The basic premise of "American Pie" is simple. Four high school seniors: Jim, Oz, Kevin, and Finch, make a pact that they will lose their virginity by prom night. This leads the characters through their own separate adventures.

Jim, the movie's central character, is a good student and not exactly the most popular guy in school. He also has a father (played by Eugene Levy) who tries to be a little too helpful with Jim's sexual development. Anyway, Jim first tries to score with Nadia, a horny foreign exchange student from the Czech Republic. When that attempt hilariously falls apart, he picks Michelle out of desperation. Michelle is an extremely annoying flute player who talks about nothing but band camp.

The second main character, Oz (Paul Metzler in "Election"), is a football and lacrosse player who isn't sensitive enough to attract many women. In an attempt to meet a girl and find his sensitive side, he joins the school's choir where he meets Heather. He must then try to keep playing lacrosse and look cool in front of his friends while singing in the choir and getting Heather to like him.

Kevin (the kid from "Rookie of the Year"), who came up with the idea of getting the four friends to lose their virginity before prom night, already has a girlfriend, Vicky. They just want the perfect time and place to have sex. Furthermore, Kevin must convince Vicky that he really loves her before she will do it with him.

Finally, there's Finch, who seems to be the most desperate of the four. He is extremely sophisticated and enjoys studying Latin. He is so desperate, in fact, that he finds a way to spread rumors about himself that make him sound cool.

"American Pie" also has a nice supporting cast. I already mentioned Nadia and Jim's father; there is also Oz's party animal friend from lacross, Steve Stifler; Vicky's sexually-experienced friend Jessica; and Sherman, a braces-wearing loser whose boasts of having sex prompts the four main characters to make their pact.

Lots of the humor in "American Pie" comes from the embarassing situations that the characters go through to reach their ultimate goal. And, although lots of the humor is crude, the movie has an innocent, romantic side to it. It's an outstanding comedy that's well worth seeing, provided that you don't take offense in excessive sexual humor.