WARNING: This American Pie May Contain Nuts
Erik Stifler (John White - She's Too Young) might be Steve & Matt Stifler's cousin but unfortunately he struggles to live up to the Stifler family name because he is still a virgin. But all that is about to change as he is being given a free pass by his girlfriend to head off for a weekend of debauchery at the Naked Mile to get his manly needs out of the system. But with his friends egging him on as well as catching up with cousin Dwight Stifler (Steve Talley - Beyond the Blackboard), the organiser of the Naked Mile, maybe Erik won't take advantage of his weekend a way.
After the disappointment which was "American Pie Presents Band Camp" I was pretty sure that the "American Pie" movie franchise was over. But no, they decided to come back with "American Pie Presents The Naked Mile" or "American Pie 5" if you like, a movie which carries on those tenuous connections to the original "American Pie" series and delivers more naked flesh than any of the previous "American Pie" movies. Is it any good? well "American Pie Presents The Naked Mile" is a huge improvement on the childlike "American Pie Presents Band Camp" but still doesn't achieve the magic of the originals.
"American Pie Presents The Naked Mile" certainly takes no time at all in setting the tone with the opening scene focusing on an embarrassing masturbation situation for young Erik and from then on it rarely lets up when it comes to jokes and scenes focusing on sex or the vast amount of naked flesh on show. But even so "American Pie Presents The Naked Mile" still doesn't feel like a proper "American Pie" movie, it actually feels more like a cross between "Porky's" and "National Lampoons Animal House". That's not really a complaint as it is still an entertaining movie, but because it is so detached from the original "American Pie" movies, with just Eugene Levy returning as Mr. Levenstein; it just doesn't have the same level of entertainment that the originals delivered.
Surprsingly the storyline actually works reasonably well and although it lives in the world of complete predictability it doesn't matter as there is just enough emphasis placed upon it so that "American Pie Presents The Naked Mile" doesn't come across as just a series of loosely related sketches and scenes. The real main emphasis of "American Pie Presents The Naked Mile" is placed on cheap titillation and I reckon it must be competing for the record for the amount of naked flesh shown in a movie, well with a naked race it certainly gets close. And ues that does mean that this is definitely a movie which targets a male orientated audience and I can imagine many young boys gaining great pleasure from it.
What is apparent is that despite starting off with probably one of the most shocking scenes of the movie, "American Pie Presents The Naked Mile" never really hits the heights of grossness which the original series set. This for me is not a bad thing as I started to find the gross comedy in "American Pie: The Wedding" too cringe worthy and although all they have done is substitute it with naked flesh and a few more subtle jokes I actually found "American Pie Presents The Naked Mile" quite funny.
As for the performances, well as already mentioned the only original cast member to return this time round is Eugene Levy who still carries on the great work of dishing out awkward fatherly advice as Mr Levenstein, but we also get to learn a bit more about his past this time round, which provides plenty of room for amusement. But the real main stars of "American Pie Presents The Naked Mile" are John White as Erik Stifler and Steve Talley as his cousin Dwight Stifler. These two do a surprisingly good job and are just far enough detached from characters in the original movies to stop them feeling purely like copycats. Steve Talley is really the star of the movie as the confident ladies man Dwight and he really breathes life into a movie which otherwise could have been quite flat.
What this all boils down to is that basically "American Pie Presents The Naked Mile" is still not as good as the original "American Pie" movies but takes things in a new direction with new characters and that it is a huge improvement on the previous American Pie movie. With the sheer amount of naked flesh on show it will certainly gain fans amongst young male audiences but may disappoint as the comedy grossness has been completely toned down.
