NOT ANOTHER TEEN MOVIE (2001)

Directed By: Joel Gallen 
Written By: Michael G. Bender, Adam Jay Epstein, Andrew Jacobson, Phil Beauman & Buddy Johnson 
Cinematography: Reynaldo Villalobos 
Editor: Steven Welch 

Cast: Chris Evans, Chyler Leigh, Jaime Pressly, Eric Christian Olsen, Mia Kirshner, Samm Levine, Ron Lester, Joanna Garcia, Sam Hunnington, Randy Quaid, Lacey Chabert, Eric Jungmann, Cody McMains, Nectar Rose, Samaire Armstrong, Beverly Polcyn, Ed Lauter, Paul Gleason, Mr. T, Molly Ringwald, Cerina Vincent

A sendup of all the teen movies that have accumulated in the past two decades. After breaking up with his girlfriend, Priscilla, a popular jock, Jake Wyler makes a bet with his friends that he can’t make ‘ugly girl’ Janey Briggs into prom queen. After spending more and more time with Janey, Jake really starts to think whether he wants to keep the bet on or not.


The first thing you’ll notice about this movie is that it looks ugly. The sets, the film everything looks washed out but still dirty, heaped, and grungy. One remembers how heavily this was advertised primarily by MTV at the time

The scenes never look Natural or even nice looking. The actors look like they have either bad hair dye jobs or bad wigs. The actors are all obviously too old to play teenage characters though that is part of the spoofing.

While this film has Its moments and makes a point here and there nailing its targets it still needs a major overhaul. A lot of jokes seem repetitive and are not clever, they are nasty. Just to be nasty. The film is not as smart as it likes to think it is.

The film feels like a rushed product. Like it is speeding along not aware of its Many flaws. As it seems fast and loose and doesn’t pay any respect or seem to have more than a general understanding of the films it is parodying.

The cast is likable but this film will only serve you with a few chuckles, but hardly a laugh. Even as a spoof this film needed to be better thought out. Like THE SIMPSONS or the NAKED GUN series of films. Which could be lowbrow and funny but still had a lot of well-thought-out and set-up jokes.

One of the good things in this movie is a lockable cast. Especially actress Chyler Leigh as the female lead. She is the only thing that shines bright in the pit of despair of this film. Also the abundant nudity of actress Cerina Vincent as the foreign exchange student. Which is like a work of art itself. On the opposite spectrum, it is sad to see Randy Quaid in this film. As he is a better actor than the material and he gives a bad performance. Then again he doesn’t have that much to work with.

Just like the characters, it highlights the film seems a bit too juvenile as it is obsessed with sex and nudity. Of course, the characters are but it feels like that is the main interest of the film Also. Which leaves it for only a certain kind of audience

When it comes to spoofing. Too many go for the easy jokes that they are supposed to be about, but a truly strung spoof will somehow raise above what they are spoofing to be a strong comedy in their own right and that seems to be a rarity. This is why when it comes to films such as these they never rise above a certain level

I can give the film credit that it hits all of its marks, but unfortunately not in a very clever way and all the cruder. At least not as bad as it seemed like a lot of spoof movies at the time that just tried to be year-end send-ups of whatever was popular or trending, this was better as it was more focused but barely. That seems to have needed a team of comedy writers to make skits and sketches and form into a story 

Grade: D+

SATURDAY THE 14TH (1981)

Written & Directed By: Howard R. Cohen 
Story By: Jeff Begun 
Cinematography: Daniel Lacambre 
Editor: Kent Beyda & Joanne D’Antonio

Cast: Richard Benjamin, Paula Prentiss, Jeffrey Tambor, Kari Michaelsen, Kevin Brando, Severn Darden, Roberta Collins 

Primarily a spoof of the Friday the 13th series, but also takes shots at several other horror films. After his family moves to a new house, a young boy discovers a mysterious book describing the curse hanging over the date of Saturday the 14th. Opening the book releases a band of monsters into the house, and the family must join together to save themselves and their neighborhood.


This was a movie that I would always see the poster or the box for when I went to video stores as a kid but never pulled the trigger to rent it. That now later in life I finally got a chance to catch up with.

If I saw this as a kid I wonder if the film would have been funny to me with its goofy humor and spoof spirit. That for all its failing would make it a nostalgic favorite.

As I watch it now the movie is terrible all around. It has a loose non-existent plot. It’s not funny and the monsters all seem to be wearing obvious costume suits. The film makes little sense and just seems to try to string together scenes and find an excuse for a monster to come forth.

Not that it was ever In Danger of being scary. You hope that once in a while it will at least be funny, but most of the time it seems like they are throwing jokes against the wall to see what will work and none of it does. Instead, it keeps making a mess.

One would hope with the names in the cast there would be something redeeming about the film and a reason they would say yes to being in the film. Unfortunately, there isn’t.

Richard Benjamin’s character never seems to see any of the obvious things happening around him or at least never acknowledges it and then when finally when gets on the page with the other characters he never quite seems to react 

The film isn’t even fun to sit through. Though it must have had some kind of success as it had a sequel several years later.

Grade: F