Not Another Teen Movie **1/2
Directed by: Joel Gallen
Written by: Michael G. Bender, Adam Jay Epstein, Andrew Jacobson, Phil Beauman and Buddy Johnson
Starring: Chyler Leigh, Jamie Pressley, Deon Richmond, Eric Jungman, Lacey Chabert, Chris Evans, Paul Gleason, Sam Huntington, Ron Lester, Cody McMains, Riley Smith, Randy Quaid, Chris Evans and some cameos
Rated R (nudity, teen-oriented comedy)
Don’t let the title fool you – Not Another Teen Movie is just that: another teen movie. The cast is photogenic, everything is predictable, there’s gratuitous nudity, and it all works out in the end.
If you’ve seen any of the ‘teen’ movies EVER made, you already know what Not Another Teen Movie is about. Take bits and pieces from (in no particular order) She’s All That, Cruel Intentions, Grease, any movie directed by John Hughes, American Pie, I Know What You Did Last Summer, Lucas, Rudy, any of the sports movies that didn’t star Denzel Washington or Gene Hackman, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Clueless, Bring It On, Can’t Hardly Wait, Pretty in Pink, American Beauty and Better Off Dead. Now that you’ve got those, and probably some that I forgot to mention, watch Airplane!, The Naked Gun, Kentucky Fried Movie, and Hot Shots!, and Dumb and Dumber, and then you have Not Another Teen Movie.
You already know the cast – they’re all stock characters. The Popular Jock (Smith), The Pretty Ugly Girl (Leigh), The Nasty Cheerleader (Pressley), The Beautiful Weirdo (Smith), The Obsessed Best Friend (Jungman), The Desperate Virgin (Evans)... just look at the movie poster. It has everything you need to know right there. You already know what’s going to happen, because it is, despite the title, another teen movie. The only difference between this and I Can’t Hardly Wait to Bring It to the Clueless Ridgemont High Breakfast Club is that the jokes in this movie are intentional.
Some of the jokes are clever. The school’s name is John Hughes High. The cafeteria is the Anthony Michael Dining Hall. Some of the jokes are laugh-out-loud funny. Some of the jokes are big-old gross-outs. And that's fine. Unfortunately, it’s all been done before, and better.
What was right with the flick? The soundtrack, first of all. Nearly all of the classic ‘themes’ are represented: “Don’t You Forget About Me”, “Oh, Yeah”, “Bizarre Love Triangle” – they’re all there, but they’re covered by bands like Orgy, Goldfinger and Face To Face.. The covers are good, but originals would have been better. The cast was also good. Mostly no-names, but no-names with some measure of comic timing and/or physical comedy skills.
What was bad? Some of the movies that were being parodied were wrong choices. Grease? Absolutely. She’s All That? More power to you. The Breakfast Club? Why? Better Off Dead? Wasn’t that a spoof in the first place?
Most of the time, Not Another Teen Movie is just awfully pleased with its own cleverness. Part of it seems like an homage to Jim Abrams, Jerry Zucker and David Zucker (the men behind Airplane! and The Naked Gun) put together by high school kids. The writers know what’s funny, but don’t know why a joke is funny, which is critical for a spoof. Airplane! worked because it was acted seriously. The actors behaved like they were in a disaster movie. When Leslie Neilson says “Don’t call me Shirley,” he’s not playing it for laughs, and that’s why the joke is funny, apart from the pun. When this flick is spoofing teen ‘dramas’, it works just fine. When it’s adding it’s own absurd jokes, it’s funny. When it’s trying to spoof a comedy, well, that’s just asking for trouble.
If you’re looking for an homage to a filmmaker, check out Mallrats (Kevin Smith’s tribute to John Hughes) or The People Under The Stairs (Wes Craven’s love letter to Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead series). If you’re looking for a Cameron (Fast Times at Ridgemont High) Crowe fix, Vanilla Sky opens this week. If you really want to see a spoof, anything involving the Zucker Brothers is good (except for Ghost, which isn’t meant to be a comedy). If you want to have some cheap laughs, some occasionally clever pop-culture references and sight-gags, and some brief nudity, then Not Another Teen Movie is probably right up your alley.
