When American Pie became a surprise hit back in 1999 it heralded in a new breed of teenage T&A comedies where raunch and mild drama played footsie. It really wasn't that much different from comedies of the past such as Porky's apart from relying on more tasteless humour than the past and having way more characters focused on - which in turn, made the movie feel overlong at almost two hours. This brings us to Hooking Up, a low-budget sex comedy that tries to follow American Pie's footsteps but doesn't quite succeed. As an added bonus, or at least for name recognition on the DVD box, we get a handful of washed-up actors in side roles such as Corey Feldman (The Lost Boys), Brian O'Halloran (Clerks), and Bronson Pinchot (TV's "Perfect Strangers").

Right from the get-go writer Jeff Siegel and director Vincent Scordia let you know what kind of movie they're making opening with the line, "You ever taste your own cum?" This leads into a discussion of finding a girl with two vaginas before we're introduced to all the characters using a lousy looking MySpace like splash screen. There's sluttish April (Allyson Munoz), wannabe ladies man loser John (Parker Croft), brainy virgin Michelle (Leah Viens-Gordon), jocky Tyler (Ted Sangalis), and constantly masturbating Colin (Jim deProphetis). All of them seem to have the same goal in mind and that's to have a whole bunch of sex during their senior year. April enjoys oral sex but won't commit to intercourse, John just wants whatever he can get and has a foot fetish to boot (intended pun), Michelle wants to lose her virginity and targets Pinchot's teacher Mr. Kimbal, Tyler wants to get with April, and Colin just wants to get his rocks off.

In between scenes of the guys talking about such Urban Dictionary worthy subjects as glory holes and "Seagulling", Siegel's script is packed with crude dialogue galore, a ton of simulated fellatio, and more masturbation humour than is necessary. There's also a "dramatic" sub-plot involving sixteen-year-old Caroline (Alison Whitney) who is dating college guy Ryan (Corey Feldman, unsuccessfully being passed-off as 25 despite being 38) and endures his asshole attitude and cocaine snorting because she "loves him" and, evidently, enjoys curling up in a ball and crying on whatever bed is close-by. It's this mix of serious and raunch that doesn't work here. What also doesn't work, since this is a basic sex comedy, is that the only real skin on display is when Colin's watching a cheesy porno with a pizza delivery guy getting lucky. And I can't forget to mention the finale, which just not only contains a "what the f*ck?" threesome but sputters to a halt and attempts to resolve things by having a "One Week Later" collection of clips during the end credits.

Hooking Up certainly isn't the worst modern sex comedy I've seen, and I do admit to chuckling a couple of times and enjoying some of the performances, but I found that anytime Feldman was on-screen it became a tiresome mix of drug taking and abusive behaviour that took away from a script that is mostly going for dirty humour - which is made even more obvious by all the porn sounding music during sex related scenes.

On the acting front, most of the young cast come across as amateurish (which I guess is to be expected since most of them are making their acting debuts here) but I did enjoy Croft as unsuccessful lady killer John due to the constant smirk he has on his face throughout and Viens-Gordon isn't too bad as Michelle despite the character becoming a tramp footnote in the last third. I've made it quite clear that of the veteran actors here Feldman annoyed me but O'Halloran and Pinchot aren't around enough to even notice. My biggest disappointment has to be Whitney who I enjoyed in Bacterium but is stuck here having to look sad and bawling her eyes out all the time.

As low-budget sex comedies go, Hooking Up doesn't get a passing grade simply because Siegel and Scordia don't seem to know how to balance all their tasteless humour with serious moments. If they would have just gone for a dopey off-colour comedy along the lines of Road Trip and its ilk this would have been more enjoyable than it is. It's constantly derailed whenever Feldman's character is on screen and I found a handful of the jokes tended to not really go anywhere. As I said above, it's not a complete waste, but it's also nothing I can recommend. (Chris Hartley, 2/16/10)

Directed By: Vincent Scordia.
Written By: Jeff Siegel.

Starring: Corey Feldman, Brian O'Halloran, Bronson Pinchot, Parker Croft.

Picture Ratio: 2.35:1 Widescreen.

Picture Quality: Hooking Up looks to have been shot digitally giving it a clean looking and solid transfer with my only real complaint being that colours did look a tad washed-out at times. Otherwise, perfectly acceptable.

Extras: The screener copy I received only contained a trailer but the retail version with also contain a behind-the-scenes featurette, interviews, deleted and extended scenes, a blooper reel, an "Anatomy of a Scene" featurette and "The Large Pepperoni Pizza" which I assume is a full version of the porn clip Colin is watching on television.

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