Mia Kirshner and Chris Evans in "Not Another Teen Movie."

MOVIE INFORMATION

With 10 as a must-see, we give this film a: Stars: Chris Evans, Chyler Leigh and Jaime Pressly Director: Joel Gallen Rated: R, with profanity, nudity, violence and sexuality Length: 80 minutes

ROCHESTERCRITIQUE

Having seen this film, how would you rate it? 10 5 9 4 8 3 7 2 6 1

By Marshall Fine
Gannett News Service

(December 14, 2001) -- Not Another Teen Movie is a spoof in the mold of Scary Movie with one drastic difference: There's almost nothing in Teen Movie that's actually funny.

That might be because director Joel Gallen and his squad of five writers assume that the simple act of making a reference to another film is the same thing as making a joke about it.

Wrong.

Gallen misses the point about why Scary Movie worked. Keenen Ivory Wayans and his Scary Movie writers expanded upon their source material -- the Scream films and others -- in imaginative and absurd ways, turning them inside out to find wild humor.

Gallen and his so-called writers, however, merely mimic scenes from better movies, then add something inappropriate to the proceedings: gratuitous nudity, poop jokes, vibrators. For really big laughs, they name the institution where this all takes place -- John Hughes High School (named for the film director). Where do they come up with this stuff?

Teen Movie draws most of its inspiration from the Freddie Prinze Jr. film, She's All That, a lame Pygmalion story about the most popular guy in school wooing the class bohemian as part of a bet. In this case, it's cool guy Jake Wyler (Chris Evans) trying to make a prom queen out of the bespectacled rebel Janey Briggs (Chyler Leigh).

Before it's over, Teen Movie has cannibalized the entire Hughes teen canon (including Sixteen Candles, Breakfast Club, Pretty in Pink and Some Kind of Wonderful), as well as other examples of the genre: American Pie, Cruel Intentions, Bring It On, American Beauty and Risky Business, to name a few.

Once in a very great while, Gallen pushes the gross-out material to the point that he generates an actual chuckle. It happened twice, by my count.

When he wants to be really clever, he tosses in a cameo by a veteran of one of Hughes' films (including former teen queen Molly Ringwald).

Teen films obviously are ripe for satirizing. After seeing Not Another Teen Movie, it's safe to say they still are. Even at a mere 80 minutes this one feels interminable.