It's very easy for a sequel to be better than the original, if the original is only mediocre comedy filled with lots of gross-out gags. Even so, I went into AP2 expecting an even more mediocre version of the first. And I was very pleasantly surprised.
Granted, it's not high art. It's still a movie about 5 guys trying to get laid. But it's a much funnier version than the first, and even though the trailers seemed to be planting tongue firmly in cheek by referring to AP2 as a film about friendship, the movie actually did provide a sense of deeper meaning that was completely absent in the first.
Obviously, this film doesn't run very deep, but American Pie 2 even throws in a potentially tear-jerking scene and the director actually strives to make the audience feel for the characters. Most summer movies don't even go that far.
Although it didn't have to do much to surpass American Pie, AP2 is not only one of the surprisingly better movies of the summer, it is also one of the few sequels to blow the original away.
9/10
Granted, it's not high art. It's still a movie about 5 guys trying to get laid. But it's a much funnier version than the first, and even though the trailers seemed to be planting tongue firmly in cheek by referring to AP2 as a film about friendship, the movie actually did provide a sense of deeper meaning that was completely absent in the first.
Obviously, this film doesn't run very deep, but American Pie 2 even throws in a potentially tear-jerking scene and the director actually strives to make the audience feel for the characters. Most summer movies don't even go that far.
Although it didn't have to do much to surpass American Pie, AP2 is not only one of the surprisingly better movies of the summer, it is also one of the few sequels to blow the original away.
9/10