The original American Pie was a funny comedy that helped start the recent gross-out trend in comedies. In America Pie, the jokes were funny. In other teen-sex comedies with gross-out humor, they were not (Dude, Where's My Car?, Scary Movie 2). Can American Pie 2 live up to the original?

This time around, Jason Biggs, Sean William Scott, and company decide to hole up at a beach house for the summer. Jason Biggs gets tips on how to handle the opposite sex from Alyson Hannigan because Shannon Elizabeth is coming to visit.

For a sequel, this one holds up pretty well. Some of the better jokes are spoiled in the previews, but there are some laughs remaining through out. I liked the way a relationship between two main characters plays out in the end.

Sean William Scott is pretty funny as Stifler, Alyson Hannigan starts out loopy but actually gets some good dramatic acting in towards the end, and Jason Biggs is, well, the same klutz as he was in the first film (and as he was in Loser and Saving Silverman-- despite the fact that I've only seen the trailers for those two flicks). [He wasn't a klutz, in Saving Silverman, but he was an idiot, and I did want to beat him.]

One sequence involving a trombone is very unfunny, but it did bring back memories of how much I sucked at trombone when I played it in 6th grade at band.

It's a good bit more intelligent than your standard teen sex comedy (like, Road Trip) because each of the characters has a personality of some sorts and the females aren't just stupid blondes waiting to be fucked.

I give American Pie 2 *** out of ****.

This move did have some funny moments, it just couldn't live up the original, despite what gross out jokes they threw in. There really wasn't much of a reason to make a sequel, even if it did make more than the original. The storylines in this one were a bit weak, and I found myself wanting to punch several of the characters, whenever they appeared on screen. I'm trying to come up with something else to say, but I really can't.

I guess I'll go ahead and give it a **1/2 out of ****