Totally Awesome (2006) (TV)

Director:

Neal Brennan

Writers:

Neal Brennan (written by) &
Michael Schur (written by)

Genre:

Comedy

Tagline:

Where the dancing is dirty, the pink is pretty, and the foot runs loose.

Plot:

A spoof of typical 1980's teen movies. The idea is that VH1 found a "long-lost", never-released teen...

Plot Keywords:

Dancer | Snobbery | Breasts | Shallow | Implied Incest

Cast

Mikey Day	...	Charlie
Dominique Swain	...	Lori
Chris Kattan	...	Gabriel
Trevor Heins	...	Max
Nicki Clyne	...	Billie
Brittany Daniel	...	Kimberly
James Hong	...	Mr. Yamagashi
Teryl Rothery	...	Mrs. Gunderson
Greg Kean	...	Mr. Gunderson
Joey Kern	...	Kipp
Tracy Morgan	...	Darnell
Tone Loc	...	Himself
Adam Thomas	...	Kipp's Boy #1
Marc Menard	...	Kipp's Boy #2
Richard de Klerk	...	Werewolf / Nick (as Richard DeKlerk)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Australia:M

Filming Locations:

Tsawwassen, Delta, British Columbia, Canada

Company:

3 Art Entertainment

Goofs:

Miscellaneous: When Charlie and Billie are walking in the school there's a poster on the wall that reads, "DECATHALON TRYOUTS!! FRIDAY." The correct spelling is decathlon.

Quotes:

Kimberly: Kip's a jerkazoidomaniac. I hate him.

Movie Connections:

Spoofs Dirty Dancing (1987)

Soundtrack:

Everybody Have Fun Tonight

Sad Sign Of The Times

It's a sad sign of the times that many movies today pass themselves off as parodies when they are, in fact, just riding the coattails of the movies they are "parodying." Remember "Airplane"? Guess what! It's still funny! But just presenting people in loud, ugly clothes, pointing out obvious clichés and using silly phrases from the 80's doesn't make this an 80's parody; without those things it would just be a forgettable teen film about a nerd who wants to be a winner. There are tons of movies like that from the 80's already and most of them are at least as good, or no worse, than this. Sort of like how "The Wedding Singer" didn't really need to be set in the 80's at all either.

This would've worked as a real entry into the dumb 80's teen flick genre--movies that were made for no money, were not funny, were mildly entertaining and are only remembered now as a genre BECAUSE they were so lousy (and had all those awful hair and clothes fashions in them, as well as a lot of tinny "set it and forget it" music scores). There were a handful of good ones that have achieved classic status for being good films (the films of John Hughes), a slew of bad ones that were so bad they're still remembered today ("Mannequin" and the like), then movies that were like this one--silly, fluffy, mindless pablum hastily thrown together and playing on cable endlessly because they were cheap to purchase. Perhaps that's a compliment--the makers of this movie have succeeded in creating something exactly as it would've been in the 80's, with no wit or commentary added at all. Like those real 80's movies, there are a few laughs here, but it's not really worth the hassle.

The end credits show that the actors are generally more funny, and having more fun, in real life than in this movie. It's not the worst thing ever committed to film, but this makes "Not Another Teen Movie" look like genius comedy by comparison, and that's remarkable in itself. Chris Kattan, who can be a really funny guy, isn't funny here and embarrasses himself pretty good in this, as usual. And it's always a bad idea to have Ben Stein explaining the jokes along the way; Ben stopped being funny the minute we realized he was in on the joke of his Ferris Bueller cameo.