American Pie & American Pie 2: Beneath the Crust (2003)
Review by HTQ4
DVD:

Features:

• Interviews and Behind-the-Scenes footage for both films
  

There have already been myriad versions of both American Pie and its sequel on DVD. Universal, faced with needing to get the word out about the third movie, American Wedding, came up with an interesting idea: create new bonus feature discs that both cover an original film and essentially work to promote the new movie as well, and bundle one volume each with an existing DVD of a previous film. The most succinct, although perhaps not clearest, way to put it is that both discs here are supplimental material to the supplimental material that's on the original uncut DVD releases of these movies. Got it? Good. Stay with me.

Each disc contains further information regarding some of the scenes from either film, done up like an extended featurette. For example, the first volume of Crust has interviews with the cast and crew regarding such classic bits as "The Infamous Pale Ale" and "Say My Name, Bitch." Then there's raw clips from the dailies for each. It's worth watching if for nothing else than to hear Jason Biggs talking about having sex with an apple pie, about how silly it was for him to be standing in a room with about four hundred other people while he's got his pants around his ankles and a pie mashed up against his crotch (or indeed lying down on top of the pie on the bar in the unrated version). This should not be missed. However, most adolescent boys will want to watch this for the segment called "NadiaVision". This is the interviews and shots of Shannon Elizabeth getting undressed...a lot. No, really: a lot.

The disc that covers American Pie 2 is pretty much the same format as the original. The first part is just a little bit of back story; you know, stuff like getting all of the original cast back together and writing the script. Then they focus on the scenes from the sequel...like "The Temptation of Oz" and "Finch's Great Orgasm"...most of which were deleted from the theatrical release of the movie. The best of these scenes has to be the Great Orgasm scene, but only because it's such an indication of how Hollywood works. Let me set the scene: keep in mind that they are making a silly sex humor movie for late adolescents, okay? Now, one of the characters becomes interested in tantric sex. So, what do the producers do? They send the actor in the scene to a tantra seminar for couples to study up for the scene...by himself. I have no idea why they thought that sending him to a tantric seminar would make that moment in the scene work so much better for him, especially since it just boiled down to him writhing around the set acting like he was having a very intense and long orgasm. The key word there is...say it with me...acting.

Basically, the discs are meant for fans of the film franchise. If you didn't like them, there's really nothing in here that's going to change your mind. The real question is--will fans want to go out and snag the movies all over again just to get at these? The hardcore will, but everyone should probably wait and catch them as a rental. Considering American Wedding at the time of this writing carried the box office for the weekend, I'm sure it's just a matter of time before the uber mongo three-pack will come and contain this content as well.