Not Another Teen Movie

''Not Another Teen Movie'' is a 2001 American teen parody film directed by Joel Gallen and written by Mike Bender, Adam Jay Epstein, Andrew Jacobson, Phil Beauman, and Buddy Johnson. It features Chyler Leigh, Chris Evans, Jaime Pressly, Eric Christian Olsen, Eric Jungmann, Mia Kirshner, Deon Richmond, Cody McMains, Sam Huntington, Samm Levine, Cerina Vincent, Ron Lester, Randy Quaid, Lacey Chabert, Riley Smith and Samaire Armstrong.

Released on December 14, 2001 by Sony Pictures Releasing under its Columbia Pictures label, the film is a parody of teen films released during the 1980s and 90s. The general plot is primarily derived from '' She's All That'', as well as '' 10 Things I Hate About You'', '' Can't Hardly Wait'', ''Pretty in Pink'', and '' Varsity Blues''. It is also filled with allusions to other films featuring teen and college-aged characters, such as '' American Beauty'', '' American Pie'', '' Bring It On'', ''Can't Buy Me Love'', '' Cruel Intentions'', '' Dazed and Confused'', '' Fast Times at Ridgemont High'', ''Ferris Bueller's Day Off'', '' Grease'', '' Jawbreaker'', ''Lucas'', '' Never Been Kissed'', '' Risky Business'', '' Road Trip'', '' Rudy'', and '' Sixteen Candles'', while Paul Gleason reprises his role as Vice Principal Vernon from '' The Breakfast Club''.

Plot

In the stereotypical high school community of John Hughes High in Southern California, Priscilla, head cheerleader, separates from her football star/slacker boyfriend, Jake Wyler. Discovering she is now dating timid and weird Les to spite him, one of Jake's friends, Austin, makes a bet with him to turn nerdy Janey Briggs into the prom queen. Janey is not insecure enough to feel any need to change herself, nor does she feel anything for him at first, but that does not stop him from trying.

As Jake attempts to court Janey, he faces adversity from his own sister, Catherine, who is sexually attracted to him; Janey's unnoticed admirer and best friend, Ricky Lipman; and memories from his past football career. Catherine assists him by "drastically" altering Janey's appearance (removing her glasses and ponytail), instantly making her drop-dead gorgeous.

Meanwhile, Janey's younger brother, Mitch, and his friends Ox and Bruce, make a pact to lose their virginity by graduation. Mitch tries to impress his longtime crush, Amanda Becker, with a love letter.

As the prom draws near, Jake becomes known for failing to lead the football team to victory at last year's state championship game. Austin then tricks Jake into telling Janey about his bet to spite Priscilla, pretending to whisper the secret bet in Janey's ear, causing her to leave upset. On prom night, Austin and Janey go together; a jealous Jake and Catherine have a dance-off with Austin and Janey, with Catherine dancing in a sexual manner. Janey runs off crying.

Meanwhile, Mitch and his friends are having a lousy time until Amanda arrives and Mitch gives her the letter (to which she responds she does not have sex with every loser who does such, but gives them handjobs), Bruce hooks up with foreign exchange student Areola, and Ox hooks up with Catherine.

Jake is awarded prom king, and the votes for prom queen are tied. Everyone thinks that it is between Janey and Priscilla, but they are shocked when conjoined twins Kara and Sara Fratelli win prom queen. During the prom king and queen dance, Janey supposedly left with Austin to go to a hotel.

Jake goes to the hotel room where he finds Austin having sex with a girl but is shocked to find that it is Priscilla and not Janey, while Les videotapes them with his pants down. Austin tells Jake that Janey "ran home to her daddy." Jake punches Austin and Priscilla, knocking them unconscious for humiliating Janey. He then punches Les for "being really weird"; afterwards, he runs to Janey's, only to be told she is on her way to art school in Paris.

Jake confronts her before she boards the plane, but uses a plethora of clichéd lines from other film to convince her to not go. His final (and only original) speech suggests they would be better off separated, but Janey mistakenly believes he is quoting '' The Karate Kid'', and she decides to stay with him.

In a mid-credits scene, Janey's father Mr. Briggs drunkenly assaults himself with pies in his kitchen. In a post-credits scene, a previously seen albino folk singer, an afroed student with a guitar, reveals that she has become blind and calls out for assistance upon completing her song, while an audience member calls for another to assist in stealing her guitar.

Cast

Many stars of teen films, as well as those from the 1980s, make credited and uncredited appearances. These include:
* Molly Ringwald as "The Rude, Hot Flight Attendant"; Ringwald starred in many '80s teen films, most significantly ''Pretty in Pink'', '' Sixteen Candles'' and '' The Breakfast Club''.
* Mr. T as "The Wise Janitor", a parody of Charles S. Dutton's character from '' Rudy''; ''The A-Team''s opening sequence music is playing at the end of his speech.
* Kyle Cease as "The Slow Clap Guy"; Cease himself played Bogey Lowenstein in '' 10 Things I Hate About You''.
* Melissa Joan Hart (''uncredited'') as "Slow Clapper's Instructor"; Hart can also be seen in '' Can't Hardly Wait'' and '' Drive Me Crazy''. The commentator at the football game praises Hart and ''Sabrina the Teenage Witch''.
* Lyman Ward as Mr. Wyler, representing the "Out-of-touch Father" best represented by Noah Levenstein (Eugene Levy) in ''American Pie''; Ward played Ferris Bueller's father in ''Ferris Bueller's Day Off''.
* Paul Gleason as Richard "Dick" Vernon; Gleason reprises his role as Vernon from '' The Breakfast Club''.
* Sean Patrick Thomas as "The Other Token Black Guy"; Thomas appeared in '' Can't Hardly Wait'', '' Cruel Intentions'' and '' Save the Last Dance''.
* Good Charlotte as the band playing at the prom.

Music

The film's score is composed by Theodore Shapiro and consists largely of contemporary covers of 1980s pop and new wave hits. The musical number, "Prom Tonight", written by Ben Folds, Michael G. Bender, Adam Jay Epstein and Andrew Jacobson, is a parody of '' Grease''. The song was never released commercially.

A soundtrack was released by Maverick Records on December 4, 2001. A cover of a-ha's "Take On Me" by the band Lifer was recorded but went unreleased.

A karaoke version of the ending to " Can't Fight this Feeling" by REO Speedwagon is used each time Amanda Becker enters a scene.

Songs not included on the soundtrack include " Line Up" by Elastica, " In Between Days" and " Turning Japanese" by Face to Face, "Lucy", "Don't You Forget About Me", "Everybody Knows Everything" and "Friends" by Sprung Monkey, "Yoo Hoo" by Imperial Teen, "Double Dare Ya" by Bikini Kill, "Rock Star" by Everclear, " Oh Yeah" by Yello, " Kiss Me" by Sixpence None the Richer, " Let's Go" by the Cars, "Pacific Coast Party" by Smash Mouth, "Let's Begin (Shoot the Shit)" by Bad Ronald, "True" and "King of Yesterday" by Jude, "900 Number" by The 45 King, " My Hero" by Foo Fighters, " I Want Candy", "Put Your Head on My Shoulder" and " Footloose" by Good Charlotte, " Space Age Love Song" by No Motiv, and " If You Were Here" by Thompson Twins.

Release

''Not Another Teen Movie'' opened theatrically on December 14, 2001. It was released on region 1 DVD on April 30, 2002, with an "unrated extended version" on July 26, 2005. This cut runs ten minutes longer than the original, and adds a number of deleted, alternate and extended scenes.

Box office

The film opened at third place at the US box office taking $12.6 million in its opening weekend. It grossed $38.3 million domestically and $28.2 million internationally, for a worldwide total of $66.5 million.

Critical response

Rotten Tomatoes gave the film an approval rating of 32% based on 102 reviews, with an average rating of 4/10. The site's critics consensus states: "''NATM'' has some funny moments, but the movie requires the audience to have familiarity with the movies being spoofed and a tolerance for toilet and sexual humor to be truly effective." Metacritic gave the film a weighted average score of 32 out of 100 based on 22 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "C+" on an A+ to F scale.

Roger Ebert of the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' gave the film two stars out of a possible four, and admitted to laughing a few times but not as much as he did for ''American Pie'' or ''Scary Movie''. Ebert also criticized the scatological humor. He urged audiences to not waste their time on the film, when in the month of December 2001 there were "21 other promising films" to choose from.

Robin Rauzi of the ''Los Angeles Times'' called it "a 90-minute exercise in redefining the word 'gratuitous and suggested it is most likely to appeal to fourteen-year-olds – "who of course renot supposed to be seeing this R-rated movie". Dennis Harvey of '' Variety'' criticized the film for its "overall tendency to mistake mere bad taste for outrageousness, and plain referentiality for satire" but praised Evans, Pressly, and Olsen for giving performances better than the material. He noted that the film follows the model of ''Scary Movie'' but lacked the comic finesse of Anna Faris.

Mick LaSalle of the ''San Francisco Chronicle'' called the film "a crass act" and pointed out the futility of trying to parody films that are already absurd. LaSalle complained that the film too closely copies ''She's All That'', calling it "pathetic" that ''Not Another Teen Movie'' is just another formulaic teen movie.

See also

* Spoof film

References

External links

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2000s American films
2000s English-language films
2000s high school films
2000s parody films
2000s teen sex comedy films
2001 comedy films
2001 directorial debut films
2001 films
American high school films
American parody films
American sex comedy films
American teen comedy films
Cheerleading films
Columbia Pictures films
Films about proms
Films about sibling incest
Films directed by Joel Gallen
Films produced by Neal H. Moritz
Films scored by Theodore Shapiro
Films set in airports
Films set in California
Films shot in Los Angeles
Original Film films
English-language sex comedy films