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Not Another Teen Movie: Special Edition
With the working title Ten Things I Hate About Clueless Road Trips When I Can't Hardly Wait to Be Kissed, it's pretty clear where the parody Not Another Teen Movie (2001) is pointed — straight at nearly 20 years of adolescent dramas and romances, and in particular such recent films as She's All That, American Pie, 10 Things I Hate About You, and Bring It On. But be forewarned — despite adopting its largest plot arc from the syrupy-sweet She's All That, Not Another Teen Movie has its gross-out factor cranked up — something that will be apparent in the first scene, which features a young girl and her multi-colored, overpowered vibrator. But for those who don't mind a little tasteless humor (OK, a lot of tasteless humor), the picture is an agreeably wide blast of buckshot that relentlessly hits one target after another in rapid succession. The main story concerns Jake Wyler (Chris Evans), the most popular jock at John Hughes High School, who breaks up with cheerleader girlfriend Priscilla (Jaime Pressly) and then accepts a bet with his buddies — that he can transform ugly-duckling art student Janey Briggs (Chyler Leigh) into the school's next prom queen. Sound familiar? So will most of Not Another Teen Movie with anybody who has browsed the genre in recent years, and various subplots concern three geeky guys who plan to lose their virginity before the end of the school year, the cheerleading team's competition with a squad from Compton, Janey's sensitive friend Ricky (Eric Jungmann), who harbors a crush for the awkward wallflower, and the football team's obsessive coach, who will let nothing stand in the way of winning. In fact, even though Not Another Teen Movie flies by at a rapid pace, it's soon apparent that it barely scratches the surface of the genre's most prominent clichés (the "token black guy" is a funny running bit, and the cheeky musical number on prom night is good fun), even taking a moment to harass the godfather of teen movies, John Hughes, with a funny riff on The Breakfast Club. You may not want to laugh, but you probably will — and depending on how well you know your material, you may start laughing before the joke even happens (Jake's whipped-cream scene taken from Varsity Blues can be seen coming a mile away, which only induces more giggles). Columbia TriStar's Not Another Teen Movie: Special Edition DVD features a clean anamorphic transfer (1.85:1) with Dolby Digital 5.1 audio and English and French subtitles. Extra features are generous, and include a filmmakers commentary, cast commentary, "Teen Movie Factiods" track, three featurettes, a Marilyn Manson video, a cast "yearbook," "meet the cast" promos, an auditions montage, a short film by director Joel Gallen, a "Teen Movie IQ" test, and trailers. Keep-case.
—JJB
