American Reunion
Universal Pictures | Release Date: April 6, 2012 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
49
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 34 Critic Reviews
Positive:
9
Mixed:
20
Negative:
5
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
78
Austin ChronicleMarc SavlovApr 4, 2012
Of course, if you loathed the first film, this one probably won't do much to change your mind. But fans, and I count myself among them, of the Weitz brothers' unexpectedly enjoyable original will find themselves in a familiar and perhaps comforting place … filthy language, risqué situations, die-hard friendships, and all. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertApr 4, 2012
American Reunion has a sense of deja vu, but it still delivers a lot of nice laughs. Read full review
75
Entertainment WeeklyOwen GleibermanApr 4, 2012
American Reunion is about the comedy of middle-class men who can't be satisfied with sex until it looks like porn. Read full review
70
MovielineStephanie ZacharekApr 5, 2012
The picture is devilishly entertaining, not least because it's laced with just the sort of dumb raunchy jokes you hate yourself for laughing at. But it also preserves, to a degree, the elemental sweetness that made the original so distinctive. Read full review
70
Boxoffice MagazinePete HammondApr 4, 2012
The result is the best slice of Pie yet: a savvy sequel that's flat-out hilarious raunchy fun. Read full review
70
Village VoiceNick PinkertonApr 3, 2012
Taken altogether, the Pie movies offer a cohesive worldview, showing each of life's stages as the setting for fresh-yet-familiar catastrophes, relieved by a belief in sex, however ridiculous it might look, as a restorative force. Read full review
63
Rolling StonePeter TraversApr 5, 2012
The laughs that do achieve liftoff are killer. But the real kick is seeing the old gang back and ready to party. Read full review
63
Philadelphia InquirerSteven ReaApr 5, 2012
In some ways, American Reunion is the Charlize Theron indie "Young Adult" all over again: In both, a small-town high school reunion is the setting for a lot of nostalgia and narcissism and nasty behavior. Read full review
63
St. Louis Post-DispatchJoe WilliamsApr 5, 2012
There's some laughing gas left in the cupboard, but this series may require an infusion of new blood to last until "American Funeral." Read full review
60
Total FilmJonathan CrockerApr 30, 2012
Warning: contains Jason Biggs' wang and the contents of Stifler's bowels. Happily, the fourth, funny, (possibly) final serving of American Pie is also warm and nostalgic enough to satisfy. Read full review
60
TimeRichard CorlissApr 5, 2012
Guys and gals from the first film, now thicker and with incipient crow lines, pair up in more or less the same permutations as when they were young and shiny. The movie's message is that the way to face impeding maturity is to embrace your inner teen idiot. Read full review
60
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzApr 5, 2012
American Reunion depends more on the audience's feelings for recognizable characters than telling an original story, so adjust your expectations accordingly. Read full review
60
The Hollywood ReporterJohn DeForeApr 4, 2012
The wild card in all this remains Seann William Scott's Steve Stifler, the rampaging id whose indignation at his peers' maturity provides most of the film's real laughs. Read full review
60
Time OutJoshua RothkopfApr 3, 2012
Call it a strange and unintended benefit, then, that many of these generic characters work better as awkward adults than as teens. Read full review
50
Chicago ReaderJ.R. JonesApr 9, 2012
Writer-directors Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg are content to trot out the familiar gags and characters, and the murmurs of recognition I heard in the preview audience indicate that the series has become some kind of sad generational touchstone. Read full review
50
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliApr 8, 2012
This is a joyless experience made all the sadder because most viewers still remember the naughty delights delivered by "American Pie." Read full review
50
New York PostLou LumenickApr 6, 2012
Harmless if not exactly inspired, and rarely hilarious. Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Stephen ColeApr 5, 2012
Halfway through, everyone starts drinking heavily and the film turns into agreeably sloppy fun. (Isn't that always the way – class reunions often perk up when someone spikes the punch.) Read full review
50
USA TodayClaudia PuigApr 5, 2012
An immature obsession with sex at 17 seems understandable. But at 30 it's getting cringe-inducing. Read full review
50
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsApr 5, 2012
Now and then the movie rouses itself to deliver. If you go to American Reunion - and many will, if they harbor fond memories of the first one, and if they can find a sitter - you should stay through the end credits. Read full review
50
Miami HeraldRene RodriguezApr 5, 2012
The actors, many of them now in their mid-30s, look understandably fuller in the face and thicker around the waist. The jokes, too, are starting to show their age: They wobble. Read full review
50
The A.V. ClubKeith PhippsApr 4, 2012
The film alternates sloppily executed sex gags with sentiment, as did its predecessors. And it's all just slightly more endearing and amusing than it has any right to be. Read full review
50
Tampa Bay TimesSteve PersallApr 4, 2012
The movie's only constant pleasure - heck, the whole franchise's - is Eugene Levy as Jim's dad, widowed and wondering if it's time to date again. Read full review
50
Slant MagazineNick SchagerApr 4, 2012
Funnier than its prior two predecessors, if gratingly awash in demographic-pandering late-'90s alt-rock hits ("Closing Time," "Freshman"), American Reunion flounders with its earnest melodrama. Read full review
40
The GuardianPeter BradshawMay 7, 2012
Inevitably, the guys wind up sentimentally telling each other they should do this every year. Please no. Read full review
40
EmpireJames WhiteApr 30, 2012
The first couple of servings back in the day were fresh and fruity, but the franchise has been left on the shelf a little too long. It's occasionally entertaining to have these characters back in our lives, but for the most part this fails to party like it's 1999. Read full review
40
New York Daily NewsJoe NeumaierApr 5, 2012
What keeps the movie afloat, though, is Seann William Scott as Steve Stifler. Read full review
40
The New York TimesA.O. ScottApr 5, 2012
Remember "American Pie"? If you do, this movie is redundant and sad. If you don't, it's irrelevant. Read full review
40
VarietyJustin ChangApr 4, 2012
While it's poignant seeing the whole gang again, the tired gross-out antics and limp romantic reprisals keep this hapless if heartfelt effort from qualifying as a decent comedy, let alone a generational classic. Read full review
38
Washington PostMichael O'SullivanApr 5, 2012
An aggressively crass - and not especially funny - trip down memory lane, an attempt to recapture the sweetly ribald magic of the earlier film. As anyone who's ever attended a class reunion can tell you, it almost never works. Read full review
38
Boston GlobeWesley MorrisApr 5, 2012
The directors don't know how to make this new plot funny or infectious. Most promises of comedic pleasure go as unfulfilled Stifler's T-shirt. This movie hasn't a clue where to begin the donation process. Read full review
25
San Francisco ChronicleAmy BiancolliApr 5, 2012
American Reunion isn't a total wash. Its one saving grace is Eugene Levy as Jim's dad. Read full review
20
New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike ScottApr 6, 2012
In the half-baked American Reunion, though, they might have accomplished what no previous chapter has: They might have just killed it. Read full review
8
Portland OregonianM. E. RussellApr 5, 2012
Scenes will wander from gross-out gag to sentimental schmaltz to pervy leer to cheap nostalgia within a 30-second span, utterly free of clear directorial guidance. Even worse, very little of it is remotely funny. Read full review
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