First time director Paul Weitz (best known before this for writing Antz) and first time writer Adam Herz (it's his first time, so he isn't best know for anything before this) score with the sweet but very funny story of four high school friends. The four boys are all seniors and have entered into a pact to lose their virginity by prom night. This presents several problems since only one of the four even has a girlfriend.

The humor pushes right to the very edge of the envelope. Nothing involving bodily fluids, excretions or anything else for that matter seems to be going "too far" as far as Weitz and Herz are concerned. But it didn't give us too much of this gross-out humor. We got enough to make us laugh without making us gag. Well, we might have gagged just a bit when one character guzzles down a beer that has had a sperm chaser added without his knowledge. Then again, if Cameron Diaz can wipe the stuff off of Ben Stiller's ear in There's Something About Mary, why not turn it into a beer chaser?

The reason we aren't offended at the gross-out stuff is because of the incredibly sweet story being woven in front of us. Each of the four "heroes" has the kind of character arc that involves sufficient growth that when the inevitable prom-night climax is finally presented to us, we believe that they've earned exactly what is coming to them.

At the risk of repeating myself, the key test of a comedy is if it can make you laugh. American Pie passes that test easily. But it goes above and beyond that simple bar, rising to a higher level where we not only laugh, but we are made to feel good about the characters and that makes laughing that much more enjoyable.