American Pie Presents: Beta House (2007)

Directed by: Andrew Waller | 85 minutes | comedy | Actors: John White, Christopher McDonald, Jake Siegel, Alexandria Galante, Meghan Heffern, Nic Nac, Christine Barger, Steve Talley, Italia Ricci, Moshana Halbert, Sarah Power, Dan Petronijevic, Vasanth Saranga, Joe Eigo, Tyrone Savage, Eugene Levy

‘American Pie Presents Beta House’ is already the sixth piece of apple pie that you are presented with. Adam Hertz, the scriptwriter of the ‘American Pie’ series, has slightly modified the well-received recipe of the first part with each sequel, with the result that the initially good taste is now giving way to pure bad taste in the sixth part.

In the first parts, the nude was still of minor importance and the film suggested more than was actually shown. The humor, albeit of an underpants fun caliber, was predictable, but still entertaining even here and there. The acting was also of an acceptable level. Now you are confronted with a number of actors and actresses, who think they are going to make it and are already happy that they can show up in a Hollywood production at all. Texts are whether or not exposed or rattled in a certain position and seem more an obligation than a bitter necessity.

The only exception to this is the acting of Eugene Levy, who first plays Jim’s father in the first three parts and later as Mr. Levenstein makes an appearance in the following parts. He does his very best to flesh out his character, but is now not helped by the script and his opponents.

In fact, the film is a reason to watch female nudes under the guise of a comedy for about eighty-five minutes. It is therefore somewhat like reading Playboy for the in-depth interviews. ‘American Pie Presents: Beta House’ will probably score well for that reason. Apparently it’s commercially viable to release this pulp, otherwise a movie like this would never see the light of day. Let’s just hope that this market will soon be saturated and that you will have eaten a cake that has already passed its best-before date.