One notable thing about parody movies of the past, such as Scary Movie, Flying High and Naked Gun is that they all have themes, or to be more specific, target genres. The theme for Not Another Teen Movie funnily enough is teen movies. Now, the mention of teen movies would, for most, create the image of American Pie, Road Trip, Loser or Bring It On, but for this parody the makers have deliberately covered the genre going back much further. Older classics covered include Pretty in Pink, Losin' It, Valley Girl, Better Off Dead and The Breakfast Club. The intention of this is not only to attract a wider audience, but also to allow a much larger choice of material to parody.
Not Another Teen Movie does have a plot, well sort of, it's the same as a number of other plots but does provide some sort of flow to the film, rather than making it simply a series of sketches. Jake "the popular jock" has everything, he is popular, rich, the star of the football team and dating the head cheerleader.
"Let’s get this straight, this isn’t a cheerocracy, I am the cheertator, I make the cheercisions, I will deal with the cheeronsequences. If there are no more cheeruptions we can cheertinue! " |
When he is dumped by “the bitchy cheerleader”, he accepts a bet from Austin "the cocky blonde guy" that he can turn Janie "the pretty ugly girl" into his prom queen. She is of course considered ugly because she wears glasses and has a ponytail, not to mention the paint splattered overalls. That is pretty much the basic plot, but don't think for a second that it is that simple as this film has thousands of subplots, the main plot is simply there to give it some sort of continuation.
The predominant films used for parody here are She's All That, Varsity Blues, American Pie and Pretty in Pink, but one simple scene can contain literally hundreds of references to any number of films. Other films of note include Sixteen Candles, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, American Beauty, 10 Things I Hate About You, Porky's, Revenge of the Nerds, Flying High, Weird Science, Bring It On, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Road Trip, Grease, The Karate Kid, Risky Business, Save The Last Dance and Never Been Kissed - to name but a few.
A truly good parody is usually one that makes comedic references to dramatic or action films, when this is done to comedy films there is a huge risk that it won't work and therefore it simply won't be funny. Of course this is a personal choice, but this is a very amusing film. The laughs are not continuous and the constant "name that film" ethos tends to detract from the enjoyment at times, but when the laughs do come they are pretty big ones. This is a generalisation, of course, as what is funny to one person may not be funny to others, but there are also many other scenes that I personally wouldn't consider funny that many will find hysterical. This is because similar scenes have been used in other films and although this reviewer found them tasteless, the popularity of tasteless humour is evident.
Some of the characters featured deserve a mention. My personal favourite is Sandy Sue, the cheerleader based on a similar character in Grease, only this character suffers from Tourette’s. Other characters of note are the "token black guy", the "bitchy cheerleader", the "cruelest girl in school", the "desperate best friend", the "wannabe" and the "naked foreign exchange student". Most are based on one particular character from another film, but include many elements of other characters.
There are a few interesting cameos that should truly satisfy fans of '80s teen movies, but I won't give away who they are. There is also a touch too much reliance on the type of humour that can tend to turn the stomach, but as this is a standard ploy in teen movies, there is definitely a need for it here.
There are a few items of interest I discovered with this film, but as some readers may wish to discover these for themselves, consider this a warning. These are not plot spoilers in any way, they are just items of interest to look out for in the film.
Take note of the sign Anthony Michael Dining Hall. Anthony Michael Hall was a star in many of John Hughes' teen movies. Anthony Michael Hall was also hoping to appear in the film, but no role could be found to suit him. The school is named John Hughes High School after the famous filmmaker. Deon Richmond who plays Malik the "token black guy" was actually Kenny in the Cosby Show. The school logo name WASPS refers to the amount of "White Anglo Saxon Protestant" males in teen movies. Lacey Chabert's character is based on Jennifer Love Hewitt. Lacey of course starred with Hewitt in the hit TV series Party of Five. Ron Lester "the stupid fat guy" plays his own character from Varsity Blues, parodying himself. Paul Gleason also plays the same character he did in Breakfast Club.
Many more facts can be discovered by watching the extras or through listening to the commentaries, but these are just a few examples of how many references are contained in each scene. So much so that you can easily watch this film as a simple "spot the movie reference" viewing as well as a simple, silly comedy.