This Review Reveals Minor Details About the Plot.
Large Lakeside Gala
Plot Overview
One school year after a handful of high school grads had tried to prove their mettle by getting laid or securing a girlfriend on prom night, they return from their freshman year of college ready to “take the next step.” To that end they rent a beach house on Lake Michigan for some serious partying.
Bumptious Steve Stiffler (Seann William Scott) likes it kinky, and who knows what the waves will serve up? Jim Levenstein (Jason Biggs) is pining for Swedish exchange student Nadia (Shannon Elizabeth,) the one who got away, but she might come see him. Fearing to disappoint her through lack of experience he accepts pointers from “flute fetish band bitch” Michelle (Alyson Hannigan) who's versatile on both organs. Chris “Oz” Ostreicher (Chris Klein) tries phone sex to maintain a long distance relationship with Heather (Mena Suvari) who's studying in Spain for the summer. Kevin Myers (Thomas Ian Nicholas) is forced into a friends-only relation with his former fling Vicky (Tara Reid) who “got hot” in the interim. Paul Finch (Eddie Kaye Thomas) is obsessed with Stiffler's oversexed mother (Jennifer Coolidge) who might swing by later. And hanger-on Sherman (Chris Owen) is out of his geeky league.
Ideology
The “next step” they are
taking concerns physical intimacy with the opposite sex. For a
point of reference we'll cite Paul H. Landis
writing In Defense of Dating:
It is quite logical to believe that some kind of dating is necessary to the development of the judgment and pair interaction that is at the root of real objectivity in mate selection. … ¶Those who have dated more than one person have a chance to compare and to learn some of the usual behavior patterns of members of the opposite sex. They learn to distinguish between those whose personalities seem to promise a durable compatibility and those whose personalities obviously do not. Dating is an exploratory experience through which young people learn. It no doubt contributes to the ability to feel at ease with the opposite sex and the love play sanctioned in dating may well be an important factor in the development of a normal heterosexual orientation in the psychosexual area. … ¶In most circles today, therefore, it is considered desirable that young people “circulate” rather than “go steady” from the beginning, … that some variety of dating experience is favorable to ultimate mate choice. The girl who is considered desirable as a date by a number of fellows is presumed to be the one most likely to be sought after in marriage. (223–4)
For a framework of parameters in order to
define basic “steps,” we'll use, (Col. 2:21) “Touch not; taste not; handle
not.” That is, physicality in the platonic realm is the province of
“touch.” For
dating/boyfriend–girlfriend/relationships it's
kissing: “taste.” And for marriage it's “handling”
of the sex organs by which things take off down a slippery slope.
Kevin and Vicky found it awkward to
retreat a step back to “just friends,” so Vicky had to
define what that meant. Touch dancing was fine, though at this party
there was precious little touching, just bouncing and flailing. A
hearty hug worked fine between friends. Their handshake was safe.
The attempted “friend-kiss” was iffy when Kevin was about
to get carried away. Stiffler for his part helped us sort out the
latter when one of his tentative kinky kisses was described as, “the
way to kiss your mother.” Good enough.
If it was awkward Kevin and Vicky going back to being
“just friends,” it was awkward also for Jim an altogether
klutz to try to take the next step with a girlfriend. Luckily,
he had Michelle as a ready tutor. After observing Kevin's direct approach,
her first advice was, “No, you dingbat. You don't just
go groping away. You gotta pre-heat the oven before you stick in the
turkey.” Right.
She took him through a process, step
by step. First he had her kiss her neck, then kiss her collarbone.
Their first session ended with a ritual good-bye kiss (“Less
tongue.”) Okay. Then they went on to him being massaged into
a proper pucker. Eventually, she had a makeshift dummy wearing
a bra, on which she taught him how to reach behind and unbutton the
clasp while he was kissing her (it.) This was all well and good.
As for the third stage which would be next from there, reference
was made to their prom night. Michelle remarked, “Jeez how could
I forget? You sucked. You didn't know what the hell you were doing.
But wasn't it fun even though you were so terrible?” God evidently
made sexual intercourse so pleasurable that one need not have
the best technique to enjoy it. Since this is not an X–rated
movie, we weren't shown that act but were treated to an impromptu
duet between the flutist and the trombone player. Kevin's technique
was close to that described by author Jamie O'Neill:
“Tell me, Doyle,
where did you learn to play the flute at all?”“Nowhere, sir.
Brother, I mean. I mean I learnt it meself.”
Brother Polycarp inclined his head with a suspense playfully mounted.
“In this band, Mr. Doyle, we are accustomed to a respectable
music. A music in the tradition of Kuhlau and Briccialdi and the gentlemen
of the traverse mode. We do not slip and slide the like of Phil the
fluter at his ball. Sit you in front in future, boy, and play by the
tongue not your maulers.” (58)
While going to step two, kissing, was awkward, in this movie proceeding further is downright embarrassing. When both sets of parents stumbled into Jim's dorm room while he was having “friendly good-bye sex” with a co-ed, the girl's dad told her, “Natalie, get dressed!” Later, a doctor will advise Jim, “Keep your shorts on at the party.” Thus AmPi2 defines a separate territory beyond their “next step.”
The way it mitigates embarrassment is
that Jim's Dad (Eugene Levy) is wearing a wedding ring, as in,
“Married and
all?” ¶“Priests and witnesses.” (O'Neill,
72) A wedding is like a contract with society so people will know
not to stumble on a couple at home at night. Here the boys had to
secure summer jobs as house painters to afford the beach house. To
prepare a home for eventual families, they'll need to follow the advice
of the priest, complete their educations, and get married, these steps
coming before the other next-est.
There is a side plot concerning
Finch's infatuation with Stiffler's mother. A man achieves his sexual
peak in his late teens, a woman in her fifties. Finch is nineteen.
He had glorious sex with Stiffler's mom once. To reproduce it he is
practicing tantric yoga in which he is channeling his energies to
produce a day-long orgasm. The (KJV) Bible enjoins us to temperance, which is
moderation in thoughts, feelings, and actions. To have such an excessive
feeling would interfere with one's Christian walk. Recent English
translations have substituted the word self-control for
temperance. But it is the self-acquired yoga control that
produces the excess. As such the substitution is a malapropism at
best or buddhism at worst.
Production Values
“” (2001) was directed by J.B. Rodgers. It was written by Adam Herz, who also wrote the original, and by David H. Steinberg. It stars Jason Biggs, Seann William Scott, Shannon Elizabeth, Alyson Hannigan, Eugene Levy, and Jennifer Collidge. The actors & actresses all did fine in their quirky roles.
MPA rated it R for strong sexual content, crude humor, language and drinking. It didn't tell us which college(s) the students went to, being, I suppose, a generic party school. Runtime is 1¾ hours.
Review Conclusion w/a Christian's Recommendation
AmPi2 would flock together with what O'Neill lists as the “immoral literature, the smutty postcards, the lewd plays, and suggestive songs … puffs from the foul breath of a paganized society” (107-8). But it would also find company with “the boys as they made their farewells. Palled up great so they have. Those chats you have in the green of youth. All the time in the world and all the plans to make for it. But little the future is in it. No friendship without you're equals. They learnt me that in the army. And Jim's a college boy now. Jim. My son James.” (102) Thankfully, I survived my college days, with some nostalgia and some regrets. I thought this movie was funny, though it might be a bad influence on the unwary.
Movie Ratings
Action Factor: Weak action scenes. Suitability For Children: Not Suitable for Children of Any Age. Special effects: Wake up and smell the 1990s technology. Video Occasion: Good for Groups. Suspense: A few suspenseful moments. Overall movie rating: Four stars out of five.
Works Cited
Scripture quotation from the Authorized King James Version. Pub. 1611, rev. 1769. Software.
Landis, Paul H. Making the Most of Marriage. New York: Meredith Publishing, 1965. Print.
O'Neill, Jamie. At Swim, Two Boys. Copyright © 2001 by Jamie O'Neill. New York: Scribner, 2002. Print.
bibles.n7nz.org