Not Another Teen Movie

It's gross, stupid, and raunchy and I love it! And you can tell that everyone involved had a great time, and that just adds to the experience. It also helps that I am a fan of a few of the movies that they make fun of like Sixteen Candles and The Breakfast Club. And even the stuff that isn't exactly funny gets a laugh out of me because it's all over-the-top in the best way.

The days of Airplane and Naked Gun are over. Nowadays, we have the Scary Movies, Spy Hard, Date Movie, Not Another Teen Movie, etc....of all of these, Teen Movie is quite easily the best one. The point of spoofs and satires, to me, are not just to take familiar scenes and do something retarded and gross with them, but instead to actually make fun of all the things in the original movies that, while watching them, we all turned to our friends and said "wait a minute, thats kind of stupid". Teen Movie does this extremely well. How many of us lucky movie fans who saw She's All That had trouble seeing why everyone in the movie thought the lead actress was ugly just because she had glasses and a ponytail? She was still a babe! How many of these teen movies give the main lead actress a friend who is clearly into her, but she always seems to ignore any possibility of romance between them, instead pursuing another character and asking for her friend's help/advice? How many people thought the characters in Cruel Intentions were just sexually over the top to the point of being absurd? Teen Movie pokes great fun at all of these flaws. It is, unlike many other movies that attempt to be like it, a true satire, taking characters and not just doing stupid things with them, but exaggerating the traits of their serious counterparts and, when it comes down to it, just making fun of them. It has surprisingly good plot cohesion while still making fun of a variety of teen movies. I suppose the best way to distinguish this movie from all other modern spoofs is that this one is truly intelligent. Sure it has some stupid jokes, and toilet humor (that I admit I chuckled at in disgust like the diarrhea scene and the lesbian kiss with the old woman), but it also has some very clever jokes, like when is it appropriate to start a slow clap, why do these teen movies seem to only have one black character, and how silly is it that things slow down for emphasis when the beautiful female lead enters the room. Please, give this one a chance. If you've seen the other modern spoofs, I'm confident you will appreciate the noticeable and subtle differences between them and Teen Movie that make the latter much more enjoyable and palatable to watch.

I like these sorts of movies. They seem easy to do well. "Scary Movie" is one I recommend and now this one as well.

There are a couple reasons why. The simplest one is that I have spend a thousand dollars and hundreds of hours or so watching all the movies that are made fun of here. This one movie gives me double the pleasure of that investment.

But there's something deeper. Slasher movies and their ilk are really high school movies. High school movies efficiently transport us in the first couple minutes to another world because it is not only a world defined by movies, but one that we experienced ourselves.

That world, though populated by human kids, is completely artificial. Every kid is playing a role; they have to because no kid has the raw material to build a life, so they copy one. Real kids play roles. So then they go to the movies and see those same roles displayed and shaken a bit but ever so gently. Movies create life which creates movies.

But modern kids (some of them anyway) and movie audiences are much more intelligent than in the past. They demand "folded" entertainment, movies that simultaneously engage them at the manipulative level and at the same time step outside the game and make fun of it.

That's what this is. It is a real teen movie made up of bits of what went before just like all teen movies. But at the same time it is an annotation on top of that, an annotation that blows holes in every element of it. So what if the ammunition is juvenile; what else would be as effective?

Unlike nearly all real high school and slasher movies, and unlike the stuff called spoofs, this movie actually has a satisfying end. What better than bringing out the big gun, Molly? What better than having her write and conduct the ending?

Ted's Evaluation -- 3 of 3: Worth watching.

Not Another Teen Movie, like Scary Movie, this is a parody of what the 1990's had to offer us, the romantic teen comedies! How many of them do we loathe? But how many were also great? Not Another Teen Movie makes fun of movies from the 80's to the 90's and is very clever. I saw this movie with a friend and honestly, while there are a few parts that were a little too much for me, I don't exactly dig potty humor, but there are some really funny scenes. It was fun to see someone finally make fun of the all the clichés that were rubbed in our faces: the nerdy girl turning into the hot girl, clichéd characters that would never be friends but somehow are, the best friend in love with the other friend who's in love with the popular kid, you get the drill.

In the stereotypical high school community of John Hughes High sexy Priscilla, a popular cheerleader, separates from her boyfriend, Jake Wyler. After Jake discovers that Priscilla is now dating strange and socially inept Les just to spite him, one of Jake's friends, Austin, suggests seeking retribution by making Janey Briggs, a "uniquely rebellious girl", the prom queen. Jake attempts to court Janey's love, but faces adversity from his own sister Catherine, who is sexually attracted to him, Janey's unnoticed admirer and best friend Ricky, and memories from his past football career. Catherine eventually helps her brother by slightly altering Janey's appearance, ultimately making her more attractive to the other characters. Meanwhile, Janey's little brother, Mitch, and his friends, Ox and Bruce, make a pact to lose their virginity by Graduation even though they are still in their Freshmen year. Making fun of movies like: She's All That, Cruel Intentions, American Pie, The Breakfast Club, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Drive Me Crazy, American Beauty, and Pretty in Pink , Not Another Teen Movie leaves no film left alone to show us the utter cliché that came with every teen movie out of the 90's.

Like I said, there are some moments that are a little much, this is a pretty raunchy comedy, but I think it's just making fun of the in your face movies with the sick humor as well. I mean there's potty humor and hard core nudity, but I digress. There are some really funny moments in this movie, wither it was the random song the cast breaks into about their excitement for the prom or the whole introduction of the clichéd characters. The cast looked like they had a blast making this movie and I had a lot of fun watching it as well. I would recommend it for those who love satire and parodies, I did warn you though about the raunchiness, so if you have a weak stomach, you may wanna fast forward through a few parts.

7/10

While it fails almost as often as it succeeds, there's so much going on here I couldn't help but like it. You REALLY have to be familiar with the material being spoofed, though. And part of the fun is ticking them all off in your mind if you're a movie geek like me.

NATM has two levels and target audiences. For teens who have seen all the recent flicks, it's a direct, Mad magazine style parody. For 30 somethings like me, it's an homage to the 80's flicks. The opening scene is an obvious "American Pie" spoof, but in a much more subtle way, it's drawing on "Sixteen Candles". To top it off, the scene is still funny even if you haven't seen either targets. Bruce (Sam Levine from Freaks & Geeks) is a parody of Seth Green's character in "Can't Hardly Wait", but he's also an homage to Long Duk Dong.

Several people have mentioned that kids probably haven't seen the old flicks and older people haven't seen the new ones. Well, if you're a kid, you don't need to have seen the old flicks to appreciate it as a broad parody. The 80's jokes tend to sit in the background- like the signs on the walls and the musical cues in the Molly Ringwald scene (which actually was a weak point IMO). And I've found that most people my age HAVE seen most of the newer teen movies. They came out just about the time we were starting to get married, buy houses, have real jobs. And they were a nice bit of nostalgia for our youth. Even if we didn't go pay $7.50 to see them, we've seen them on USA on saturday afternoon.

It's no accident the that soundtrack is almost entirely new, young bands doing covers of 80's songs.

As far as the gross-out factor goes, it's really not that bad. The filthy opening scene is forgivable because it's so dang funny. There is one gory joke on the football field. (A "Lucas" homage inside a "Varsity Blues" parody.) A sick unfunny scatalogical joke at the beginning of the movie pays off with a big laugh when it's turned around at the end. And the mother of all "poo" jokes is tempered by the fact that the victim is a delivering a tirade against "poo" jokes. And then there's granny's kiss- unfunny and nasty. But it's nowhere near the level of "Scary Movie". It's also nice to see a movie like this without any gay jokes or fat jokes. (There is a fat guy, but being fat isn't the joke.) Under the filth, this is a pretty gentle movie.

I avoided this when it came out, but another 30-something friend recommended it to me recently. I'd recommend it to anyone who old enough to have seen "Sixteen Candles" in a theatre...as long as you've seen most of the newer flicks as well.

Oh...LOVED the slow clap guy!