I watched the movie again last night. Sure, it’s not perfect (Wedding is my favourite, and then 2), and some here may think it’s too Jewish, but I still genuinely like it. Like, it’s no worse than the original Mean Girls or Superbad, and it hasn’t aged that badly. Some of the humour is still reasonably current - it’s literally where we got “MILF” from, after all!
Yet Zoomers won’t watch it (but Rocky Horror is ok, because it’s “queer”?) and the “new media” constantly calls it problematic, to the point of at least one “viral” article a year to that effect, which is just… Pathetic really. Especially since even my extremely normie, straight-laced parents had to admit that they have chuckled at it a few times…
Honestly, I just wish I had first seen the movie when I was a teen, rather than in my twenties. I probably could have done with a dose of that, growing up.
Also, prime Tara Reid, Natasha Lyonne and Shannon Elizabeth (though not Alyson Hannigan or Mena Suvari, IMHO), so there’s that, too…
Its funny because almost every guy in the movie is a complete loser who has to spend the duration of the movie learning to mature and be deserving of their much more "put together" girlfriends. The obvious "problematic" scene is portrayed as something a bunch of absolutely pathetic guys are doing to get a whiff of a girl way out of their league.
Sure its all done with titillation in mind, and it is titillating, but its not remotely presented as endorsement. Every single "problematic" trait each guy has has to be worked on or swallowed with their pride before they get rewarded. From Stifler to even the side ones like Sherman.
Except for the one who bangs Stifler's Mom but he is also barely a character outside of that running gag.
Yeah, I never thought it was intended as an endorsement of their behaviour, but rather more like "Look at these pathetic losers. If even they can get it together, why can't you?"
If it even went that "deep".
Though I do think Nadia kind of screwed him around a bit, there, and Vicky's dumping of Kevin after they have sex is ice cold (after making him tell her he loves her multiple times, lol), let alone Michelle being almost psychotic, but eh, it's fun.
I just hate the need of the current generation to overthink absolutely everything. It's just a dumb movie with a bunch of mostly dumb actors and actresses playing dumb characters, lol.
Why Rocky Horror doesn't get the same level of so-called "critique" that American Pie, Mean Girls, Superbad or any of the other similar movies and series get I do not know...
Oh, except for the fact that the rapist and murderer in the movie is a "queer" alien. I suppose that makes it okay (to them)...
But yeah, I would argue that the girls in Broad City and similar shows are definitely worse people than the gang from American Pie. At least the boys in Pie show some degree of character growth and maturation, as you say...
The British version of this is The Inbetweeners, which I do enjoy, but is arguably even more puerile (at least in the movies). Much more "current", though, and it's British humour, so it carries over better to Australia.
I still think peak Tara Reid > peak Emily Atack, though. But man, Tara Reid has looked pretty rough ever since, sadly...