I’m not normally one for many of today’s ‘comedies’. Humor, for the most part, seems to be sinking deeper and deeper into the lowest forms of sophmoric bodily-function humor (something I mentioned briefly in the next-to-last paragraph of my post regarding Evolution back in January). My dad and I often have very similar opinions on movies, which is why I was somewhat suprised a while ago when he told me that Scary Movie was worth a rent — and even more so after I’d seen it. Admittedly, much of what he related to me as what he enjoyed about the film was amusing (a girl running from a killer comes to a signpost with two signs, one pointing towards “Safety” and the other towards “Certain Death”, and she follows the “Certain Death” path, and similar such silliness), however the majority of the film entirely failed to impress or amuse me.
A while ago, though, I started seeing trailers for Not Another Teen Movie, and they actually caught my eye. I didn’t ever get around to seeing it in the theaters, though, so Candice and I rented and watched it a couple nights ago. Surprisingly enough, for the most part, I wasn’t let down — I had a grin on my face for the majority of the film, frequently giggled, and even out-and-out laughed at a few moments. This, then, is my counter-recommendation to dad’s recommendation of Scary Movie. In my opinion, a much smarter and funnier spoof film, and well worth watching — especially if you’ve seen any of the many ‘teen films’ from the 80’s through today.
While the full list of movies referenced and spoofed in NATM can be found on the IMDB, here’s a short list that I recognized off the top of my head while I was watching it: Grease (the musical number), Porky’s (shower peeping), Sixteen Candles (characters, situations, and a cameo), The Breakfast Club (characters, situations, two cameos, and the library [“I was just in my office, and I heard a ruckus!”]), Better Off Dead (“Two dollars!” — I laughed the hardest at this, actually), Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (the house party), Pretty in Pink (characters, situations, a cameo), Cruel Intentions (the brother/sister pact, the kiss), American Pie (the sock, the foreign exchange student’s nude scenes), Varsity Blues (the pudgy football player), and Bring it On (the cheerleaders).
There’s a lot more, of course, but those are the ones that stood out the most to me — and predictably, the ones spoofing the 80’s films were the ones that got the biggest grins and laughs out of me. The scene in the library taken (at first) almost directly from The Breakfast Club was incredible, not just for re-creating the library set, but also getting the same actor who portrayed the principal in TBC to reprise his role. My single favorite moment, though, was the Better Off Dead moment — I completely cracked up. If you haven’t seen BOD, you might not get it, but as that’s one of my favorite 80’s comedies and I was able to catch the midnight show with some friends back in November, I thought it was great.
Another thing I found great about the film was the amount of attention paid to the backgrounds. Most modern comedies seem to concentrate mostly on whatever the primary action or dialog is, and the background is rarely much more than something to give the actors something to stand in front of. However, I was constantly noticing little things through out NATM that made me giggle (such as the sign on the wall of the school proclaiming “Abstinence doesn’t work — trust us.”) — nice of the production designers to realize that there are some of us out there who look for touches like that.
There were a few moments when NATM went a bit over-the-top for my tastes. The opening sequence is a bit much (though, in its defence, it’s a near-direct spoof on American Pie), and the toilet scene, while near-brilliant in the setup and execution (juxtaposing boys peeping in on a girl on the toilet having [ahem] gastronomical difficulties with a teacher expounding on why modern humor is so horrid when compared with the classics of literature), crossed into just plain disgusting by the climax. However, I suppose that in today’s climate such things are to be expected (though I don’t have to like it), and as a whole, the movie was exactly what I hoped it would be — pure silliness, and smart enough to target not just the movies that today’s teens have grown up with, but to also take aim at those that some of us that aren’t quite in our teens anymore know and love.
Overall — silly, stupid, fun. Just what I needed.