The American Pie franchise hit the brick wall with this sad straight-to-DVD sequel that tries hard to get over the hump of its dreadful predecessor even if it can't help failing in the same exact ways. The sophomoric gags are still present, but they lack the audacity that propelled the series' most memorable laughs. And as the characters were once at the heart of the story, this fourth outing offers up a whole new slew of bland teens in heat, yet is once again headed by a member of the Stifler clan, here played with amazing likeness to Seann William Scott by newcomer Tad Hilgenbrinck. There's no doubt about this kid's talent, but it's a hard sell to base a film off of this type of character, besides the fact that almost no other jokes are offered by any other piece of the cast -- with the exception of Eugene Levy. Despite his character's out-of-nowhere appearance, the former SCTV'er pulls a few zingers out of his reserves, but is mainly used as a bridging device for the series. There's also something to be said about the young white teenaged protagonist spending thousands of dollars on spy equipment without batting an eye -- something that either reeks of lazy scripting or is yet another reason to despise this new crop of horny, spoiled suburbanite characters.