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.

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.

This movie has made me laugh so hard, i started coughing and almost coughed my lungs out. First let me say that the movie has a ton of crude and distasteful humor which i could certainly do without, however no matter how crude or distasteful that humor might be to myself it is still neccessary. Why? Because what i find funny somebody else may think is stale. Granted most people find a scene where a toilet that has erupted feces all over a classroom is too much. However maybe there is still the ever watchful 3 percenters out their that need a quick fix, and managed to giggle when they saw it. So all i'm really saying is that the movie covers all bases(caters to the whole audience and keeps everybody entertained). They have mild humor(The kind that watches cheers,cosbys,roseanne, and friends) and excessive humor(The kind of audience that only appreciates MTV's jackass,beavis and butthead). Now that being said, I think the movie was better than awesome. It was a single achievement in that it successfully made fun at every teen flick from the span of the 80's till today. It was an extremely funny piece of work. I am really impressed with the actors and actresses, because they played their parts perfectly. Trust me there is no movie to date that even comes close to pulling off what this movie did. This movie damn well deserves a sequel, and i don;t mean straight to video either. This should have gotten the comedy of the year award. Scary movie 1 was good. Scary Movie 2 was better. NATM eats them for breakfast.

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!

I hate it when people make comments about these sorts of films saying that the story line is loose or vague or it has no real plot. The only reason for these films to have any sort of plot is to direct the jokes. I believe this films primary purpose is to make the viewer laugh and it does so in abundance. I went to see the film with an open mind not expecting to be blown away with a fantastic performance from the lead character or be intrigued by its deep and complex story line - its a light hearted no-brainer that does its job.

I think the problem most people have with this film is they haven't seen many of the films it spoofs which in turn would make it very unfunny. However it captures the essence of all teen movies and all the characters (although supposed to be from one movie or another) can be recognised in any of the teen movies.

It was always going to be a difficult task to include a good array of characters and movies to spoof but I believe director Joel Gallen has done a pretty decent job. Watch it with your mates and few beers!