American Pie Presents: Band Camp – Unrated
Picture: B-
Sound: B- Extras: C- Main Program: C-
Just when you though the American Pie franchise was
so finished that you could yell “stick a fork in it, its finished” (or cooked)
comes a fourth installment. Whether
this was intended for theaters to begin with or not is debatable, but Band
Camp has gone straight to DVD and though it is not always campy, it does
not do anything the first three films already did. Only Eugene Levy is the major holdover here as a new cast is
introduced and as is the case with such sequels (especially a part four without
the old cast) has casting meant to remind us of the original stars instead of
something new. The younger brother of
one of the leads from the trilogy is now in school and is as much of a
dork. Guess what happens next?
I was not a big fan of the previous films, but this is
just thrown together with dialogue that thinks it is rawer than it is and all
of it tires very quickly. Not even all
the T&A can save it. This
epitomizes the “youth market” product we usually hear about and do not see
much. When all is said and done, they
should have quit while they were ahead.
Victor J. Kemper, A.S.C., who makes this look better than
your run of the mill straight-to-DVD release, shot the anamorphically enhanced
1.78 X 1 image. Color and definition
are not bad and at least do not have the tired look of desaturated colors that
are killing the industry. The Dolby
Digital 5.1 mix is nothing spectacular, but has some healthy surrounds and is a
clean recording and mix. Extras include
two wacky featurettes on the unrated edition only with Ginger Lynn and a
poolside segment with “The Band Camp Girls” that are as “open” as anything in
the main feature. A Music Video, three
featurettes, deleted scenes (which did not matter much) and outtakes are also
included, so at least this was not meant to be an outright mindless
cash-in. Only huge fans of the first
three films need apply.
- Nicholas Sheffo
