After seeing the popular 90s teen movie American Pie for the first time, a group of teens from today talked about what they thought of it.
Yes, in the 1990s and early 2000s, store bargain bins were full of corny teen movie DVDs.
Movies like American Pie, Road Trip, and Eurotrip gave the genre a new lease on life, and they often told simple stories about rowdy college students who just wanted to get laid.
American Pie, which came out in 1999 (wow, that’s a long time ago, don’t you feel old? ), is probably the best example of a classic raunchy teen movie. It made $235 million at the box office, but only cost $11 million to make. This made it a big commercial success.
The movie is about five high school students who agree to get rid of their “V cards” before they graduate. What happens next is a (somewhat) funny story about awkward meetings with hot women, Stiffler’s mum and a pie. If you haven’t seen it before,
Now, I remember when I was a teenager in the mid-2000s and saw American Pie for the first “time. I thought it was one of the funniest films I’d ever seen”. But do kids of today still like the movie in the year 2023? Even more so now that we live in a more modern and socially aware world.
Well, Rosie Hewittson, a journalist for Vice, recently asked a group of 16–19-year-olds to watch some famous classic teen films like American Pie, Clueless, and Dude, Where’s My Car? And the results are… about what you’d expect from teens in the year 2023.
One reviewer, 16-year-old Taylor, called the movie “completely ridiculous” and said that she thinks “men treat women with a lot more respect and equality now.”
Hannah, who is 17 years old, said that the scene where Jim tries to broadcast Nadia over the internet is “deeply problematic.” She added, “The film doesn’t even question the morality of doing this,” even though it is “a huge violation of privacy and definitely a sexual offence.”
Hannah added, “There’s no way a teen movie made today would let it happen.”
And finally, Olivia, who is 18 years old, said that the movie has “incel attitudes” because the guys in it think they deserve sex.
Olivia said, “I think if you were a teenage boy and saw this, you’d feel like you could treat women however you wanted to.”
But I couldn’t help but wonder if this is how everyone in 2023 felt when they saw American Pie for the first time. So, I went to Twitter and, after a quick search, found some of the best reactions from people who had just seen American Pie for the first time:
And this is my favourite:
Even “Shannon Elizabeth, who played the foreign exchange student Nadia in the American Pie” films, thinks the movie would have a hard time making it today.
Earlier this year, she said on the show Inside of You with Michael Rosenbaum, “If this had come out after the #MeToo movement, there would definitely be a problem.”
“I think it would have gone differently,” she said, referring to the scene where she is being streamed while undressed without her knowledge.
How do you feel about the movie American Pie? I think we can all agree that it would never be made “in today’s society”, “but I don’t think I’ll ever be able to watch it without laughing” like a giddy youth.