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  Directed by
  Starring
  Specs
  • Widescreen 1.85:1
  • 16:9 Enhanced
  • Dual Layer (RSDL )
  Languages
  • English: Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround
  • Spanish: Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround
  Subtitles
    English, Spanish, Portuguese, English - Hearing Impaired, Hindi
  Extras
  • 16 Deleted scenes
  • 2 Teaser trailer
  • Theatrical trailer
  • 2 Audio commentary
  • 5 Featurette
  • Photo gallery
  • Animated menus
  • Music video - Tainted Love by Marilyn Manson
  • 7 TV spot
  • Interactive game - Teen Movie IQ Test
  • Trivia track
  • Dolby Digital trailer

Not Another Teen Movie: CE

Columbia Pictures/Sony Pictures Home Entertainment . R4 . COLOR . 85 mins . MA15+ . PAL

  Feature
Contract

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.

  Video
Contract

Presented in an aspect ratio of 1.85:1 and 16x9 enhanced, this looks great. Sharpness is generally good and only suffers on occasion from slight softness. There are minor instances of grain and the odd speck, but these are hardly noticeable. Colours are vibrant throughout and for the most part seem very true. Blacks are also very deep and shadow detail is very good. There are occasional instances of edge enhancement but the video overall is very good and more than sufficient for this film, in all it's another fine job from Columbia Tristar.

There is a good selection of subtitles that are reasonably true to what is spoken on screen. There is no noticeable layer change and I would suggest that this could be due to the film only running for 85:22 and the fact that there are a substantial amount of extras.

  Audio
Contract

Audio available is a choice of English and Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1. Dialogue is clear at all times and general sound is also very sharp. Sound is kept primarily across the front speakers, but the rears are also used to great effect. Rear speaker use is mainly for ambient effects and general reinforcement. The subwoofer also gets a little action, mostly during the music used and through sound effects giving a nice rich bass. Speaking of the music, this is a worthy addition to a CD collection on its own. There are many snippets of songs used in the original films that this film is parodying. There are also many other songs that viewers will recognise and this really adds to the film, most viewers will be singing along throughout.

  Extras
Contract

This release has a stack of extras.

Commentaries
There is a choice of two audio commentaries and a text version available. The first audio one is with director Joel Gallen and screenwriter Mike Bender. This is a great commentary and gives a great insight into many aspects of the film, such as hidden references, casting and script alterations as well as audience reaction. The second audio commentary is with cast members Chyler Leigh, Chris Evans, Jaime Presly, Eric Jungmann, and Eric Christian Olsen. This is basically the actors sitting and watching the film, making comments as they go but mostly laughing. It's not a bad commentary, but I found them a little hard to listen to after a while. Lastly is the Teen Movie Factoids track. This one works by using a series of pop-up text windows giving facts about teen movies, such as what movie a certain scene relates to. It is possible to have the text pop-up commentary running with either of the audio commentaries, which is a nice alternative.

School's In Session
Split into three categories, these featurettes are quite informative. Best Dressed looks at the clothes used in the film as well as some of the set designs and runs for 9:07. Class Clown looks at the stunts and jokes used in the film as well as the choreography and runs for 9:31. My Freshman Year is basically director Joel Gallen discussing various aspects of the film, such as how he came on board, script changes and audience reaction, this runs for 13:10. All featurettes are made up of interviews and behind the scenes footage.

Deleted Scenes
Included here are 16 deleted scenes. Most of these are the same quality as those used in the finished film and I would suggest they were only removed to make the film a more respectable length.

Marilyn Manson's "Tainted Love" The Unrated Version
No doubt many readers are cringing at the mere mention of Mr Manson, but this is a very good feature. I must confess I really like this version of the Soft Cell hit (although it was originally a success in the '60s for Marc Bolan of T-Rex's wife Gloria Jones) and the video is fun too. Prior to the full unrated video is a "making of" feature. This runs for 5:05 and includes interviews with Mr Manson, cast members, Joel Gallen and the video director Phillip G. Atwell. The video itself runs for 3:40 and sounds great.

The Yearbook
In the format of a photo gallery, this is a montage of photographs of the main cast members and the director, both from production of the film and from their own yearbooks. With a running time of 6:43 it is nicely set out.

Meet The Cast Promos
Featuring the seven main characters of the film, this feature contains promos for the film by each character, along with footage of the film. Each promo runs for approximately 30 seconds and the option is there to play them individually or all together.

Auditions Montage
Again featuring the main cast members of the film, this is actual footage from their auditions for the roles. As there are quite a few errors when reading lines I would suggest they had secured the roles prior to this, but it is a good look at them rehearsing lines and at the early development of their characters. This feature runs for 3:34.

Joel Gallen's "Car Ride"
Car Ride was the first film made by director Joel Gallen. It features actress Jenny McCarthy hitching a ride from a guy and the discussion they have. This is quite an interesting piece that runs for 3:48.

Test Your Teen Movie IQ
This nice little feature is an interesting question and answer segment about teen movie knowledge. Members of the cast ask a question and you select your answer from the three provided choices. They also provide a response whether you get it right or not. This is quite an amusing feature that should test the viewer’s knowledge without being too taxing.

Theatrical Trailers
Featured here are trailers for Not Another Teen Movie, Big Daddy and Loser.

Easter Egg
For details on accessing the Easter egg bonus footage, please go to our Easter egg page.

  Overall  
Contract

As is the case with any comedy or teen movie, the fact as to whether the humour is good or not totally depends upon the viewer. Many will consider this a complete failure and not funny in the slightest, but I found it to be an enjoyable film with a few good belly laughs. Normally I would suggest the viewer rent this to make up their own mind, but considering the amount of extras provided, this is a worthy purchase. I would suggest that even if you don't enjoy it then you should know someone that does.


  • LINK: http://www.dvd.net.au/review.cgi?review_id=1796
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      And I quote...
    "Some may say 'not another parody movie', but covering teen movies from the last twenty years, this parody is a great laugh and is loaded with extras..."
    - Adrian Turvey
      Review Equipment
    • DVD Player:
          Akai DV-P2000
    • TV:
          AKAI CT-29S55AT 68cm
    • Receiver:
          Akai AM-SS1500
    • Speakers:
          Akai
    • Centre Speaker:
          Akai
    • Surrounds:
          Akai
    • Subwoofer:
          Akai
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