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Review: Not Another Teen Movie
From the opening shots, you know you're going to have fun, as the movie is set in the "John Hughes High School." Unable to win acceptance mimicking African-American culture, one JHHS student decides it's now hipper to be a Jackie Chan clone and dresses and talks "Asian." One of the interesting subtexts of all teen movies is that white suburban kids want everybody else's culture, since they don't seem to have one of their own. A cheerleader with Tourette's Syndrome tries out for the squad and wins a spot.
Like all the best teen movies, this one is obsessively self-referential. Even if you've seen all of these movies, from She's All That to Karate Kid to Not Another Scary Movie to Scream to Pretty In Pink to Clueless, you still may miss half of the insider jokes and references, which whiz by in a steady, sometimes hilarious stream. Spoofs of spoofs of spoofs can work. The movie skewers almost every teen star, from Tab Hunter to Freddie Prinze Jr., even offering a cameo role to Molly Ringwald, the teen star of the Reagan era.
Not Another Teen Movie even takes shots at movies outside of the teen genre, like American Beauty (represented by a weirdo in a funny hat with a camcorder followed around by a hovering plastic bag labelled "the most beautiful thing in the world.") But American Pie comes in for the wittiest and most relentless drubbing, with Randy Quaid as the drunken Mr. Briggs who stuffs his kitchen with apple pies when he isn't hallucinating about the Vietnam War. There's also a foreign exchange student named Areola, who shows up for school wearing nothing but a backpack, pointing out that her only purpose in coming to America is to titillate brainless and horny American schoolkids. In terms of raunchiness and scatalogical humor, the movie goes farther than American Pie, pausing along the way for good measure to take on the recent spate of stupid feel-good sports movies like Remember the Titans. There are also some pointed pokes at the way the teen movies manipulate race in the shallowest of ways. "Mr. T" makes an appearance as the befuddled but wise black school janitor dispensing incomprehensible but mystical advice.
It would be pointless to try and suggest or describe anything like a plot, which the movie enthusiastically avoids. Suffice it to say there is a prom coming up, and there is a wager about whether the school's most ungainly girl can be turned into a prom queen by the venal and manipulative jocks, one of whom falls instantly in love with her. The bulk of the teen movies revolve around the same two or three points: shallow cheerleaders, dumb but noble-hearted jocks, obnoxious nerds and geeks, and faux individualists who claim they are different, but who always seem to always end up dating the best-looking kids in school and hanging out with the most popular cliques. It's a big fat target, and Not Another Teen Movie scores with surprising wit and skill. It's all in the writing.
>Why must we be exposed to another piece of teen movie garbage
Aren't you paying attention? Exposure to bad movies is now mandatory through federal legislature pass just last week hidden in an anti-terrorism bill.
You will be required to report to the nearest RIAA re-education camp where you will be subjected to forced viewing of all 3 of the scream movies, followed by every other crappy teen-oriented movie ever made. You no longer have a choice.
turd
it is i, junis, posting from my chicken coop. don't worry, i am very much alive and well.
many people have posted mean things about mr. katz lately. none of those things are true. mr. katz is very smart man, and very popular here in afghanistan. along with eagerly awaiting new episodes of survivor, we can't wait for mr. katz's new articles on our favorite website, slashdot.org.
i for one, won't be seeing this monstrosity of a movie. thank you mr. katz for letting the people of afghanistan know about this bad movie.
-junis from afghanistan
But would you use words like "drubbing" (twice, even), "titillate", "ungainly", and "faux"?
Ummm, this is slashdot.
Now THAT is irony:
"isn't this movie targeted towards immature 15 year olds and not nerds?"
followed by:
"this movie looks gay."
Et tu, Brute?
Loading /. on your fave browser : 1 click
Ignoring JonKatz : 1 click
Flaming JonKatz : Priceless
It has become a tradition since he started writing articles here, just won't go away any time soon.
Oh come on, we all know that 90% of slashdot readers are 14 year old Hax0rs
Mod my comments down. It'll be fun.
The Washington Post panned this movie. One of their critics (Kempley) said "Save your time, save your money, save your soul. Stay at home." Now, I have a dilemma. Should I trust Kempley or Katz?
...who doesn't take T seriously !
Someone is wrong on the Internet!
(...and the great thing is, I know it's stupid...)
If a corporation is a personhood, is owning stock slavery?
I was tempted to moderate you up, but I'd rather respond instead.
You should have moderated! Discussing what you find funny and claiming that something you don't find funny makes the reviewer suspect is asinine. It's like thinking that someone who likes Peppermint is dubious because it reminds you of a dentist visit.
Help fight continental drift.
The series portrays teens as stupid drooling sex addicts whose primary motivation is invariably getting laid.
That's how I'd describe myself in high school. I don't know about you.
Reminds me of a Simpson's quote:
Who moderates the meta-moderators?
I love Jon Katz!!!
He is roll model for m3
I have seen this trailer but not full DiVX
You send to me Mr. Jon Katz?
Many computers arrive in Humanitarian Aid Package
Microsoft XP is good!!!!! No more BSOD! I still using C64 - but for musical program, my bazouki was smashed, so now I program Midi!!
I like this Trance Style music - boom boom boom - like bombs!
Internet is Great!!! junis