Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		4.0
Overall		4.0

Not Another Teen Movie Blu-ray Movie Review

Is Sony's "Choice Collection" Blu-ray All That?

Reviewed by Martin Liebman January 17, 2017

They say time flies when you're having fun, which must be why it feels like an eternity since Not Another Teen Movie released in 2001, one of the last vestiges of "good" Parody films before the flood of brain-dead drivel like Disaster Movie and Meet the Spartans mucked up the works and brought the once-proud genre to its knees. Though it follows the standard bread-and-butter formula of hand-picking various movies to poke and scenes to duplicate and characters to recreate with a funny bend -- even as many of the "Teen" movies it parodies are themselves of the "RomDramedy" sort -- the movie actually works for a few good reasons, chief amongst them that it's just really good at recreating not the crude mechanics but the look, feel, and spirit of the films it finds funny, whether in scenes that are amalgamations of several different movies or straight rip-offs of classic moments from its peers. It's fairly funny, light on its feet, and the filmmakers prove capable of making something that's not just the proverbial blender full of ingredients but a well organized film that flows with, often, as much spunk as its cinematic targets.

Transformed.

Jake Wyler (Chris Evans) is the star quarterback at John Hughes High, but lately he's been warming the bench after a traumatic incident in which a Rudy-esque player (named Marty, coincidentally) was killed after catching one of his passes. But he's still king around the school and dating the beautiful Priscilla (Jaime Pressly). One day, out of the blue, Priscilla dumps him. She dumps him. Mr. Popular, the guy whose pictures adorn the school's hallways, the guy who gets bombarded with panties from would-be conquests on a regular basis. His buddies make him a bet to see whether he can take the most invisible and boring girl at school and make her the prom queen. Some of the candidates include an albino Hippie, conjoined twins, and a hunchback, but the group settles on Janey Briggs (Chyler Leigh), a plain-looking artist who wears glasses, her hair in a quick-fix ponytail, and overalls to school. Can Jake maneuver through high school and Teen movie cliché, and overcome his fear of the football field to win the bet, and just maybe, win Janey's heart, for real?

Not Another Teen Movie enjoys its relative successes on the back of its enthusiasm for the material and not so much the filmmakers' crude understanding of genre tropes and all of the big scenes from the most popular movies -- most any genre fan worth his or her salt could identify all of that -- but instead the slick and easy manner with which they make it all come together. Director Joel Gallen and the writing team do more than bunch up various scenes and spit characters onto the screen. They take the near-impossible task of sorting out a huge character roster and a seemingly endless string of plot devices from a number of high-profile sources and paint a coherent and funny picture that gels with an effortlessness becoming the Parody genre and actually doing the films on its hit list proud. The list of movies from which it sources its plot and takes its characters is lengthy, though fans of She's All That, Can't Hardly wait, and Varsity Blues will find plenty of familiar moments, characters who look a lot like their "real movie" counterparts, and jokes that often cross over between various sources that help make Not Another Teen Movie stand apart but at the same time often barely indistinguishable from the real things. Essentially, it's everything one could want in a spoof flick.

Beyond the big, sweeping takes on various films, it's the smaller little touches that really make the movie shine. Fans will no doubt discover subtle little details with every new watch while appreciating the more obvious ones every time, too, like the "Anthony Michael Dining Hall" or a lengthy recreation, down to some of the finest details (location reconstruction, costume) in a remake of a classic scene from The Breakfast Club (that also features Paul Gleason reprising his role). Casting and wardrobe and location recreation are, in fact, some of the movie's big hits. It takes care to get everything right. It's not just fan service; it's paying respect to the other movies while having fun with them at the same time, too. Balance makes the movie fun, and some of its cameos -- from Mr. T to Molly Ringwald -- along with an early career role for Chris Evans, Mr. Captain America himself, bring it home.

Not Another Teen Movie Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Not another Choice Collection BD-R! Not Another Teen Movie is indeed another in Sony's controversial line of budget-constructed (but not budget-priced) Blu-ray releases, and like Little Women it beats expectations. The presentation is healthy and filmic, retaining a light and easy-on-the-eyes grain structure that helps accentuate many of the film's refined and naturally complex details, particularly clothes (denim, sweaters, varsity jackets). Facial features are finely complex at the intimate and even medium-close distances. Various surfaces, accents, and odds-and-ends around the frame in the school or in various houses seen in the film shine. Colors are pleasing and natural, vibrant but never showy. Orange accents litter the school. Clothes are varied and cheerful. Green grass, a red car, and plenty of colorfully diverse support bits around each frame present with an honest vitality and neutrality. Black levels are inky and deep without pushing to crush. Skin tones appear natural. No serious source flaws or encode issues are apparent. Sure, it's a BD-R and the actual package is rough-around-the-edges, but Sony's transfer is as pristine as one could want it to be.

Not Another Teen Movie Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Not Another Teen Movie's DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 lossless soundtrack meets the movie's needs with ease. It's a fairly active movie, with wide-berth music and some interesting and exciting discrete effects. Music is wide, immersive through the back, and makes good use of the low end support at its disposal. Whether lighter notes or sharper guitar riffs, there's no missing the presentation's clarity and ability to play the period music with impressive flair and depth. Clanks and clatter and crashes are impressively detailed. Party din is immersive. Reverberation at a largely empty stadium is impressive. Packed crowds, hits on the field, and a blowing airhorn dot the football game landscape and make exacting use of the entire stage. Traffic zips about at the 72-minute mark. It's very adept at using the full stage to its advantage in a balanced, believable, and agreeable manner. Dialogue is clear and well prioritized in its natural front-center position.

Not Another Teen Movie Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

If nothing else, Sony has at least packed Not Another Teen Movie with a ton extra content, albeit a bunch of standard definition carryover material. No "top menu" is included. All features must be accessed in-film via a crude "pop-up" menu, and with this many options, the lack of a better system makes digging through them all more tedious than is necessary. The release comes in a needlessly extra-thick Blu-ray case. No DVD or digital versions are included.

• Audio Commentary: Director Joel Gallen and Writer/Producer Mike Bender break the movie down, including cast, shooting schedule, changes throughout the course of the film, the movies this film parodies, and more. The track is surprisingly dry and straightforward for a movie that plays with an entirely different tone.
• Cast Commentary: Chyler Leigh, Chris Evans, Jaime Pressly, Eric Jungmann, and Eric Christian Olsen deliver a much funnier track that's less focused on the nuts-and-bolts and more on the lighter insights and humor in and behind the movie.
• Deleted & Extended Scenes (480i): Areola & Janey Go to Class (0:26), Janey's Flashback (2:17), Barbeque (2:52), Janey's Transformation (Extended Version) (1:37), Sadie's Letter (1:17), Jake and Father (Extended Version) (1:15), Ricky at Party/Amanda Letter (1:45), Janey's Party Dance (1:34), Pillow Fight (0:48), Janey's Bedroom Dance (0:46), Mitch Teasing Janey (1:08), Sadie's Halftime Kiss (1:12), Jake's Secret Revealed (Extended Edition) (0:46), Musical (Extended Version) (4:00), Ricky at Prom (0:37), Bruce and Areola at the Prom (0:48), Original Ending (2:27), and Sixteen Candles Addendum (0:56).
• "Car Ride" - Joel Gallen's First Short Film (480i, 3:49): Gallen's movie is about a woman who chats up a serial killer and discovers what makes him tick.
• School's in Session (480i, 31:49 total runtime): A three-part and very comprehensive breakdown covering the making of the movie. My Freshman Year examines characters, casting and performances, and crafting various scenes. Best Dressed looks at set creation, colors and costumes, and key props. Finally, Class Clown examines some of the key gags and visuals in the film.
• Auditions Montage (480i, 3:33): Quick clips of actors trying out for their roles.
• Marilyn Mason's Tainted Love - The Unrated Version (480i, 3:38): A music video.
• Making the Video: Marilyn Mason's Tainted Love (480i, 4:56): A glimpse inside the process of making a music video.
• The Kiss (480i, 4:19): Making the movie's young-old, girl-girl, and very sloppy kiss.
• The Yearbook (480i, 6:43): A virtual yearbook that features the cast in stills from the film, set to music.
• The Proposal (480i, 3:22): Actress Chyler Lee gets a surprise during the shoot.

Not Another Teen Movie Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Not Another Teen Movie is a treasure trove of 90s Teen movie goodness recycled, repurposed, and copied with a lot of spirit, enthusiasm for the material, and an understanding of how to mesh it all together in the funniest way possible. One of the last good "spoof" films and one that's in several ways more fun than watching all of the movies on which it's based, it's an excellent take on the genre and does a fantastic job of cramming all of the high notes into one 90-minitue laugher. Sony's "Choice Collection" Blu-ray is, surprise, pretty great. Setting aside the legitimate issues -- the whole BD-R thing, cheap (and needlessly thick) packaging, a pathetic in-film menu, and lousy disc art -- and concentrating on the positives shows a solid release. Video is excellent, the 5.1 lossless soundtrack holds its own, and there's a ton of ported extras on the disc. Highly recommended.