Honestly, I pretty much forgot the film as soon as I saw it. It has one purpose in life, to be mindless entertainment to stop thinking for a few moments and revel in absurd banality. It was some cheap fun, cheap laughs, and a little bit of a touching story. And I have to admit, so as to let on to a small bias, I find Alyson Hannigan, who played Michelle, absolutely bewitching. I'm a sucker for romance and I easily fall in love with Hannigan. And, although I'm almost afraid to admit any of this for fear of being banished from the realm of respect, there were some pleasant surprises to find that were particularly fun to see. I, of course, won't spoil them for you, but I can positively say the dog incident wasn't one of them. So, to conclude this introduction, everyone needs some cheap fun, especially critics like us who think hard about everything. Something that requires no thought at all and you can forget as soon as its done.

'American Wedding' trades their trademark focus on the group of bachelors for a focus primarily on the very two to lose their bachelorhood, namely Jim and Michelle. Maybe it was a ploy to exploit their greatest assets in their franchise, the uncontested break out star within the series, and the cute wicca from the "Buffy" series, and band camp. Maybe it was simply an honest change to the next obvious step in the 'American (insert noun here)' money maker. Either way, it was a pleasant change. Of all the films, and with its new direction, this film has the strongest story and most character development of all the films. Unfortunately, that doesn't say much, but its nice to know they tried.

Particularly interesting was their choice to develop Stifler's character, played by Seann William Scott. Also interesting is the fact that they dummed him down first. It was like leaving college and driving a mini bus (oddly enough the second time for Seann Scott who stole and drove a similar bus in 'Road Trip' in 2000) simultaneously sucked out most of his more 'street smarts' intelligence, and drove him to a certain cheesiness and patheticness. I know what you are asking yourself, "So.... what exactly changed then?" Well, in the previous films he was the figure of experience, superiority, and knowing to this foursome of seemingly sad individuals. In this one, Stifler has been stupified to an almost 'wacky' subordinate to these same individuals, and without any of the what is now three really changing any since the first film. Was it necessary? Not in the least, and it would have better kept the group dynamic if he hadn't been so irrationally changed. Or are the writers trying to say that the big guys in our schooling years immediately change over to pathetic tag-a-longs the moment they leave it all? Either way, the film would have been stronger without the unexplained change.

As far as his character's development, however, Stifler for once grew in dimensionality. A curious thing to do to a flagship of the here-to-for winning group dynamic. His bold, loud, oblivious, obnoxious character was a potent element to producing this very dynamic. It both created a striking contrast to this otherwise drab group, and acted as a catalyst to get the mixture popping. Further boosting its success, was Stiflers constant embarrassment and repulsion at these characters while irresistably and proactively drawn to them. Part of this was already chipped away the second they dummed him down as previously explained. Still, they chose to risk it all by playing with the depth of his character. The film progressively shows the revealing of Stifler's humanity, and even bringing it out boldly to the surface to become someone with almost as much thought and concern as any of the rest of the group. I won't give much more away for fear of revealing too much, but it is a traditional hollywood comedy afterall, we all know its going to turn out with everything right.