Chris Evans may have turned down the role of Captain America more than once before ultimately joining the Marvel Cinematic Universe because he didn’t want to be typecast, but you’d imagine he did the exact same thing a decade previously when the success of Not Another Teen Movie would have no doubt seen him offered every jock douchebag under the sun.
The actor was only 20 years old when the comedy hit was released in December 2001, and as a handsome dude with plenty of comic timing and natural charisma, he could have easily segued into any number of similar parts. Not Another Teen Movie arrived at probably the ideal time during the resurgence of the spoof, coming after Scary Movie had reignited the phenomenon but before the duo of Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer had run it into the ground with the abysmal Date Movie, Epic Movie, Disaster Movie, Meet the Spartans and more.
A reasonably entertaining diversion that lampooned every classic teen classic across the previous three decades from 10 Things I Hate About You and The Breakfast Club to Sixteen Candles and Ferris Bueller’s Day Off via Dazed and Confused and Grease, the scattershot approach to the gags does yield a few decent jokes, and the cast largely comprised of unknowns acquit themselves well.
Not Another Teen Movie has now been added to the Netflix library and should draw in plenty of viewers for nostalgia’s sake, but may not appeal to younger demographics. Why? Well, it’s very much a product of the time that’s packed full of references those darn kids might not understand, and many of them had become outdated by the time it hit theaters in the first place.
Published: Jul 1, 2021 08:48 am