BY LARRY CARROLL | There's a scene in "Not Another Teen Movie" where a teacher stands in front of the class, attempting to instruct his students in the works of Shakespeare. When someone passes gas and the students roar with laughter, he angrily responds, "That is what you people find funny?" He tries to explain to them how The Bard composed intelligent comedy, full of subtle innuendos and jokes that relied upon the intellect of his audience. Real humor, he insists, is about more than poop jokes. The point is lost to the students, however, when a toilet comes crashing through the ceiling and covers the instructor in, well, the same bodily excrement that his students find so funny. The point of the filmmaker is clear; beware all who look for highbrow humor here - we're going for the bawdy stuff, because we know that makes you laugh the most.

What is "Not Another Teen Movie"? Well, it could be described as a pastiche of (deep breath here): "Bring It On", "Airplane!", "Can't Hardly Wait", "American Beauty", "American Pie", "Sixteen Candles", "Grease", "The Sixth Sense", "Fast Times At Ridgemont High", "She's All That", "Rudy", "Dude, Where My Car?", "Back To The Future", "The Breakfast Club", "Cruel Intentions", "Ferris Bueller's Day Off", "Pretty in Pink", "Road Trip", "Some Kind of Wonderful", "Varsity Blues", "Song Of the South", "Down To You", "Risky Business", "I Know What You Did Last Summer", "Clueless", "Better Off Dead", "Never Been Kissed", "Lucas", "10 Things I Hate About You", and a whole bunch of "Scary Movie". It could be described as the most brainless film of the year - a movie that, most likely, you'd find more pleasurable if you had undergone a lobotomy on your way to the theater. Also, it could be described as a damn funny movie. All three would be accurate.

Directed by former MTV Productions boss Joel Gallen, "Teen Movie" wastes no time declaring its intent. The opening scene finds Janey Briggs (The "Pretty Ugly Girl" that you'll no doubt recognize from the film's omnipresent ad campaign) in her bed, watching the Freddie Prinze, Jr. classic "She's All That" while pleasuring herself with a vibrator so big it looks like you'd need a carnival ticket to ride it. Just when she starts to, as the ad campaign for Best Buy would say, "Turn On the Fun", in walks her father with a birthday cake. Behind him is her brother, the grandparents, the local priest, neighborhood orphans that she volunteers with, and the family dog, who starts sniffing her crotch while she attempts to quell her moans of pleasure. "Citizen Kane", this is not.

Bit it doesn't want to be, and as long as you're okay with that going in, then you'll have a good time watching this film. The plot, lifted directly from "She's All That" and "Varsity Blues", has Jake "The Popular Jock" Wyler attempting to turn Janey into the Homecoming Queen while trying to win The Big Game for John Hughes High School.

JHHS is the type of place where the students are divided up into three groups: Jocks, Sluts and Geeks. While eating lunch in the Anthony Michael Dining Hall, you can buy a hot dog from a vendor beneath a sign that declares they are "For Practicing Oral Sex", or you can get a big plate of chipped beef that acts as a rimshot for the feces joke that just took place in your last class. Maybe you'll sit at the same table as Rickey "The Obsessed Best Friend", who is composing a poem to Janey called "10 Things I Love About You". Or you could sit with Reggie Ray "The Stupid Fat Guy", who insists on continuing to play High School football even though he's been told by his doctor that he's five concussions away from death. Look, over there in the corner, it's the three freshman dorks who are intent on losing their virginity, ogling the foreign exchange student who comes to school naked. She's Shannon Elizabeth without the ridiculous formality of actually wearing clothes during the first few reels of the movie. As one female student remarks upon seeing her, "Nice backpack!"

Anyone who's ever seen a teen movie knows exactly where each of these characters will end up, and that's fine, because in this movie the predictability services the plot. You always know where these teen movies are headed, but this time, that's a good thing. As the characters go through the motions, it opens the doors for the best jokes, the little random ones. A father tries to cheer up his heartbroken son by giving him a night of passion with Mom. During a football scene, a player runs by with the name "Extra" on his uniform. One minor character is obsessed with becoming the guy who gets the honor of starting the dramatic applause during the big scene in the movie, but he just can't figure out which scene to do it in. Then there's Malik, "The Token Black Guy".

The best jokes in the film surround Malik, a jab to every filmmaker who threw in a black actor to be the reactionary, comic relief friend so that his movie didn't appear too white. Exclaiming "Damn!" and "Bling Blang!", Malik sits in the background, popping forward every now and then to show that he's the only one that knows the formula of the teen movie. When Jake bets that he can change Janey, Malik wants to bet Jake that in trying to do so, he will instead change and learn to see the inner beauty in people, a wager that Jake can't wait to accept. The best scene involving Malik is when they go to a house party and he finds another black guy working the keg. The two realize that there must be some mistake, that there's only one black person allowed at each party, and after doing the patented handshake that black guys do in white people's movies, the other guy dutifully yields the floor.

This is a dumb movie, and it is proud of that fact. The dumber you allow yourself to be as you watch it, the more you'll laugh. The acting is nothing great, and the actors show just enough comedic timing to do the job. Randy Quaid turns in a good performance as Janey's alcoholic dad, Deon Richmond does a fine job as Malik, and there are some great cameos from such film legends as Mr. T and Molly Ringwald.

I'm a big believer in judging a film based on its value in comparison to other movies of its genre. Anyone who holds "Teen Movie" up to the same standards as films with loftier ambitions will find it to be poorly acted, vacuous, and ultimately without any merit whatsoever. But it isn't trying to be an Oscar contender, it isn't trying to change the world, it just wants to make you laugh as many times as possible, and it employs the same "Throw every joke at the wall and see what sticks" attitude that has been used in these types of movies ever since 1980's "Airplane!" created the genre. Is it as good as "Airplane!"? No, not even close. It's also not as good as "The Naked Gun" or "Top Secret!" or even "National Lampoon's Loaded Weapon". But it's a lot better than "Spy Hard", and "Mafia" and a majority of the movies that tried to beat this type of film into the ground over the last ten years or so.

Again, I'd have to go back to the comparison to "Scary Movie" in order to give you an idea of what "Teen Movie" is. If you are familiar with most of those movies I named at the beginning of my review, and you enjoyed "Scary Movie", you'll laugh out loud four or five times, guaranteed. You'll also chuckle mildly another ten times or so. Three or four times, you'll turn away from the screen thinking, "I can't believe they just went there", and peeking to see if you can look back yet. Will you want to watch this movie over and over again in the years to come? No. Will you remember the majority of the scenes in "Teen Movie" six months after you see it? Probably not. But you will remember that you had a good time watching it.

Grade: B