American Pie Presents: The Book of Love

AMERICAN PIE PRESENTS THE BOOK OF LOVE Unrated Edition

Studio: Universal Studios Home Entertainment

Year: 2009

Rated: Unrated (Theatrical-R)

Film Length: 1 hour, 32 minutes (rated), 1 hour, 34 minutes (unrated)

Aspect Ratio: (1.78:1)

Audio: English Dolby Digital 5.1, French Dolby Digital 5.1, Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1

Subtitles: English SDH, French, Spanish

Release Date: December 22, 2009
 

The Movie

American Pie Presents The Book of Love is the seventh iteration of the 1999 comedy that added the term "MILF" to the modern lexicon and showed audiences that a pie is good for more than just eating. Book of Love takes a back-to-the-basics approach with an all new cast of teenagers attending classes and looking to get laid at East Great Falls High School. Rob (Bug Hall), Nathan (Kevin Horton), and Lube (Brandon Hardesty) are high school friends who stumble upon the Book of Love in the school library. The Book of Love is a legendary manual of seduction of the fairer sex. After the Book is damaged, the guys embark on a quest to restore it to its former glory and make their own contributions to literature in the process.

The Book of Love has a lot going for it, in spite of being the seventh in the series. Sequels typically suffer from the law of diminishing returns, which means that every sequel contains a little less of the magic that inspired and sustained the original version. Eugene Levy is always a welcome presence, and this film has cameos from a lot of former teen actors including Tim Matheson (Animal House), C. Thomas Howell (The Outsiders), Steve Railsback (Helter Skelter), Christopher Knight (The Brady Bunch), Robert Romanus (Fast Times At Ridgmont High), Curtis Armstrong (Revenge of the Nerds) and Dustin Diamond (Saved By The Bell). Also present in the cast are Rosanna Arquette, Sherman Hemsley, Bret Michaels, and Kevin Federline. American Pie would not be American Pie without a Stifler in attendance, so one of the original Stifler’s younger brothers (Kevin Patrick Jordan) is part of the cast, and Eugene Levy returns in his role as Jim’s dad Noah Levenstein.

The Book of Love succeeds in returning some lustre to this film franchise. The return to the basic premise (high school teens in lust) makes this one of the better sequels to the 1999 film, even if it cannot hope to match the quality of the original film.
 

Video
 

Both the R-rated version and the extended, unrated version of the film appear in a 1.78:1 aspect ratio. The unrated version is 2 minutes longer and contains expanded versions of several scenes with some extra nudity. The picture quality is consistently excellent throughout with none of the compression artifacts that are typically associated with 2 versions of a film on the same disc.

Audio
 

The English Dolby Digital 5.1 track has no apparent flaws but neither is it exceptional. Dialogue is typically through the center speakers with rear speakers primarily for soundtrack music and ambient noises. Dialogue always properly audible over background noise and music.
 

Special Features

The special features include all of the following:

Deleted Scenes (11:21): Scenes cut or edited down from the film are shown here. These scenes are worthwhile viewing because there are resolutions of minor subplots that were filmed but not included in the final cut of the rated or unrated editions. There is some funny stuff here that should have remained in the final film but at least we get to see it here.

Gag Reel (3:59): This is a short sequence of clips showing the cast and crew playing around on the set.

From the Set (19:23): Behind the scenes footage of certain scenes from the film are interspersed with short interview footage.

On the Set of American Pie: The Book of Love (8:06): Director John Putch hosts a brief behind the scenes mini-documentary regarding the film.

Just The Tips: The Love Manual (5:50): Cast and crew offer their tips on love and seduction.

American Pie Trivia (8:57): Kevin Horton tests the other cast and crew on their knowledge of American Pie trivia in a manner that allows viewers to play along, not interactively, but in a game show format.

American Pie-Cons (6:51): Cast and crew offer their comments regarding the celebrity cameo appearances in this film of Bret Michaels, Kevin Federline, Dustin Diamond, Christopher Knight, Robert Romanus, Tim Matheson, and Curtis Armstrong.
Trailers for the following films appear automatically prior to the main menu:  Smokin' Aces 2:  Assassin's Ball, Blu-Ray, A Perfect Getaway, and Despicable Me. 
 

Conclusion

American Pie Presents The Book of Love is a solid addition to this film franchise. This is not the rare sequel that surpasses the original film; at the same time, however, this film surpasses several of the most recent prior entries in this series. The producers selected a good cast for this film which makes one hope that many of these actors will return for the next installment. If sex comedies about horny teenagers are amusing to you, then you could do a lot worse than American Pie Presents The Book of Love.