Not Another Teen Movie (2001)

(In theaters, December 2001) Make me laugh and I will forgive you anything. While the teen-movie spoof Not Another Teen Movie didn’t inspire gales of hysterical laughter from me, it kept me giggling continuously from start to finish, and for that I’m reluctant to actually condemn it. Its good-natured fun won me over despite raunchy material that would otherwise make me roll my eyes and some seriously lame gags (everything related to Bring It On, for instance, fails miserably, as are the gags about teen movies or the eighties). There is some welcome nudity (with the appropriate subtitles) and a lot of suggestive material, though nowhere near as offensive as with, say, Scary Movie. Favourite moments include the American Beauty gags and almost anything with Mia Kirshner (the “too much information!” exchange would have had me roaring if I didn’t have to worry about scaring the rest of the theater). No, Not Another Teen Movie is not a respectable film or even a good one. But it made me laugh, and for that I can forgive it almost everything.