Having been a huge fan of the first three American Pie films in the series I thought I’d give ‘American Pie Presents: Beta House’ a try when I noticed it available for rental. I was put off the series by the fairly awful direct-to-DVD ‘American Pie Presents: Band Camp’ film and decided I’d probably not watch any further films in the series. For some reason I decided to change my mind when it came to the latest slice of the pie, I tried to forget about how disappointed I had been with ‘Band Camp’ and rented this with renewed optimism for the series.
When ‘American Pie Presents: Beta House’ began I thought to myself I’d probably done good in avoiding the series for three years. This film appeared to be a gratuitous display of the naked female form and the humour seemed completely out of kilter with what I had seen and loved in the past from the ‘American Pie’ films. I was all but ready to turn it off and send the disc straight back, things then started looking up however and ‘American Pie Presents: Beta House’ began to amuse and impress me. It wasn’t vintage American Pie I thought to myself, but it was definitely worth watching and I therefore decided to stick with it. I’m so glad that I did as this is genuinely a pretty good film, it’s not greatly intelligent but then again that was never the appeal of the ‘American Pie’ films to begin with.
Erik Stifler is off to college with his good friend Cooze, it is here that he is brought into the Beta fraternity by his cousin Dwight. Both Erik and Cooze are single, Erik’s girlfriend has recently left him and both of them are therefore looking to take full advantage of college life. The Beta Delta Xi Fraternity have a strong rival in the form of the Epsilon Sigma Kappa (GEEK’s), the two rival fraternities are always looking to get one over on the other. The Beta fraternity is all about partying hard, whilst the the focus of the newly formed Epsilon Sigma Kappa fraternity is purely academic. The two rival fraternities seek to settle their differences by pitting their skills against one another in the battle of the Greek Games, an event that was long ago banned by the college and last won by the Beta Delta fraternity. It’s the first Greek Games for forty years and the stakes are high, there is everything to play for as these two bitter rivals battle it out in their quest to emerge victorious.
There are plenty of laughs here and as the film progresses you come to realise that this film takes the series back to its roots. Before ‘Band Camp’ the American Pie films were in my opinion always excellent. Director Andrew Waller here captures the full glory of the early films and once more brings life to a series that ‘Band Camp’ very nearly killed off. ‘American Pie Presents: Band Camp’ was directed by Steve Rash, a man who has since directed the third and fourth ‘Bring It On’ films. It would seem that this man takes on already established film series in a quest to end them, his talent as a director is minimal and he is in fact fairly awful. Andrew Waller was new to the directorial world when this ‘American Pie Presents: Beta House’ film was released and his enthusiasm and intention to succeed as a director really shines through. Andrew Waller gives life to this film which makes for an extremely enjoyable viewing experience.
The performances here are not exactly of an Oscar award winning standard, nonetheless though all involved in this film impress in their parts and no one lets the side down. Steve Talley as Dwight Stifler has a great comic presence, for me he is the most amusing man here and provides for much of the films laughs. John White as Erik Stifler is also pretty impressive, not as much so as his on-screen cousin but definitely still worth mentioning here. It takes a certain type of person to perform in a silly fun film of this sort, and those chosen were picked well here. Credit must go to Joe Nussbaum as it was he who brought these characters to life as director with the fifth film in the series ‘American Pie Presents: The Naked Mile’. The fifth film is not one that I have seen, but having been so impressed with this sixth incarnation of the American Pie series I’ll definitely be giving it a go now.
‘American Pie: The Wedding’ (also known under the name of ‘American Wedding’) was officially the last film in the American Pie series. It was the third and final true American Pie film, but three additional ‘American Pie Presents’ spin-off films have since been released. ‘Band Camp’ was the first, ‘The Naked Mile’ the second, and ‘Beta House’ is the third to have been released. I can’t count for the quality of ‘The Naked Mile’, but given that it uses the same characters as this ‘Beta House’ film, what I will say is that the cast for the last two films in the series have been extremely well chosen. ‘Band Camp’ was an absolute disaster in my opinion, had it been given a theatrical release then it would have been laughed off the screens, not because audiences would have found it so funny but because it was simply terrible. ‘Band Camp’ was not very funny at all, there were a few laughs but much of the time it was all a little bland; ‘Beta House’ is no such bore and is in fact an excellent film. I’d recommend the first three ‘American Pie’ films first and foremost, but what I will say is that ‘American Pie Presents: Beta House’ provides for excellent additional viewing. It’s far from perfect but it does provide a fair few laughs and is therefore a greatly enjoyable and extremely effective comedy film.
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UK based film graduate with a huge passion for music, sports and video games.
