Brandon at Random Reviews

In the summer of 2000, a film graced the silver screen titled “Scary Movie”. It parodied many popular horror films (mostly from the mid-to late 90s) and mocked many of their conventions. It breathed life into a genre of “spoof” movies that had not been done overly well since the early 90s Naked Gun films. “Scary Movie” proved to be a smash hit at the box office and spawned several sequels, each of a lesser level of quality than the last much like with the actual horror movies. I believe they stalled out at lucky number 5 after everything about the original had been bastardized.

A much better film that was in the same vein but targeting movies about kids in high school came out in 2001, the year following Scary Movie’s release. This flick was called “Not Another Teen Movie” and it perfectly and humorously mocks teen films like those made by John Hughes in the 80s as well as quite a few from the 90s. Buckle up, because the movies parodied include but are not limited to: She’s All That, 10 Things I Hate About You, Varsity Blues, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Porky’s, Risky Business, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Lucas, Pretty in Pink, Can’t Buy Me Love, The Breakfast Club, Better Off Dead, Sixteen Candles, The Karate Kid, Rudy, Heathers, License to Drive, Clueless, Can’t Hardly Wait, Road Trip, The Faculty, Pleasantville, American Beauty, American Pie, Cruel Intentions, Never Been Kissed, Bring It On, and many others. For an overly comprehensive list, check out the movie’s wiki page.

Now, there are a lot of actors in this movie, some familiar from other roles, some not. The most notable here is a young Chris Evans who is portraying a Freddy Prinze Jr. type for the most part and he does it with such great style and dead-pannishness, we should’ve known he was going places. This was his first major/starring role. Most of the other actors, although sometimes familiar, are not major enough to mention. They all do a great job with their roles, which are often amalgamations of several characters from multiple movies.

We get a lot of signature scenes and ideas pulled from the movies to be made fun of. Some of my favorites include the football scenes, the hype surrounding prom, and Janey’s home life that are just so spot on you can’t help but love them. There is some gratuitous sexual content, boys trying to lose their virginities, parties, cliques, people playing far too young an age, and melodrama surrounding family and backstories, which are all mainstays of the teen movie. I find this movie spectacular considering I wasn’t even a tremendously large fan of these types of movies originally and hadn’t seen a lot of them (I have since), but the comedy and satire still resonates with me. They really just know what they’re doing.

This movie is exactly what it set out to be and even more than that. The amount of satire presented here for so many concepts from different movies should not work as harmoniously as it does when woven together. It is so dense with different ideas blended into the story that empirical wisdom would tell you this should be a convoluted mess. But it isn’t. The music cues. The subtle and not-so-subtle signage and Easter eggs. None of these actors are winking at the camera, they’re all saying and doing these things without missing a beat. I realize that’s their job, but a lot of movies like this miss that aspect or don’t capture it as well.

I still adore this movie after 20+ years, and I know I’ve been giving too many reviews of movies I’ve enjoyed a lot lately but it’s way more fun. I’m still a little bummed I got like no fucking hits on my Batman (1989) review, but I guess that’s show biz baby. Check “Not Another Teen Movie” out, it’s currently on Netflix. Or it’s $12.99-$13.99 to buy on digital. Be financially responsible.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

“You never saw me as the girl with glasses and ponytail.”

“Don’t forget about the paint-covered overalls.”

“Right…you never noticed those, either.”