American Pie: Beta House Review

American Pie Presents: Beta House is the sixth film in the series (the third to be made just for video) and at this point they're not even trying any more. There's a razor thin plot that serves to barely tie together one raunchy skit after another that touches on just about every sexual and scatological subject you can think of without ever managing to be funny.

The movie begins with Erik Stifler (John White) and his best friend Cooze (Jake Siegel) arriving at some unnamed college to begin their freshman year. The college is the kind of school that only exists in the daydreams of eighth grade boys; the dorms have coed bathrooms, the school has an on-campus porno mag that exclusively features students, and every woman sports implants and can't wait to rip her clothes off for the first guy who happens along. No one seems to care about or even mention classes, and the movie didn't even bother to cast anyone as a professor or the obligatory uptight dean. I wouldn't be surprised if the producers raided the local strip clubs to cast the film's extras.

Erik and Cooze waste no time in pledging the Beta house where Erik's cousin Dwight (Steve Talley) is the resident party-meister. In order to become full-fledged members they need to complete a list of 50 tasks, all of which are, of course, sexual in nature. The movie actually spends very little time on these tasks and soon moves on to the rivalry between the Beta house and what is apparently the only other fraternity on campus, the Geek house. The movie never really bothers to explain why there is such deep animosity between the houses, but the rivalry heats up to the point where Beta alumnus Noah Levenstein (Eugene Levy) is called in to preside over the resurrection of the once-banned Greek games which will hopefully settle the rivalry once and for all.

Beta House could have been titled "30 jokes about 30 raunchy topics". Defecation, urination, and fornication are the central themes here, all dowsed in liberal quantities of alcohol. There's no real effort to deal with any of this in a clever or witty manner. Instead the filmmakers apparently feel that the mere mention of these topics is humorous in and of itself, and the lack of effort on their part can be hidden by the liberal use of shots of topless women. The overall lazy approach to the film extends to the acting, with Levy taking the cake. I wouldn't be surprised if he spent one day on location reading his lines from a cue card so that he could pick up an easy paycheck on his way out of the door.

The filmmakers couldn't be bothered to put much effort into making Beta House, so you shouldn't be bothered to watch it. If you want to see campus comedy done right, go rent Animal House for an evening instead.

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