Not Another Teen Movie is a 2001 American teen parody film directed by Joel Gallen and written by Mike Bender, Adam Jay Epstein, Andrew Jacobson, Phil Beauman, and Buddy Johnson. It features Chyler Leigh, Chris Evans, Jaime Pressly, Eric Christian Olsen, Eric Jungmann, Mia Kirshner, Deon Richmond, Cody McMains, Sam Huntington, Samm Levine, Cerina Vincent, Ron Lester, Randy Quaid, Lacey Chabert, Riley Smith and Samaire Armstrong.
Released on December 14, 2001, by Sony Pictures Releasing under its Columbia Pictures label, the film is a parody of teen films released during the 1980s and 90s. The general plot is primarily derived from She's All That, A cover of a-ha's "Take On Me" by the band Lifer was recorded but went unreleased.
A karaoke version of the ending to "Can't Fight this Feeling" by REO Speedwagon is used each time Amanda Becker enters a scene.
Songs not included on the soundtrack include "Line Up" by Elastica, "In Between Days" and "Turning Japanese" by Face to Face, "Lucy", "Don't You Forget About Me", "Everybody Knows Everything" and "Friends" by Sprung Monkey, "Yoo Hoo" by Imperial Teen, "Double Dare Ya" by Bikini Kill, "Rock Star" by Everclear, "Oh Yeah" by Yello, "Kiss Me" by Sixpence None the Richer, "Let's Go" by the Cars, "Pacific Coast Party" by Smash Mouth, "Let's Begin (Shoot the Shit)" by Bad Ronald, "True" and "King of Yesterday" by Jude, "900 Number" by The 45 King, "My Hero" by Foo Fighters, "I Want Candy", "Put Your Head on My Shoulder" and "Footloose" by Good Charlotte, "Space Age Love Song" by No Motiv, and "If You Were Here" by Thompson Twins.
Release
Not Another Teen Movie opened theatrically on December 14, 2001. It was released on region 1 DVD on April 30, 2002, with an "unrated extended version" on July 26, 2005. This cut runs ten minutes longer than the original, and adds a number of deleted, alternate and extended scenes.
It was released on Blu-ray on November 1, 2016.
Box office
The film opened at third place at the US box office taking $12.6 million in its opening weekend. It grossed $38.3 million domestically and $28.2 million internationally, for a worldwide total of $66.5 million. Metacritic gave the film a weighted average score of 32 out of 100 based on 22 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "C+" on an A+ to F scale.
Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film two stars out of a possible four, and admitted to laughing a few times but not as much as he did for American Pie or Scary Movie. Ebert also criticized the scatological humor. He urged audiences to not waste their time on the film, when in the month of December 2001 there were "21 other promising films" to choose from.
Robin Rauzi of the Los Angeles Times called it "a 90-minute exercise in redefining the word 'gratuitous and suggested it is most likely to appeal to fourteen-year-olds – "who of course [are] not supposed to be seeing this R-rated movie". Dennis Harvey of Variety criticized the film for its "overall tendency to mistake mere bad taste for outrageousness, and plain referentiality for satire" but praised Evans, Pressly, and Olsen for giving performances better than the material. He noted that the film follows the model of Scary Movie but lacked the comic finesse of Anna Faris.
Mick LaSalle of the San Francisco Chronicle called the film "a crass act" and pointed out the futility of trying to parody films that are already absurd. LaSalle complained that the film too closely copies She's All That, calling it "pathetic" that Not Another Teen Movie is just another formulaic teen movie.
See also
- Spoof film