{"id":24531,"date":"2025-07-20T20:35:07","date_gmt":"2025-07-20T20:35:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/24531\/"},"modified":"2025-07-20T20:35:07","modified_gmt":"2025-07-20T20:35:07","slug":"10-y2k-era-teen-comedies-you-probably-forgot-about","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/24531\/","title":{"rendered":"10 Y2K-Era Teen Comedies You Probably Forgot About"},"content":{"rendered":"

After American Pie<\/a> recouped its $11 million budget more than 20 times over<\/a>, Hollywood seemingly made putting teens front and center of the multiplex a priority: It felt like you could see a new R-rated comedy\u2014typically involving sex-obsessed students, gratuitous nudity (nearly always female), and enough gross-out gags to make the squeamish, well, gag\u2014every week. <\/p>\n

But while the likes of Road Trip and Not Another Teen Movie managed to ride on American Pie\u2019s pastry-smeared coattails, others completely stiffed. As one of the biggest losers celebrates its 25th anniversary, here\u2019s a look at 10 Y2k teen movies you probably forgot all about.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Loser<\/a>Sugar and Spice<\/a>Whatever It Takes<\/a>Slackers<\/a>Detroit Rock City<\/a>Coming Soon<\/a>Harvard Man<\/a>Outside Providence<\/a>Sorority Boys<\/a>Boys and Girls<\/a>Loser<\/p>\n

Loser by name, loser by nature. This turn-of-the-century flop should have been a home run: It was written and directed by Amy Heckerling, who was responsible for launching Alicia Silverstone in the teen classic Clueless<\/a>. It starred two castmates from American Pie. And it boasted the era\u2019s biggest slacker anthem, Wheatus\u2019s impossibly infectious \u201cTeenage Dirtbag.\u201d <\/p>\n

But the icky love triangle between Jason Biggs\u2019s small-town boy, Mena Suvari\u2019s street-smart student, and Greg Kinnear\u2019s predatory professor failed to connect, and instead of topping the box office, Loser crawled in at No. 8<\/a>. Heckerling\u2019s agent later placed the blame<\/a> on the film studio, which\u2014missing the point of the raunchy teen comedy\u2014had insisted on obtaining a toothless PG-13.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sugar and Spice<\/p>\n

According to Gabrielle Union, she and a number of her Bring It On co-stars auditioned for, but didn\u2019t get, roles in 2001\u2019s Sugar and Spice. \u201cBring It On<\/a> was the cheerleading movie that was the consolation prize because you didn\u2019t get the cheerleading movie that you wanted,\u201d Union said<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Of course, the film she auditioned for was very different from the finished product. In fact, screenwriter Lona Williams was so disillusioned<\/a> with how her original script had been butchered that she insisted on using a pseudonym<\/a>. Inspired by a real-life crime wave in Houston two years earlier, the dark comedy centered on a pregnant high school cheerleader who, alongside her fellow pom-pom shakers, turned to armed robbery. But neither its story nor its satire really hit the mark.<\/p>\n

Whatever It Takes<\/p>\n

In the late \u201990s and early 2000s, teen movie adaptations of great literary works<\/a> were all the rage\u2014so it\u2019s no wonder that writer Mark Schwan and director David Raynr attempted to put a similar Y2K spin on Edmond Rostand\u2019s 19th-century romance Cyrano de Bergerac. Despite three coveted Teen Choice Awards nods (including<\/a> Choice Movie Sleaze Bag and Choice Movie Hissy Fit), Whatever It Takes didn\u2019t exactly do its source material justice: With flat TV movie visuals and a predictable script that occasionally bordered on the misogynistic, the 2000 misfire was almost entirely devoid of charm.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Slackers<\/p>\n

Flatulent roommates, penis sock puppets, septuagenarian sex workers getting sponge baths\u2014it\u2019s no surprise that Roger Ebert delivered one of his most scathing reviews<\/a> for 2002\u2019s little-seen Slackers: \u201cNot a sexy, erotic, steamy, or even smutty movie, but a just plain dirty movie. It made me feel unclean \u2026 This film knows no shame.\u201d <\/p>\n

Starring Jason Schwartzman as a delusional creep who blackmails a group of college cheats into engineering his dream date, Slackers was a box office disaster, spending just two weeks<\/a> in theaters after missing the Top 10. The juvenile comedy\u2014which should not be confused with Richard Linklater\u2019s similarly-named Slacker\u2014is as lazy as its protagonists.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Detroit Rock City<\/p>\n

While most Y2K teen movies were set in the present day, the 1999 film Detroit Rock City threw things back to the 1970s\u2014specifically, the period when KISS reigned supreme. The film, which was co-produced by frontman Gene Simmons himself, is as much a love letter to the flamboyant glam rockers as a nostalgic comedy: Its four heroes, who are in a tribute band, embark on an increasingly debauched road trip to see the real thing. Although hardly a masterpiece of the genre, its talented cast\u2014including Melanie Lynskey and Natasha Lyonne\u2014affectionately captures that phase when music is the only thing that truly matters.<\/p>\n

Coming Soon<\/p>\n

Chances are, you\u2019d have heard much more about Coming Soon had its three leads been male horndogs rather than orgasm-chasing prep school girls (Bonnie Root, Gaby Hoffman, and Trivia Vessey star). The progressive sex comedy ran into numerous troubles securing an R-rating; the Motion Picture Association of America took issue<\/a> with its depictions of female sexuality and rated it NC-17 twice. \u201cIt\u2019s so easy to market guys wanting to get laid and girls getting talked into it, but the idea of teenage girls actively looking for it is unusual,\u201d writer-director Collette Burson said in 1999. \u201cThere is a demographic that doesn\u2019t respond to this theme, and that\u2019s 40-year-old men with teenage daughters. It makes them very uncomfortable.\u201d <\/p>\n

The double standards were called out, but by the time Coming Soon trickled into just two theaters<\/a> in 2000, the initial buzz was long gone. The little-seen coming-of-age film boasts before-they-were-famous turns from Ashton Kutcher, Ryan Reynolds, and Ellen Pompeo, and remains the teen movie explosion\u2019s hidden gem.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Harvard Man<\/p>\n

Inspired by the now-Me Too\u2019d<\/a> writer-director James Toback\u2019s acid-fueled experience at the titular institution, 2001\u2019s Harvard Man certainly has a novel premise: a college basketball star throws a game to help rebuild the family home destroyed by a tornado, only to face existential crisis on a nightmarish LSD trip. And that\u2019s not even mentioning the love triangle involving Sarah Michelle Gellar as the daughter of a mafia boss and Joey Lauren Adams as his professor. But the constant visual hallucinations, wild shifts in tone, and pretentious philosophical musings make what sounds like a fun ride on paper an incoherent slog on screen.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Outside Providence<\/p>\n

Because he was busy making There\u2019s Something About Mary<\/a>, grossout master Peter Farrelly had to pass the directorial reins for the adaptation of his 1988 novel Outside Providence to Michael Corrente (who co-wrote the screenplay alongside Farrelly and his brother, Bobby). That might explain the distinct lack of bodily fluids in this surprisingly sweet blend of stoner comedy, fish-out-of-water drama, and teen romance. Shawn Hatosy\u2019s pot-obsessed slacker Dunph is at the center of all three when he\u2019s sent to an elite boarding school after one Cheech and Chong<\/a>-esque escapade too many. There, he connects with the \u201ccoolest girl in school,\u201d incurs the wrath of a vengeful dorm master, and learns that the privileged kids are just as messed up as the unprivileged ones.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sorority Boys<\/p>\n

The 2002 gender-swapping comedy Sorority Boys is a film that certainly wouldn\u2019t pass muster today: Three frat bros accused of stealing from their house\u2019s treasury dress up as women and go to ladies\u2019 night at the frat so they can retrieve a videotape that will reveal the identity of the real thief. Despite their unconvincing wigs and badly covered sideburns, the trio somehow manages to hoodwink their fellow students and their own families into believing they\u2019re the genuine article. The film, which is directed by Wallace Wolodarsky\u2014a co-writer of vintage The Simpsons<\/a> episodes\u2014is a witless caper that pushes the boundaries of credulity and engages in blatant misogyny, homophobia, and TERFism.<\/p>\n

Boys and Girls<\/p>\n

Director Robert Iscove was undoubtedly hoping to strike lightning twice with 2000\u2019s Boys and Girls, his follow-up to She\u2019s All That<\/a>. He reunited with Freddie Prinze Jr., shoehorned in another big dance sequence, and again argued that drop-dead gorgeous looks can be masked by a simple pair of spectacles. This time around, however, he made his leading man the awkward nerd in a Serendipity-meets-When Harry Met Sally<\/a> tale as generic as its title. There\u2019s nothing particularly objectionable about Boys and Girls, which tells the story of two UC Berkeley students continually thrown together via various intermittent meet-cutes. But severely lacking in chemistry, characterization, and comedy, it\u2019s a pale imitation of former glories.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Discover More Stories About Movies:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After American Pie recouped its $11 million budget more than 20 times over, Hollywood seemingly made putting teens…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":24532,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[88,206],"class_list":["post-24531","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-entertainment","tag-movies"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24531","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24531"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24531\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24532"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24531"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24531"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24531"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}