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Not
Another Teen Movie
Not
Another Teen Movie Cast : Joy
Bisco, Lacey Chabert, Eric Jungmann, Chris Evans, Joanna Garcia,
Sam Huntington, Randy Quaid.
Director : Joe
Gallen
Written By : Buddy
Johnson and Phil Beauman
Producers : Bob
Weinstein(Executive
Producer)
During my teen years I like many in my peer group were portrayed
by characters in a series of films that dealt with teen issues
and lifestyles. Most of the better films were by John Hughes
who in his pre Home Alone days gave us many classics in this
genre. Films ranging from The Breakfast Club,
Sixteen Candles, Pretty in Pink and
Ferris Bueller's Day Off, not only made stars
out of a bevy of young actors, but created scenarios and characters
that became part of the American culture.
As the 1990s came around teen films underwent a change. The
Brat Pack as they became known were to old to play the rolls
that made them famous and forced them to make the difficult
transition from teen stars to adult rolls that were far less
successful then their earlier works. Before long a new generation
of teen stars ranging from Freddie Prinze Jr. to Jason Biggs
emerged. The fact that many of the actors were in there twenties
was of little concern to audiences as teens once again flocked
to the theaters.
Many of the new films lacked the charm of the previous generation
of films but they did continue the traditions of horny teens
learning about life and love in settings and situations that
were far more common in Hollywood than they ever would be
in reality. As the quality of the films dropped, it became
harder and harder to tell them apart, as casts and titles
were so generic that distinguishing between them was difficult
for even the most devoted fans.
In 2000 Keenan Ivory Wayans took aim at the horror film genre
and had audiences laughing in the aisles with Scary
Movie. The fact that the rushed sequel was not as popular
seemed to make little difference to filmmakers as it turned
a profit and showed that spoof films have a built in audience.
With the horror genre already covered, screenwriters Mike
Bender and Adam Epstein decided to take aim at teen films
and created Not Another Teen Movie. The movie
is a mixed bag of spoofs and scenes that are all too familiar
to anyone who has ever seen a teen film in the last twenty
years. The film is set in John Hughes High School and features
the usual assortment of characters. There is the beauty in
nerds clothing Janey Briggs (Chyler Leigh), The air headed
but rich and popular jock Jake Wyler(Chris Evans), The Obsessive
best friend Ricky (Eric Jungmann), The bitchy cheerleader
Priscilla( Jamie Pressly), The cruel girl Catherine Wyler
(Mia Kirshner), and the Token Black Guy Malik (Deon Richmond).
The characters also have a myriad of peers who are inspired
from a range of teen films. The fat best friend, the sexy
exchange student, and the geeks after sex, are just a few
of the familiar characters that spend far more time getting
in and out of trouble than they ever do in their classrooms.
The film does not have much of a plot in keeping with the
films that inspired it. It is a mixture of scenes and scenarios
from the films that inspired it. What it does have is an abundance
of jokes some of which are very crude but also very funny.
I was gagging at the re-enactment of the Lesbian kiss scene
from Cruel Intentions and the Grease
parody was inspired. The film loses its pacing towards the
end of the film, and some of the jokes bomb badly. The filmmakers
seem to be using the old Airplane style that the
Zucker brothers perfected of bombarding the audience with
jokes and taking the laughs when they arrive. For the most
part this strategy works. While it is not going to win any
awards or set standards for quality filmmaking, Not
Another Teen Movie has some laughs and if you do not
mind crude humor, you may just find yourself laughing along
with the film as the press audience did. One of the biggest
treats of the film is trying to discover what film they are
spoofing before they move on to the next scene and spotting
the number of cameos in the film. It is obvious that the creative
forces did not take the film to seriously and if you do not,
you just might find yourself laughing along.