American Wedding (DVD)

American Wedding (known as American Pie 3: The Wedding or American Pie: The Wedding, in some countries) is a 2003 American sex comedy film written by Adam Herz and directed by Jesse Dylan. It is the sequel to American Pie (1999) and American Pie 2 (2001), and the third and intended final installment of the American Pie theatrical series. This was to be the last film in the franchise, ending it as a trilogy; however, a third theatrical sequel, American Reunion, was released nine years later, while the franchise expanded into a series of direct-to-DVD standalone sequels, under the umbrella title American Pie Presents, that began with the release of Band Camp (2005).

The film s main plot focuses on the wedding ceremony of Jim Levenstein (Jason Biggs) and Michelle Flaherty (Alyson Hannigan), while its subplot centers on Steve Stifler (Seann William Scott), and his outrageous antics including his attempt to organize a bachelor party, teaching Jim to dance for the wedding, and competing with Finch (Eddie Kaye Thomas) to win the heart of Michelle s sister, Cadence (January Jones).

It is the last film in the series to be written by Herz, who conceptualized the franchise, and also the only theatrical film in the series in which Chris Klein (Oz), Chris Owen (Sherman), Mena Suvari (Heather), Tara Reid (Vicky), Shannon Elizabeth (Nadia) and Natasha Lyonne (Jessica) do not appear.

Plot

Jim Levenstein prepares to propose to Michelle at a restaurant when his dad calls to tell him he has the ring. She misinterprets when Jim stalls the question and his dad arrives as he is receiving fellatio from under the table. The mishap grasps everyone s attention but Jim proposes and Michelle accepts.

Jim wishes to exclude Steve Stifler from the wedding, who becomes upset when he finds out. Stifler agrees to teach Jim how to dance if he is allowed at the wedding. Jim asks Stifler to mask his obnoxious personality in exchange for planning the bachelor party.

Jim, Stifler, Paul Finch, and Kevin Meyers travel to Chicago to find the designer who makes the dress Michelle wants. Stifler inadvertently walks into a gay bar, and his initially raucous behavior gets several patrons annoyed. Battling Bear in a dance-off, Stifler is offered strippers by him for the bachelor party. Dress designer Leslie reveals himself and agrees to make the dress for Michelle.

Michelle s younger sister, Cadence, flies in for the wedding. Both Finch and Stifler are attracted to her, and, trying to win her over, they each act differently. Stifler arranges the bachelor party but does not tell Jim, who unknowingly invited Michelle s parents to dinner in his home. With assistance from Bear, who poses as a butler, Jim nearly succeeds in keeping the bachelor s party a secret, until Michelle s mother opens a closet door to find Kevin inside; blindfolded, stripped to his boxers, and tied to a chair. They explain that it was a failed attempt to make Jim seem like a hero, and Michelle s parents tell him if he puts that much effort into the upcoming marriage, they can give their blessing.

Michelle is concerned that Jim s paternal grandmother disapproves of the wedding as she is not Jewish. On the night before the wedding, Stifler inadvertently turns off the walk-in refrigerator while getting a bottle of champagne to seduce Cadence, which kills the flowers. Stifler finally reveals his true rude and obnoxious personality. Angry, Jim asks him to leave, and all the others, including Cadence (who has heard him talking about doing her), support Jim s decision.

Feeling guilty for his thoughtless behavior, Stifler convinces the florist to put together a new batch of flowers, and he enlists the help of his football players and Bear. As a gesture of remorse, he also gives a rose to Cadence. Moved by his actions, Cadence agrees to have sex with him in a supply closet before the ceremony, but Stifler s presence is delayed by a brief meeting Jim calls among his groomsmen, citing how he is grateful to have friends like them. Quickly returning to the hotel, Stifler hears someone in the supply closet and steps inside, unaware that Cadence was interrupted by wedding preparations and that Jim s disgruntled grandmother was shoved inside by the ushers, the MILF guys from high school. Stifler only realizes this upon walk-in by Finch and Kevin. She becomes pleasant, particularly towards Stifler, making Michelle and Jim s dad happy.

Despite the chaotic events leading up to it, Michelle and Jim get married. At the reception, the couple dances while Stifler dances with Cadence. Finch sits by himself when Stifler s mom arrives. Although agreeing they are over each other, Stifler s mom mentions having a hotel suite and invites Finch to join her. The film ends with the MILF guys (Justin and John) spying on Stifler s mom and Finch having sex in the hot tub.

Cast

• Jason Biggs as Jim Levenstein
• Seann William Scott as Steve Stifler
• Alyson Hannigan as Michelle Flaherty
• Eddie Kaye Thomas as Paul Finch
• Thomas Ian Nicholas as Kevin Myers
• January Jones as Cadence Flaherty
• Eugene Levy as Jim s Dad
• Molly Cheek as Jim s Mom
• Deborah Rush as Mary Flaherty
• Fred Willard as Harold Flaherty
• Angela Paton as Grandma
• Eric Allan Kramer as Bear
• Amanda Swisten as Fraulein Brandi
• Nikki Schieler Ziering as Officer Krystal
• Lawrence Pressman as Head Coach
• Reynaldo Gallegos as Leslie Summers
• Loren Lester as Celebrant
• Justin Isfeld as Justin
• John Cho as John
• Jennifer Coolidge as Stifler s Mom
• Julie Payne as Mrs. Zyskowski
• Willam Belli as Butch Queen
• David St. James as Front Desk Manager

Production

The outdoor wedding scene was filmed at the Ritz-Carlton Half Moon Bay near San Francisco.

Soundtrack

The film s soundtrack includes songs by Van Morrison, Blue October, The Working Title, Foo Fighters, Feeder, Avril Lavigne, American Hi-Fi, Sum 41, the All-American Rejects, Joseph Arthur, New Found Glory, and Hot Action Cop. Everclear, Badly Drawn Boy and The Libertines also have songs in the feature. Note that most songs used were already singles. And, this is the first film to feature the song Laid (Matt Nathanson covering the band James) in both the trailers and the opening sequence. Notably, it is also the only film in the series to not play the song Mrs. Robinson in a scene where Finch has sex with Stifler s mother. It is also the first of the American Pie films not to feature the song Anomaly(Calling Your Name), or a song by blink 182.

The song Into the Mystic , played at the end of the film when Jim and Michelle take to the dance floor at the reception, begins as Van Morrison s recording, but midway through it changes to The Wallflowers cover version due to licensing reasons. The band s lead singer Jakob Dylan is the brother of the film s director Jesse Dylan.

The film s soundtrack peaked at number 23 on the Billboard 200 chart.

American Wedding
Soundtrack album by Various Artists
Released	August 1, 2003
Genre	Pop punk, alternative rock
Length	1:00:13
Label	Uptown/Universal
Various Artists chronology
American Pie 2 (2001) American Wedding (2003) American Reunion (2012)

No.	Title	Performed by	Length
1.	Times Like These	Foo Fighters	4:26
2.	The Anthem	Good Charlotte	2:55
3.	Forget Everything	New Found Glory	2:33
4.	The Hell Song	Sum 41	3:19
5.	Swing, Swing	The All-American Rejects	3:54
6.	I Don t Give	Avril Lavigne	3:37
7.	Laid	Matt Nathanson	3:03
8.	The Art of Losing	American Hi-Fi	3:22
9.	Fever for the Flava	Hot Action Cop	4:03
10.	Give Up the Grudge	Gob	2:58
11.	Bouncing Off The Walls	Sugarcult	2:22
12.	Come Back Around	Feeder	3:12
13.	Any Other Girl	NU	3:23
14.	Beloved	The Working Title	4:28
15.	Calling You	Blue October	3:58
16.	Honey and the Moon	Joseph Arthur	4:44
17.	Into the Mystic	The Wallflowers (Van Morrison cover)	3:39

Songs that appear during Stifler s dance in the gay bar:

• Beat It - Michael Jackson (only few seconds)
• Maniac - Michael Sembello
• Heaven Is a Place on Earth - Belinda Carlisle
• Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This) - Eurythmics
• Venus - Bananarama
• The Reflex - Duran Duran
• Round Round - Sugababes

Songs that appear during the bachelor party:

• Summertime Girls - Y&T
• Freakin You - Jungle Brothers

Release

American Wedding was released in the United States on August 1, 2003, and opened at #1 with $33,369,440 before dropping 53.7% the next weekend, landing at #3 behind the new releases of S.W.A.T. and Freaky Friday. Closing about 3.5 months later (November 20, 2003), the film had grossed a domestic total of $104,565,114 and $126,884,089 overseas for a worldwide total of $231,449,203, based on a $55 million budget. Despite being a huge box office success, it is the lowest-grossing film in the series, making roughly $3 million less than American Reunion would in 2012.

American Wedding grossed $15.85 million on DVD and was the number seven DVD rental in 2004.

Reception

American Wedding received mixed reviews from critics. Rotten Tomatoes, a review aggregator, assigns the film a rating of 54%, based on 155 reviews, with an average rating of 5.8/10. The site s critical consensus reads, Raunchier and even more gross than the first two American Pies, American Wedding ought to please fans of the series. On Metacritic, the film has a score of 43 out of 100, based on 34 critics, which indicates mixed or average reviews .

Robert Koeler of Variety compared it to the works of John Waters and called it a strong finish for the franchise. Roger Ebert rated it 3/4 stars and wrote that the film is proof of the hypothesis that no genre is beyond redemption. Elvis Mitchell of The New York Times wrote that the film struggles so hard to be tasteless that it s almost quaint. Mick LaSalle of the San Francisco Chronicle rated it 2/5 stars and called it strained and desperate to find jokes.

Awards

• 2004 - MTV Movie Award for Best Dance Sequence (Seann William Scott)
• 2004 - Teen Choice Award for Choice Movie Villain (Seann William Scott) and Choice Movie Your Parents Didn t Want You To See

• 2004 - Teen Choice Award for Choice Movie – Comedy, Choice Movie Actor – Comedy (Seann William Scott), Choice Movie Actress – Comedy (Alyson Hannigan), Choice Movie Blush (Seann William Scott), Choice Movie Hissy Fit (Jason Biggs), & Choice Movie Liplock (Jason Biggs & Alyson Hannigan)

Condition

New

Actor

Adam Herz, Chris Bender, Chris Moore, Craig Perry, Warren Zide

Publisher

Universal Pictures Home Entertainment

Published Date

2005

Age Group

Adult

Rating MPA

Not Rated

Recording Studio

Universal Pictures Home Entertainment

Format

DVD

Brand

Universal Studios Home Entertain.

Amazon ASIN

B00005JMCT

UPC / EAN

0025192379925

Year

2003

ReleaseDate

2003-08-01

RuntimeMins

96

RuntimeStr

1h 36min

Awards

Awards, 3 wins & 6 nominations

Directors

Jesse Dylan

Writers

Adam Herz

Stars

Jason Biggs, Alyson Hannigan, Seann William Scott

Produced by

Chris Bender, Louis G. Friedman, Adam Herz, Chris Moore, Craig Perry, Josh Shader, Chris Weitz, Paul Weitz, Warren Zide

Music by

Christophe Beck

Cinematography by

Lloyd Ahern II

Film Editing by

Stuart H. Pappé

Casting By

Lisa Beach, Sarah Katzman

Production Design by

Clayton Hartley

Art Direction by

Liz Carney, Gregory A. Weimerskirch

Set Decoration by

Brana Rosenfeld

Costume Design by

Pamela Withers Chilton

Makeup Department

Linda Arnold, Barbara Cantu, Roxy D Alonzo, Leslie Ann Sebert, Sharon Simon, Jennifer Turchi Nigh, Julie M. Woods, Adam Brandy, Stephanie Coffey, Connie Kallos, Carey Robertson, Verina Schafer

Production Management

Louis G. Friedman, Virginia Landis Albertson, Ron Lynch

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director

Matt Buckler, Sean Hobin, Mark Anthony Little, Barbara Lontkowski, David Berke, David Hallinan, Dominick Scarola

Art Department

Steve Borgese, Scott Buckwald, Jeanne Bueche, David Clark, Gary Clause, John Naehrlich, Mike Villarino, Ed Wargin, Todd Bennett, Randy L. Childs, Brock Helfer, Alex Hillkurtz, Bart C. Hubenthal, Scott G. Jones, Jeff Khachadoorian, Mark Kudra, John Hammer Maxwell, Jeff Ogg, Michael Ruby, Adam Tankell, Marc Tantin, Jeffry C. Voorhees

Sound Department

Brian Basham, Anne Couk, Ronald Eng, Roger Fearing, Tammy Fearing, Dana LeBlanc Frankley, Richard C. Franklin, Michael Garner, Jeff Gomillion, Mark Gordon, Cameron Hamza, Gregg Landaker, Gary Marullo, Steve Maslow, Randy McDonald, Chuck Michael, Dean Minnerly, Willard Overstreet, Brion Paccassi, Philip Rogers, Albert Romero, Thomas W. Small, Walter Spencer, Steve Tushar, Byron Wilson, Peter Brown, Michael Ferdie, Kevin Globerman, Daniel S. Irwin, Susan Kurtz, Darren Polish

Special Effects by

Ron Trost

Visual Effects by

Mark Dornfeld, Jon Farhat, Berj Bannayan, Michael Eaves, Mark Edwards, Justin Jones, Michael Kowalski, Kevin Lin, Daniel Lu, Allan Magled, Geoffrey Mark, Curt Miller, Mike Mombourquette, Shervin Shoghian, Pam Vick, Terry Whiteside, Michael Wile

Stunts

Jeffrey G. Barnett, Zane Cassidy, David D. Darling, Sean Graham, Kanin Howell, Zach Hudson, Zack Kerns, Anne Sophie Leduc, Karine Mauffrey, Tom McComas, Doug O Dell II, Austin Priester, Kerry Rossall, Justin Sundquist, Gianni Biasetti Sr., Peter Park

Camera and Electrical Department

Mike Blauvelt, Adam Cardenas, Michael Cassidy, Traci Collins, Dave Egerstrom, Jason Ehlers, Sammy Escobar, Thomas L. Gonsalez, Tom Gonzales Jr., Jared Greenstein, Matt Guiza, Jose Harb Jr., John Hatchitt, Dustin A. Huber, Myron Hyman, Allan Scott Jackson, Michael Kennedy, Mark La Bonge, Larry Liddell, Wayne Marshall, Todd McMullen, Chava Monjaraz, Paul V. Perkins, Bret Rubin, Ronald L. Vargas Jr., Lance Jay Velazco, Ron Waters, Danny Williams, Vivian Zink, Gregory Collis, Adam Cowan, Mike McEveety, Andrew Osborne, David Yellin

Casting Department

Deborah Kurtz, Jennifer Alessi, Sande Alessi, Caitlin McKenna

Costume and Wardrobe Department

Lorraine Crossman, Amanda Gore, Kelli Hagen, Julie Lauritzen, Linda Matthews, Julie Shack, Katherine Dover, Douglas J. Stewart

Editorial Department

Aaron Brock, Andrew Charlton, Michael Eaves, Liza D. Espinas, Terry Hager, Isabelle McDowell, Jason Wasserman, Terra Bliss, Frank Cuomo, Peggy Eghbalian, Jack Lewars

Location Management

Christopher Lee, Robert Lepucki, Patrick McIntire, Scott Devereaux, Steven S. Lee, Adam Robinson

Music Department

Pete Anthony, Christopher Beck, John Bissell, Sandy DeCrescent, Vicki Hiatt, Charles Martin Inouye, Andrew Kaiser, Kathy Nelson, Photek, Greg Richling, Casey Stone, Terry Wilson, Mike Deasy, George Doering, Matt Dunkley, Mark Graham, Christopher S. Parker

Script and Continuity Department

Scott Peterson, Shannon Kenny

Transportation Department

John Conte, James Obee Oberman, Hedy Phil Balani, Scott Howard, Billy Kane, Jack Jay Reece, Steve D. Weinmuller

Additional Crew

Michael Asiman, Danny Bress, Damon E. Burke, John Catron, Delia Circelli, Nicky Craft, Neal Flaherty, Britta Geiogue, Danielle Gordon, Derek Graf, Adrienne Greshock, Jennifer Hamilton, Brandon Hollyer, Kathleen Keller, Kenneth LaFayette, Jason Leet, Tony Mauro, Mark Mayer, Meredith Meade, Rob Nagle, Marguerite Pomerhn Derricks, Curt M. Pratt, William Ramirez Jr., Monique Ramirez, Ben Raymond, Alicia Richards, Amanda Rush, Elizabeth Silber, Deborah Simmrin, Steven E. Simon, Brian Spink, Michael Swafford, Brian Thesing, Darren Yesser, Sheri Apap, Andrew P. Brown, Alvaro Cofre, Tyler J. Denison, Todd Fullerton, Michael A. Heath, Karen Jine, Rayne Knudson, Roxann Langlois, Regina Lee, Vivian Lee, J.C. McIlwaine, Melissa Park, Kyle Pavey, Guin Solomon, Steven Sutphen, John Trujillo, Roger Udwin, Catherine H. Vlasuk, Lynnanne Zager

Thanks

Chris Barnes, Pat Connor, Jim DeBoer, Kristi Dyer, Tom Failor, Robert Fleetwood, Parker Frost, Scott Herz, Eric Liggett, Will Pappas, J.C. Spink, Chris Stevenson, Laurie Zager, John Zyskowski

Genres

Comedy

Companies

Universal Pictures, Zide-Perry Productions, LivePlanet

Countries

USA, Germany

Languages

English

ContentRating

R

ImDbRating

6.3

ImDb Rating Votes

206282

Metacritic Rating

43

Short Description

American Wedding (known as American Pie 3: The Wedding or American Pie: The Wedding, in some countries) is a 2003 American sex comedy film written by Adam Herz and directed by Jesse Dylan. It is the sequel to American Pie (1999) and American Pie 2 (2001), and the third and intended final installment of the American Pie theatrical series. This was to be the last film in the franchise, ending it as a trilogy; however, a third theatrical sequel, American Reunion, was released nine years later, while the franchise expanded into a series of direct-to-DVD standalone sequels, under the umbrella title American Pie Presents, that began with the release of Band Camp (2005).

The film s main plot focuses on the wedding ceremony of Jim Levenstein (Jason Biggs) and Michelle Flaherty (Alyson Hannigan), while its subplot centers on Steve Stifler (Seann William Scott), and his outrageous antics including his attempt to organize a bachelor party, teaching Jim to dance for the wedding, and competing with Finch (Eddie Kaye Thomas) to win the heart of Michelle s sister, Cadence (January Jones).

It is the last film in the series to be written by Herz, who conceptualized the franchise, and also the only theatrical film in the series in which Chris Klein (Oz), Chris Owen (Sherman), Mena Suvari (Heather), Tara Reid (Vicky), Shannon Elizabeth (Nadia) and Natasha Lyonne (Jessica) do not appear.

Box Office Budget

$55,000,000 (estimated)

Box Office Opening Weekend USA

$33,369,440

Box Office Gross USA

$104,565,114

Box Office Cumulative Worldwide Gross

$232,722,935

Keywords

Wedding,bachelor party,sex comedy,wedding ring,resort hotel