friday flick fix: not another teen movie (2001)

While waiting out the hours last night, I decided to pop Not Another Teen Movie into the player. It's light, corny viewing; a not-so wholesome cheerer-upper that I watch at least once a year. It's silly, predictable and a little bit disgusting, but it's a whole lot of fun - especially if you're familiar with the movies it parodies.


In Scary Movie fashion, it's a hodge-podge of plot cliches and stereotypical characters from teen flicks that have piled up in the mid-eighties through the nineties. Featuring oh-too-familiar characters such as the bitchy blonde cheerleeder, the jock, the poor girl, the obsessed best friend and the token black guy.

Starring no one famous (Chris Evans and Jamie Pressley are in there, but they weren't really known yet at that time), with cameos including Good Charlotte, Mr. T, Lyman Ward (the dad in Ferris Bueller's Day Off) Melissa Joah Hart, Sean Patrick Thomas and 80's teen queen Molly Ringwald. Paul Gleason also reprises his role as Dick Vernon from The Breakfast Club.

I was able to identify bits that were parodied from the following movies:

American Beauty (1999)
American Pie (1999)
The Breakfast Club (1985)
Bring It On (2000)
Can't Buy me Love (1987)
Can't Hardly Wait (1998)
Cruel Intentions (1999)
Dazed and Confused (1993)
I Know What You did Last Summer (1997)
Jawbreaker (1999)
Never Been Kissed (1999)
Porky's (1982)
Pretty In Pink (1987)
Road Trip (2000)
Rudy (1993)
She's All That (1999)
Sixteen Candles (1984)
Ten Things I Hate About You (1999)
Varsity Blues (1999)
The Wedding Singer (1998)

The thing I love most about Not Another Teen Movie is the soundtrack. It includes remade hits from the '80s, such as Nena's 99 Luftballons (performed by Goldfinger and given a punk-ish twist), OMD's New Wave hit If You Leave (remade by Good Charlotte), Soft Cell's Tainted Love (shock-rocked by Marilyn Manson), New Order's Bizarre Love Triangle (redone by Stabbing Westward), and one of my personal all-time favorites, Modern English's Melt With You (punked-up by Mest).

It's not exactly suitable viewing for teenagers (because of the sexual content and nudity), but it may be a kick for adults who were teenagers when all those teen flicks came out.