Not Another Teen Movie: Unrated Director’s Cut
DVD Reviews | Jul 31st, 2005
Starring Chris Evans, Chyler Leigh, Randy Quaid, Jaime Pressly, Eric Christian Olsen, Mia Kirshner, Deon Richmond, Eric Jungmann, Ron Lester, Cody McMains, Lacey Chabert
Written By: Mike Bender, Adam Jay Epstein, Andrew Jacobson, Phil Beauman, Buddy Johnson
Directed By: Joel Gallen
Studio: Sony Home Entertainment
Buy on Amazon.com
I’ve seen bits and pieces of this movie but I never watched it straight through. I love comedy spoofs, and I like teen movies so I knew I was going to like this movie. Now there is an uncut director’s cut that’s available on DVD that has 10 minutes added back into the film.
Not Another Teen Movie is basically a spoof on every 80’s & 90’s teen comedy movie, not a very original idea but they do a fantastic job at spoofing the genre. Some of the films they spoof is The Breakfast Club, She’s All That, Can’t Hardy Wait, Sixteen Candles, Bring It On, Varsity Blues and many more. The main character is Janey Briggs (Chyler Leigh), a really hot ugly girl with glasses on, who’s a rebel and listens to Bikini Kill. She paints all weird, and wears overalls and lives in a crappy house. The big time jock, popular guy of the high school, Jake (Chris Evans), decides to bet the preppy asshole of the school, that he can make Janey prom queen. Other characters in the movie is the Token Black Guy who says nothing but “damn,” “shit” and “that’s whacked!” There’s the creepy, lonely loser who dresses pretty similar to a rudeboy and is a spoof from the guy in Pretty in Pink, there’s the desperate virgin with high hair and the stupid poser kid who thinks he’s Asian. You can’t forget the bitchy cheerleader or other hot girls like the naked foreign exchange student! The movie pretty much covers every bases for movie stereotypes. The film also focuses around the prom, and kids trying to get laid before they graduate or in this case, going onto the next grade. I hate how these movies that they spoof, have to have a prom in every movie. Prom’s are stupid, and that’s just not because I’m bitter because of a bad prom experience in my Junior year. I just think it’s stupid to have it so that’s the highlight of a high school kid’s life. There’s more important things than the dumb prom.
I think one of the biggest reasons why I like this movie is because a lot of the characters remind me of me, and even some of the stuff they did. *cough* Vent scene. What, I was curious ok!? And yes, I got into some big trouble. But anyway, the movie has a lot of funny moments that made me laugh out loud, but there was also some jokes that fell flat. There were some gags or jokes that put a smile to your face because you got the reference, but they weren’t necessarily funny. What was good about the movie, was some of the people that were actually in these movies were in NATM; like the Father from Ferris Bueller, that guy from Breakfast Club, the Coach of the football team has been in every sports movie it seems, and Molly Ringwold even shows up at the end. PLUS they even use the same houses from the 80’s movies like from Weird Science and Ferris Bueller. Only a true 80’s movie fan would notice that. Also, they use the exact same high school that they used in She’s All That, which was primarily, was the one movie the film was based on. I like the running gag throughout the movie, of the one guy in the crowd that claps really slow, trying to get everyone else to clap. That joke was just brilliant because I can’t fucking stand that in those movies. The music number in the film was excellent and hilarious too. That’s another part of some of the movies where I can’t stand, when they break out into a musical number. There’s a lot of raunchy, and other sexual stuff in the film too and hey, I’m all for that haha. But all the pointless nudity fits the genre that they are spoofing. Now, there was ten minutes added back into the movie but being this was the first time I saw the movie from start to finish, I couldn’t really tell you what scenes were deleted. From what I read on other websites, I believe some of the scenes are the football BBQ scene, some more nudity, Jake’s sister fixing up Janey before the party, things like that. Nothing too special but there is a funny Footloose scene where the guy gets a beatdown from the people at the prom hahaha. But I think the movie was already uncensored since they got away with a lot of stuff but I like how they added some scenes within the movie.
There are plenty of extras to watch if you buy this version of the DVD. I first watched the featurette that dealt with making the movie. Originally, they were only going to spoof 90’s gross out movies but then, the director Joel Gallen brought on some of his writers and tackled the 80’s movies as well. You find out how each person came to be on the movie, and I didn’t realize the guy who played Reggie Ray was also in Varsity Blues, which his character was spoofing. He said he wanted to spoof himself, and no one else so that’s kind of cool of him. I didn’t see that movie so I didn’t know that’s who he was making of. It was Joel Gallen’s first full length movie and that goes for most of the actors in the movie as well. There was a featurette on the clothing in the movie, and special effects like the exploding shitting toilet, and the collapsible staircase. There’s a fun 80’s movie quiz you can take. The questions are asked by the director & cast and you select which answer is right. If you are wrong, you are told so, either made fun or just told nicely. I did okay on the quiz. There’s other stuff on the DVD like making the video for the Marilyn Manson , videos, audition montage, yearbook of cast & crew and lots of other things.
Not Another Teen Movie may not be one of the funniest or greatest comedies, but it certainly made me laugh a lot. And it spoofed a lot of movies that needed to be spoofed, and they did it well. The Uncut version of the movie features more funny antics & nudity and if you don’t have this movie on DVD yet, then get this version!
Features:
Over 10 minutes of Never-Before-Seen Footage Added Back into the Movie!
School’s in Session – 3 Behind-the-Scenes Featurettes
Unrated Version of Marilyn Manson’s “Tainted Love” Music Video
Joel Gallen’s First Short Film Car Ride
Test Your Teen Movie I.Q.
Auditions Montage
Meet the Cast Promos
The Yearbook
Bonus Previews
Audio:
ENGLISH: Dolby Digital 5.1 CC
FRENCH: Dolby Digital Surround
Video:
Widescreen 1.85:1 Color (Anamorphic)
Subtitles:
English, French
Favorite Scenes: opening scene, The vent scene, the breakfast club spoof, the music number
Rating: NR
Running Time: 100 minutes
Extras Rating:
Overall Rating: