American Pie Presents Band Camp (2005)

Directed by: Steve Rash | 87 minutes | comedy | Actors: Tad Hilgenbrinck, Arielle Kebbel, Jason Earles, Crystle Lea Lightning, Jun Hee Lee, Chris Owen, Ginger Lynn Allen, Eugene Levy, Tara Killian, Matt Baker, Matt Barr

‘American Pie Presents Band Camp’ is presented as one of the ‘American Pie’ films, but that creates high expectations for this film, which are not fulfilled. In practice, it often turns out that the level of the first film in the sequel(s) is not matched. Let alone that a spin-off, because that’s what we’re actually talking about now, this will work. Whether or not it succeeds depends on the character on which the spin-off is based.

It seems that the filmmakers originally envisioned a spin-off of the character Steve Stifler from the earlier ‘American Pie’ films. Since Seann William Scott, who played Steve Stifler, wasn’t really interested in the third ‘Pie’ part, the idea of ​​the younger brother was born.

The script is way too thin and the jokes are of a minimal level. Tad Hilgenbrinck is very well cast for the role. He is very similar in appearance to Seann William Scott, which makes it easy for him to pass as a ‘brother of’. This is good for the movie. Unfortunately, the talent of the actors is proportional to the number of films they have made. For the majority ‘Band Camp’ is their debut, only a few have made a film before. Exceptions to this are Eugene Levy (“American Pie”, “American Pie 2”, “American Pie: The Wedding”, “Serendipity” and “Bringing down the House”) and Chris Owen (“American Pie”, “American Pie 2” , ‘The Lady Killers’ and ‘Hildalgo’). Eugene Levy has appeared in over sixty films and Chris Owen has appeared in over twenty-five films. However, they do not play a leading role, but it does indicate the quality of the acting in this film.

The appreciation that this film receives is actually only due to Eugene Levy, who is the only one who has really managed to deliver his text in a convincing way. Fortunately, the references to the earlier ‘Pie’ films come out of his mouth, but the viewer has to pay attention because they are casually expressed in his text. Where he still has to rattle up whole pieces of text, for the rest of the cast the text mainly consists of misplaced one-liners.

‘American Pie Presents Band Camp’ clearly falls short on several fronts (too meager script and poor acting), so that the film does not get going and quickly loses the viewer’s attention. To put the conclusion in cooking terms: before the batter has a chance to rise, it collapses like a plum pudding. It’s about time this dish stopped being cooked.