'This One Time, At Band Camp'

By Tony F. Rezac

That damn phrase from American Pie was so over used by our generations during our younger more naive days, that it rivaled "knock-knock" as the start to the most jokes.

About a month ago I watched Van Wilder for the first time in a couple years and I was very disappointed. But I wasn't worried because it was on in the background and I wasn't paying close attention to it. Then, I received a care package full of movies, and one of those movies happened to be "American Pie." Logically I was excited because I remembered this movie to be absolutely hilarious the last time I saw it - which was about 5 years ago. I took a moment to think after I was finished watching it, and I was shocked when I realized that I did not laugh one time. Have we grown up so quickly that the "childish" humor demonstrated in those kind of films has lost all of it's appeal? Have fart jokes and tits become an old hat? Or is there some bigger problem with teen comedies today? Let’s discuss further, shall we?

How will "teen angst" movies of our generation be remembered? Not well, I'm afraid. American Pie, Van Wilder, Can't Hardly Wait, She's All That, the list goes on and on. They all suck, they were all cookie cutter scripts, starring some dude you never saw again and some good looking broad that ended up in rehab. They offer up some cheap laughs for sure, but once you watch it once you've seen it one time too many. How is it that I can relate more to movies that were made before I knew what foreplay meant or what a joint was, but I can't even sit through movies that were made specifically for my demographic?

I know the 80's were the golden age, when the brat pack ruled the roost, for teen drama and comedy. But the 70's released some pretty good movies with staying power also. Most happen to star John Travolta but they are still good movies - Grease, Saturday Night Fever, American Graffiti just to name a few.

Is the acting pool shallower than ever before? Or is it that the crop of writers in Hollywood has dried up? When I say the acting pool is shallow, I only need to mention one name Tara Reid, she was smokin' hot in both American Pie and Van Wilder. But anyone who caught her show on E! "Taradise" knows what I'm talking about. And its obvious writers are plain running out of ideas - when was the last time an original idea became a blockbuster? Everything is a re-make, or an adaptation from a book or tv.

I hate how the one great movie about teenage life made in the 90's, takes place in the 70's, "Dazed and Confused."

If I'm wrong here please comment and tell me, I have racked my brain trying to think of more good movies from our generation, and I can't come up with one. And the internet is no help, when I search for teen movies or anything along those lines all that pops up is porno. Which is nice, but not what I'm looking for.