The characters in “Not Another Teen Movie” are all identifiable stereotypes from other movies, like “the popular jock” (Chris Evans), who is suckered into a bet from “the cocky blonde guy” (Eric Christian Olsen) to see if he can turn the “pretty ugly girl” (Chyler Leigh) into the prom queen. There’s also the “cruelest girl in school” (Mia Kirshner), “the stupid fat guy” (Ron Lester, who, incidentally, also played the stupid fat guy in “Varsity Blues”) and my personal favorite, “the token black guy” (Deon Richmond), who stands around saying things like “Damn!” and “That is whack!” Meanwhile, Sam Huntington plays “the sensitive guy” and does a dynamite Chris Klein impression.

Director Joel Gallen shows periodic flair with recreating famous moments from John Hughes productions, but goes way overboard in the area of bad taste. For instance, a “Cruel Intentions” spoof with Kirshner giving 60-something Beverly Polcyn lip-locking lessons must be the most disgusting screen kiss I’ve ever seen, and then -- as if the sloppy saliva-exchange weren’t enough -- Kirshner has another sick and tasteless comment to make while we reel in horror. Other moments of more, shall we say, “delicate” humor work to the film’s advantage (IE, the school cafeteria is called the ‘Anthony Michael Dining Hall’), but the movie is hamstrung, obvious, and above all, uninspired in its attempts to send up the genre in question -- however deserving the targets may be.