characters. I think it’s interesting to see where people have gone since that huge first hit. Here’s a side by side comparison of the primary creators of the first and latest film:
Paul Weitz | Joe Nussbaum | Erik Lindsay | Adam Herz |
|---|---|---|---|
Director | Director | Writer | Writer |
Cirque du Freak (2008) (pre-production) | B.F.F. (2009) (pre-production) | American Pie Presents: Beta House (2007) (V) (completed) | American Pie Presents: Beta House (2007) (V) (completed) |
American Dreamz (2006) | Sydney White (2007) | American Pie Presents: The Naked Mile (2006) (V) | American Pie Presents: The Naked Mile (2006) (V) |
In Good Company (2004) | American Pie Presents: The Naked Mile (2006) (V) | American Pie Presents Band Camp (2005) (V) (characters) | |
"Cracking Up" (1 episode, 2004) Pilot (2004) TV Episode | Sleepover (2004) | American Wedding (2003) (characters) (written by) | |
About a Boy (2002) | George Lucas in Love | American Pie 2 (2001) (characters) (screenplay) (story) | |
Down to Earth (2001) | "Go Fish" (2001) TV Series (unknown episodes) | ||
American Pie (1999) | American Pie (1999) (written by) | ||
+ Producer on 8 others |
Looking at Herz and Weitz is fascinating. The director took his success and went on to direct five completely different movies and produce others. Herz wrote the entire trilogy (and there’s certainly nothing wrong with that) and then…well I guess just decided to spend his money for a while. I hope he at least did something really frivolous and decadent. As for Naked Mile, it’s not unusual at all to have newcomers tackle these kinds of projects, but even here we see the director move on and the writer keep going back to the same well. A final interesting note is George Lucas in Love was a short film Nussbaum produced and released himself that got enough buzz to get him a real job.
Ok, I’ve been putting this off long enough – it’s time to talk about the film. The film is Awful.
Fine…details. Let’s start with plot, shall we? Some loser high school kid has a girlfriend that won’t sleep with him and an invitation to go to a nearby college for the weekend of their annual Naked Mile event. This is based on a real tradition at University of Michigan. Loser high school kid Erik and some friends head up there, but not before his well-meaning girlfriend gives him a “guilt-free” pass. She’s not ready to sleep with him, but doesn’t want him to leave her for someone that will. She regrets this decision immediately but cannot reach him to revoke it. Does anyone see where this is going? At the college Erik hooks up with his cousin Dwight, king of the most awesomest frat in town. Forced wackiness ensues…mostly drinking related. Erik meets a hot girl, starts to fall for her but must decide about his girlfriend back home. Meanwhile his girlfriend Tracy is being convinced to sleep with a guy back home, since Erik is likely doing the same.
I’m not sure why, but I won’t reveal the dramatic ending where everyone learns something about themselves and lives happily ever after – or do they? What is important about a movie like are the bits…and this movie has bits. Not funny bits, but bits. In the car on the way there someone urinates on someone, which was edgier and funnier when it happened in American Pie 2. There an interminable football sequence against a frat of midgets, which I really don’t know what to think of. One the one hand there isn’t a lot of work for little people, and most of the jokes made at their expense managed to make the other party look like the bad guy. However, their entire presence in the movie seemed to rely on the “ha ha they’re midgets but badasses” premise. Maybe it’s similar to post-feminist feminism where some women would own their sexuality to use it to their advantage or be just as sexually liberal as men traditionally have the right to be. I also liked that they were the villain rather than purely the visual gag. So I guess, regarding the little person appropriateness question, I’m going with – just this side of inappropriate but not definitely not very funny. Unless of course my motive guesses are incorrect and they just thought midgets were funny – but I’m big on benefit of the doubt.
I’m a bit sketchy on much of the rest because it wasn’t funny. The third act involves the naked run itself, and there is certainly a lot of naked. I hate supposedly sexy movies that don’t deliver on promised nudity. One of Erik’s ongoing character traits is irritable bowels when nervous – he defecates in a clothes dryer early in the film. One of Erik’s friends gets the sexual tables turned on him at the “big party” because strap-ons and sore butts are Always hilarious. My main problem with jokes like that is that there is potential for funny, but the loaded winking gay panic aspect of laughing just at the situation itself is troubling. Absolutely nothing else in the film is memorably worth mentioning, and I just watched it yesterday. The less said about Eugene Levy collecting a paycheck the better.
Verdict – avoid at all costs and check online for the good bits if so inclined.
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