Several reviews tried to compare this to the American Pie movies. It's easy to go into it with that impression. It plays a lot like the modern-era teen sex comedies. An occasional gross-out bit, some more explicit sexual material. Goofy supporting cast. Eugene Levy has been exchanged for a very pro-open communication mother and a repressive father.
As I watched the movie, I found that I started off being a bit bored and annoyed with it. The jokes weren't especially funny, and most of the charm came from setting the movie in 1993. The characters were mostly annoying, and even the brainy lead came across as having less humanity than she should. Then I went through a phase of feeling like it was… somehow wrong. In American Pie, the leads share a common goal of just having sex for the first time. In this case, the lead has a personal checklist of acts that she plans on accomplishing. Most of the fun of it comes from her not understanding what the acts entail. But as she goes through a few of these acts, you start to feel a little like this isn't going right.
(Consider how brutal American Pie would feel if instead of just a broad goal of losing their virginity, the guys had a checklist of all of the acts they were going to try to accomplish, and point values for them. And maybe they would have some kind of competition between them. Not a really nice idea.)
It's because the story shifted from seeming like it was going to be a female positive experience, into seeming more like a male sex fantasy. There's a considerable amount of time dedicated to this. Once some people find out about her checklist, they decide that they can use her list as a tool. This made a lot of the middle act kind of uncomfortable.
Eventually, the characters get better defined, and her relationships get developed a bit. This goes a long way to making the movie enjoyable.
By the end though, I felt like there were some missed opportunities. Her strange detachment from sex is weirdly off-putting. That isn't a sexist thing either - I find it just as creepy when guys are detached (which is why Stiffler is such a bastard. He draws the contrast)
Maybe the biggest problem that the movie suffers from is a big dose of wacky. There's far too much walking in on people having sex, or doing sexual things. In fact, it seems to be pretty consistent throughout the movie. Something like this doesn't work if there's no tension leading to it, especially since no one seems to remember it.
The big lesson that the lead learns over the course of the movie is that there is an emotional element to sex. Really. It would be one thing if she thought she was above it, and then she figured out that she loved someone. But nope, she doesn't love anyone, and it turns it into a movie about a robot gaining a tiny understanding into what makes people tick. It's pretty strange.
One very minor quibble. The sister's boyfriend is following Phish for the Summer. He calls from Las Vegas. I checked their tour dates, and closest they played to Las Vegas that Summer was at the end of August, and it was in Berkeley, CA. That's about a nine hour drive. Most of their shows were on the East coast.
Oh, and the lead is too attractive for the part. They try to make her look nerdy by having her wear glasses occasionally. I hate that cliche.
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