The Stiff One Will Rise

It’s fair to say that when it was announced that the American Pie series was getting a direct-to-video continuation (I hesitate to say a direct sequel, and most sources tend to call it a spin-off series now), hopes were not exactly high. While there were certainly a lot of characters and locations that could play host to storylines within the, let’s say, Pieverse, there were certain things that were key to the American Pie films that wouldn’t translate well to other films. The series was built on four characters – Jim, Kevin, Oz, and Finch – and while that number had gotten pared back in the third film, American Wedding (no one missed you, Oz), the film also found greater insight by focusing on the relationship between Jim and Michelle. Would it really feel like an American Pie film without Jim and/or Michelle?

Beyond that, the spin-off film that was proposed, American Pie Presents: Band Camp, was designed to highlight a character we’d barely seen, Steve Stifler’s little brother Matt (originally played in the first two films by Eli Marienthal, but recast for this new movie into Tad Hilgenbrink). The concept of a film all about a Stifler would seem like a bridge too far, frankly. It’s like TV shows taking one-note characters people loved and spinning them out into their own shows that no one asked for. No one was clamoring for a Happy Days spin-off focusing on Fonzie's younger cousin, Chachi, and the poor ratings for the show proved that. Giving a Stifler – and not even the main Stifler, Steve – a film seemed like a losing proposition on paper.

And, let’s be clear, this wasn’t even my first time attempting to watch this film. Back when the movie came out direct-to-video I rented a copy from my local Blockbuster just to try and give it a shot. The opening scenes were so bad, so poorly acted, that I turned it off in the first five minutes. This wasn’t a “proper” American Pie film, I thought, so why even bother? Now, though, I can better force myself to sit through crappy material, and because of that what I discovered is that this film isn’t nearly as bad as I expected even if it does struggle to hold on to any residual goodwill from the main American Pie films.

At the start of the film, young Matt (Hilgenbrink) discusses with his buddies how he wants to follow in his older brother’s footsteps. Steve (never seen in this film) has gone off to become an adult film producer, making his own version of Girls Gone Wild-style videos. Matt, thinking himself a proper Stifler in the image of his brother, wants to do the same, but Steve never gives him the go-ahead to do his own productions for the family business, and this makes Matt sad. He wants to be a Stifmeister, but he doesn’t know how to earn it.

During graduation for the outgoing class of seniors, Matt and his buddies play a prank on the school band. They coat their instruments with pepper spray, leading to the band members having to stop playing part way into the graduation march. Steve is caught red-handed (and bare assed, for reasons that can only happen in an American Pie movie) and, as punishment from the guidance counselor, Chuck “The Shermanator” Sherman (Chris Owen), Matt has to make it up to the band he picked on by following them to Band Camp. Of course, while Matt hates it there, inevitably he gets wrapped up in their slobs vs. slobs storyline, and finds a girl he can fall in love with, because Summer is magical and no matter what stupid shit you do in one of these movies, including illegally filming girls while they’re showering all so you can make your own Girls Gone Wild-style videos, everyone will forgive you in the end.

To be clear, there are major issues with American Pie Presents: Band Camp, but before we get into those problems I do want to highlight what works. While the opening scenes of the film are pretty rough, with bad acting and a truly stupid setup to the plot, the film finds its groove within the first act. After that point, it works better, doing a low grade riff on your standard Meatballs or Stripes narrative. I know that saying, “well, the acting wasn’t truly awful,” isn’t exactly high praise, but considering I originally shut this film off after five minutes because of the bad acting, the fact that it could find its footing at all is a big mark up for this movie.

The film also has some genuine laughs within it. Not many, mind you, but some. The film isn’t anywhere near as funny as any of the previous works in the American Pie series, but there are a few gags that work, one or two lines that garnered a legitimate laugh from me, and a few situations I couldn’t help but chuckle at. Again, that’s not exactly high praise, and I understand that, but I’ve seen plenty of comedies that weren’t funny at all, so a direct-to-video film like this getting me to laugh at all shows that there was some effort put into the production at least.

And I have to credit the returning Eugene Levy who, as always, provides a bright spot in these films. The movie actually does a good job of working Levy’s Noah into the story despite that without Jim or Michelle in the film it wouldn’t seem like he has any reason to be there. The film states that Michelle was supposed to be the camp’s conflict resolution officer but because she ended up getting pregnant, she asked Noah to fill in this year. That allows Noah to show up, do his sage, awkward advice schtick, and not have it seem all that weird that he’s there. It’s a smart move for a film that could have been pretty dumb otherwise.

With all that said, there’s a few things about the film that definitely hold it back. For starters, while the film sets up a slobs vs. snobs storyline, it doesn’t really follow through on it very hard. While the film shows us that the East Great Falls High contingent at the band camp – including Arielle Kebbel's band leader, and Matt Stifler love interest, Elyse Houston – is in competition with a rival high school composed of preppy douche Brandon Vandecamp (Matt Barr) and his spoiled, rich friends, we don’t really get much in the way of competition between the factions. There are a couple of low grade pranks that feel like pale imitations of better gags in American Pie and Van Wilder, while the rest of their rivalry is burned off in one montage two-thirds of the way into the film. The storyline could work well, especially if it were the focus of the movie, but American Pie Presents: Band Camp doesn’t really have a lot of focus in its 92 minutes, despite only having one lead character and plenty of time to burn.

Most egregious, though, is that Girls Gone Wild video storyline. Matt buys a bunch of spy cameras and, with the help of his robotics-genius roommate, Ernie Kaplowitz (Jason Earles), Matt gets his recording equipment up and running and gets plenty of footage of various girls getting naked and doing sexual things, all without their consent. He gets caught late in the film, but charges aren’t pressed against him, and he’s sent away from the camp on the day everyone else goes home anyway. He’s not even punished at school since, for a time, he managed to bond with the band campers. He was threatened with expulsion if he didn’t change his ways, but that threat isn’t followed upon, and Matt gets to continue living his life, scot free.

In fairness to the character he does decide, on his own, to delete all the footage he took, but that doesn’t absolve him for what he did. Technically he never even apologizes to anyone for his actions. He makes a grand gesture for Elyse, unrelated to the fact that he filmed her in the shower, and she forgives him so they can kiss and be in love and whatever else comes next. Like with the original American Pie, this spin-off doesn’t seem to understand how illegal his actions were. It has a “boys will be boys” attitude about the whole thing, which downplays how violated all the girls should feel, and how many crimes he actually committed. Hell, it lets him destroy all the evidence, so I guess nothing will ever come from that now.

In the end I have major issues with this film, all down to its plotting. The movie does manage to even things out for most of its run, and it has genuine moments where I like the characters and enjoy the scene as they are presented. But a morally gross character doing whatever he wants and essentially getting away with it in the end really does ruin this film. There were better ways the film could have handled this character, and his actions, without making him a creepy asshole that should rot in prison, but it didn’t go that route, and that makes this film a hard pass if I were to ever want to watch all these films again.