Seeing Relay on Friday; reviews looking pretty good. "brainy/intelligent thriller" are words being used, which is my thing.
It's a deep love. I watched it endlessly when I was younger before I even knew most of the films it's riffing on. Rewatching it now, my appreciation has only grown with time and it's somehow even more hilarious. The cast is perfect, the soundtrack is great, it's everything you need in a teen comedy.
When did that style of film go bad, then? I saw the first two Scary Movie films but nothing beyond it. I remember seeing clips of Meet the Spartans and being bewildered.
2001 was the end. NATM, Scary Movie 2 and Wet Hot American Summer all came out that year. The one Zucker and Craig Mazin came in for Scary Movie 3 and the tone changed. Dialing the movies down to PG-13 also hurt.
If you are of a certain age this movie was so important to you. I still show it to students to gauge which ones have a good sense of humor.
I think after the success of NATM and Scary Movies, they tried doing other ones that were just too over the top dumb, or so dumb looking in their trailers that even teen boys like me who woulda been targets for that stuff at the time had no interest in seeing them. Scary Movie 3 was a step down from the first 2 but still decent. Then after that you got stuff like that list @iCarly Rae Jepsen posted and I just remember thinknig they all looked so dumb. NATM was an apex of that genre. So many good bits and plays on teen movies in there.