Not Another Not Another Movie (2011)

Comedy has found its way into the cinematic landscape in an untold number of ways. There are romantic comedies, horror comedies, sex comedies, and workplace comedies. Comedic characters sometimes get thrown into otherwise serious action movies and dramas to add some lighter moments. There have been comedies that relied on dialogue, comedies that relied on satire, and comedies that relied on slapstick humour. There have also been a multitude of parodies and spoofs.

Most of the spoofs that came out over the past two decades could be traced back to one film: Scary Movie. The release, and subsequent success, of the first Scary Movie film led to a rejuvenation of a comedy subgenre that had become stale since the heyday of Mel Brooks or the Zucker, Abrahams, and Zucker team. There were spoof movies around, sure, but they weren’t nearly as popular as they had previously been. All six writers of Scary Movie would branch off to explode the spoof world. The Wayans brothers made Scary Movie 2 and Dance Flick before Marlon worked on A Haunted House, A Haunted House 2, and Fifty Shades of Black. Friedberg and Seltzer would go on to make a career out of spoofs that included Date Movie, Epic Movie, Vampires Suck!, and Superfast!. Then there were Phil Beauman and Buddy Johnson, who went on to help with the writing of Not Another Teen Movie.

Each of the three branches led to other spoof films coming about through the mid-2000s. The Wayans brothers left the Scary Movie franchise after the second film, but the franchise continued with three more installments. The Friedberg/Seltzer movies led to a whole bunch of parody flicks that were simply titled with a type of movie and then the word movie. Not Another Teen Movie led to a bunch of spoofs that featured Not Another in the title. That’s where this week’s movie comes in.

Not Another Not Another Movie was released in 2011. Randy (David Leo Schultz) was a production assistant at a failing movie studio. After a recent box office bomb directed by Wes (James Piper) sent the studio into near financial ruin, they had one last shot to make something that audiences would want to see. Every employee came together to pitch their ideas to the bosses. Eventually, Randy was given the directorial position on a new spoof film.

This was a movie that wanted to have its cake and eat it too. It was a movie about making a spoof movie and the fact that spoof movies were tired in 2011, but it also featured the basic elements of spoof movie. The only difference was that it tried to package the spoof elements in a way that made it seem like the filmmakers were self-aware of how bad the comedy was going to be. Here are just a few of the ways that Not Another Not Another Movie played right into the spoof movie tropes.

References to Popular Movies

A spoof film wouldn’t be a spoof film if it didn’t spoof any specific movies or the tropes within the movies. Most spoof films take a movie or genre to use as the basis for the story. Not Another Not Another Movie took a different approach. The main story was the studio producing a spoof film and the wacky hijinks of the crew involved. However, the main character had a medical issue that caused him to fall asleep at random times. In that sleep, he would dream up spoof scenes, and that was how the movie became a spoof film.

For whatever reason, all the major spoofed movies were from the 1990s. It felt a little strange because Not Another Not Another Movie was released in 2011. It was as though the script sat on a shelf for ten years before finally being put into production. There was a scene that combined Die Hard with Armageddon and Independence Day. There was one scene that used Braveheart as the basis. There was another scene poking fun at the ending of Titanic. All of the spoofed films were big 1990s flicks, for no real reason.

Stunt Casting

Every major spoof movie has some form of stunt casting. An actor of importance will come into the movie one scene. It makes it so that the actor seems like they can poke fun at themselves, their movies, or movies in general. It also helps the movie to gain another name that can be slapped on the poster, in the trailer, or on the back of a home video release. It gives the movie that much more credibility.

Not Another Not Another Movie might not be the highest caliber of spoof movie, but it still followed that same stunt casting trope that so many spoof movies fall into. Burt Reynolds played a director in the opening sequence. Chevy Chase was the head of the studio at the beginning and end of the movie. He passed his duties off to Michael Madsen for a scene, before the head of studio duties were passed off to Vinnie Jones for a bit. They were not main characters by any means. They came in, showed their faces, and left the movie just as quick, letting the lesser known performers take the spotlight.

Self-Reference

This one goes along with the stunt casting portion of a spoof film. If there is an actor coming on as a part of stunt casting, there’s a fairly good chance that they will reference something about themselves. Many times, that would be because the actor played themselves in the spoof flick. Other times, they will have played a character that mentioned something about them. It’s a basic case of fourth wall breaking that spoof films like to do.

There was a little bit of that in Not Another Not Another Movie, particularly when it came to Vinnie Jones. He was a criminal who was friends with the brother of the studio head. He was in charge when the decision was made to make a spoof film. At one point, he went on a small rant about having seen Snatch and enjoying the character Bullet Tooth Tony. It was a character that Vinnie Jones, himself, played earlier in his acting career. That was the self-reference within Not Another Not Another Movie.

Broad, One-Dimensional Character Types

Most parody films poke fun at specific characters or character types. If the spoof is based on a specific movie, those specific characters will become the basis for the characters in the spoof. If the spoof goes after an entire genre, the characters will be based on the common character types within that genre. Either way, the new spoof characters don’t typically have depth because they’re just a jokey version of the characters that came before. There won’t be anything new, on an emotional level, to explore.

Things were slightly different in Not Another Not Another Movie, since the main story wasn’t a spoof of any specific movies. It was, instead, a spoof of Hollywood filmmaking in general, with the characters being heightened, comedic versions of the people involved in making movies. There was the actor-director, the director who thought he was the best, the writers who were better than the material they were hired to make, the people who got fired and never left, the inept PA who was promoted beyond his skill level, the disillusioned woman, the PA who just wanted to be on film sets, the studio head losing his money, the crazy studio head, the criminal studio head, and a few others. They were ridiculous sendups to the personalities working behind the scenes. But they were nothing beyond the role they filled on set.

Those were only four of the many tropes that spoof films usually contain, but it was enough to confidently say that Not Another Not Another Movie was a spoof film. It may have tried to present itself as something else, with the main story being about the making of a spoof film, but it kept many of the elements that make spoof films what they are. It wasn’t trying to enlighten the audience about any of the tropes in a way that would move it from spoof to satire. It was content in being bottom-of-the-barrel humour.

The last two decades saw a major resurgence of spoof films in the mainstream market. Thanks to movies like Scary Movie, Not Another Teen Movie, and Date Movie, there were three offshoot streams of spoof films inspiring many other people to make their own. They weren’t always good. In fact, most of the time, the spoof films ended up being downright terrible. But it doesn’t look like the abundance of them will be slowing down any time soon.

Spoofs are one of many ways that comedy found its way into the cinematic landscape. These movies find jokes within the movies and genres that people already know and love. Satire, slapstick, and raunch are only a few of the ways that comedy comes into play. Other genres have infused themselves with comedy to create something new. And why? People want to get away from their lives. They go to movies to have fun, to cheer up, to laugh. Comedies will never die.

The notes section of these posts will never die, either:

• A Haunted House (week 34), A Haunted House 2 (week 274), Fifty Shades of Black (week 219), Date Movie (week 164), and Superfast! (week 229) were brought up in this post.
• Not Another Not Another Movie was the fourth time that Burt Reynolds was featured in the Sunday “Bad” Movies. The other three times were Delgo (week 148), In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale (week 220), and Cop and a Half (week 340).
• Chevy Chase has now been in three Sunday “Bad” Movies. They were Nothing But Trouble (week 267), The Karate Dog (week 281), and Not Another Not Another Movie.
• Cassandra Scerbo popped up in the end credits footage in Not Another Not Another Movie. She was also in Sharknado (week 190) and Sharknado 3: Oh Hell No! (week 190).
• Vinnie Jones was in Freelancers (week 14) and Not Another Not Another Movie.
• Michael Madsen returned after being in Die Another Day (week 153).
• Not Another Not Another Movie featured Carlos Ramirez, who was in The Human Centipede III (week 180).
• Benny Harris returned from Movie 43 (week 243) to be in Not Another Not Another Movie.
• Ellen Albertini Dow, of 54 (week 266) fame, was in Not Another Not Another Movie.
• This was the second time Richard Tyson has appeared in the Sunday “Bad” Movies. His first was Battlefield Earth (week 275).
• Finally, Sean Lawlor was in both Not Another Not Another Movie and Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus (week 300).
• Have you seen Not Another Not Another Movie? What did you think? Was it a decent spoof, or was it one of the many not-so-good ones? Let me know on Twitter or in the comments.
• If you go to the comments or Twitter, you can tell me what movies I should be seeking out for future weeks of the Sunday “Bad” Movies. I’m always open to suggestions because they show me movies that I might not otherwise know about.
• You should check out Sunday “Bad” Movies on Instagram. I’m always trying to find fun things to put up there.
• Next week, I’ll be heading into the superhero world for a sequel that people say is pretty bad. It pits one of the most popular superheroes against a guy called Nuclear Man. Jon Cryer shows up to repeatedly say “Oh no!” And there’s a pretty good dose of tabloid news teardown. I’ll be checking out Superman IV: The Quest for Peace for next week’s post and I hope you’ll join me to see what I write. Have a fantastic week.

The Fanatic (2019) and Devon Sawa's Toxic Fandom Roles

When people think about the teen movie boom of the late 1990s and early 2000s, a few actors always come to mind. Freddie Prinze Jr. and Sarah Michelle Gellar were in the foreground nearly the entire time. Matthew Lillard, Joshua Jackson, Ryan Phillippe, Rachael Leigh Cook, Jennifer Love Hewitt, and Neve Campbell were there too. One of the actors who was always on the outskirts of that whole teen movie popularity was Devon Sawa.

A few movies starred Devon Sawa during that turn of the millennium popularity of teen movies. Idle Hands and Final Destination threw him into leading horror roles. Slackers built up his comedy credibility. SLC Punk! showed his alternative side. He made a slew of appearances throughout those few years. None were as important as a music video he made, though. One music video appearance changed the world.

In 2000, Eminem released a song called Stan. It told the story of an obsessive fan and how dark the relationship between artist and fan could be. It was told through a series of messages that Stan sent to Eminem and the one message that Eminem sent back. It was a moving song that had an important message to tell. That only became more apparent when the music video was released. Devon Sawa was cast as Stan, the fan obsessed with Eminem. The story of Stan played out on screen as the messages were relayed from fan to artist and artist to fan. It was hard not to get emotionally invested in what went on. Eminem crafted both a great song and great music video.

At face value, it might not seem like a world-changing song or music video. It was a musician telling the story of an obsessive fan and how bad things could get. It was mental instability through obsessive fandom. But there was one part of it that became the legacy. People have begun to refer to fandom as being a “Stan”. If they are a fan of something, they “Stan” it. As much as the original intention of Stan was to highlight the unhealthy obsession that some fans have with their favourite artists, it was turned into someone who is a big fan of something, regardless of obsession or unhealthiness.

This wasn’t the first or the only time that these themes of celebrity obsession were a part of art. There have been many instances where a storyteller latched onto that obsession to tell a story about how far a person would go to live out the dream in their head. One recent use of the fandom obsession theme was highly relevant to the legacy of Stan. The movie was 2019’s The Fanatic.

The Fanatic followed Moose (John Travolta), an autistic street performer living in Los Angeles. Every day, he would head out to Hollywood Boulevard in full costume and attempt to entertain the people walking by. When he wasn’t doing that, he was busy collecting movie memorabilia and autographs of celebrities. After failing to get a piece of wardrobe signed by the star of one of his favourite movies, something snapped inside Moose. He started stalking and harassing the celebrity to get the fan appreciation that he felt he deserved.

There were a few similarities in the stories of Stan and The Fanatic. It mostly came down to a fan trying to get an autograph, getting brushed off by the celebrity, and seeking some sort of vengeance. The difference was in how that vengeance happened. In Stan, the fan took the vengeance out through killing his girlfriend and unborn child before taking his own life. In The Fanatic, the fan went to the home of the celebrity, broke in, and started tormenting him. The target of the harassment was completely different in the two, though it very much stemmed from the same sort of incident.

The other bit of similarity came in the casting, though, again, there was a twist to it. Stan, from the music video for Stan, was played by Devon Sawa. This was in the heyday of Devon Sawa’s fame. It was the turn of the millennium. He was coming off of movies like Idle Hands, SLC Punk!, and Final Destination. He would soon be featured in Slackers and Extreme Ops. Stan was the height of his popularity. The Fanatic, nineteen years after Stan, would also feature Devon Sawa. Only, this time he would be in the role of the celebrity.

The main characters of Stan and The Fanatic were also different from each other. The more sympathetic character in each work was flipped. In Stan, Eminem was the sympathetic character. He was the victim of the harassment, and the final verse of the song made it apparent that everything was a misunderstanding. The only reason he brushed off Stan (and Stan’s brother Matthew!) was because he was rushed away after a show. But Stan was his own villain. Eminem hadn’t done anything to Stan. Stan did it to himself, harmed himself, and then eventually killed himself because of this connection and eventual disrespect he built up in his own head.

Meanwhile, with Moose, the audience was allowed a window into his head, into his thinking process. He was a sympathetic character because there was justification to his behaviour. He had autism, which made him think differently than other people. There was also no sympathy for Hunter Dunbar, the celebrity being obsessed over. He was an asshole. He treated his wife terribly. He physically assaulted Moose. He was a victim, yes, but a much more flawed victim than Eminem in Stan. There was added justification to Moose’s actions through his interactions with Hunter Dunbar.

Devon Sawa got to play both sides of the conflict, nineteen years apart. In Stan, he got to play the obsessed fan who snapped after feeling dissed by the celebrity he looked up to. He got to be the personification of the term Stan.  When it came time to make The Fanatic, he swapped roles and became the celebrity victim. He was the subject of harassment and stalking. He was the embodiment of the person that someone Stanned. He had played the Stan and became the Stanned. He got to play both roles.

The story of fandom gone wrong has been something recognized by artists for years. It could come from a real-life experience where a fan of theirs crossed a line. Or they could be grafting a stalker story onto a world that they’ve experienced. Devon Sawa played both sided of the conflict over his career. He played the celebrity in a 2019 thriller that didn’t move the cultural barometer all that much. That didn’t matter. He had played the fan in the video for an iconic song that has become the name for a rabid fan who may be a little too rabid.

Devon Sawa’s legacy may be much more than one music video, however. He was a part of the teen movie boom of the late 1990s and early 2000s that pushed a whole bunch of actors to the forefront. Many of them, like Devon Sawa, fell to the wayside after a few years in the limelight. Others persevered. Yet, few of them had the same lasting effect as Sawa’s performance as Stan. He made a mark on the world, and that mark can never be erased.

These notes can be erased, but likely won’t:

• Jeff Chase made his third Sunday “Bad” Movies appearance in The Fanatic. He had previously been seen in Freelancers (week 14) and The Marine (week 30).
• This was also the third time John Travolta was a part of the Sunday “Bad” Movies. He was in Perfect (week 195) and Battlefield Earth (week 275).
• Andrew Foott-Stephens was in Sharknado (week 190) and The Fanatic.
• Finally, The Fanatic saw the return of Rene Michelle Aranda after appearing in 2 Lava 2 Lantula (week 290).
• Have you seen The Fanatic? Have you listened to Stan? Have you seen the music video for Stan? What did you think about it? Do you like obsessive fan stories? Let me know on Twitter or in the comments.
• If there’s a movie that you think I should watch for the Sunday “Bad” Movies, let me know about it in the comments or on Twitter. I like to discover new movies and there’s no better way to do that than with the help of other people.
• Take a moment to check out Sunday “Bad” Movies on Instagram. I promise, it might be worth it.
• Let me cut to the chase here. Next week’s movie is called Not Another Not Another Movie. You probably haven’t heard of it. I picked it up on DVD a while back, thinking it would be perfect for the Sunday “Bad” Movies. Having seen it now, I can say it was a good choice. Please join me next week as I write about whatever I write about it. Come on back now, you hear?