Happy Birthday Tara Reid! To celebrate American Pie’s teen-dream being a year older, we chart our top 2000’s teen movies
It may come as a surprise but Tara Reid is 39 today, feeling old? Us too! To celebrate her birthday, we’ve taken a browse back through our DVD collection, charting the best teen movies of the decade. Of course, nothing defines the genre quite like Tara’s 1999 big break, American Pie – the sequels of which have been cropping up every few years since. Here, we chart our top teen flicks.
AMERICAN PIE
The ultimate benchmark for ridiculous teen movies, there’s nothing quite like a slice of American Pie. Chronicling the lives of four teenage boys trying to lose their virginities, with plenty of hot girls and baked treats along the way. Without American Pie, we’d never have known the delights of Tara Reid, Stifler’s Mom and the many (many) preceding sequels.
JOHN TUCKER MUST DIE
Call it a cliche, but three girls finding out that they’re dating the same guy somehow equates to an on-screen dream. Whilst the trio team up, pooling their efforts to make another girl date John Tucker, revenge is a dish best served sweet. And with Jesse Metcalfe playing the title role, who can complain?
13 GOING ON 30
A dorky thirteen year old girl wakes up as her thirty-year old self, played by Jennifer Garner, and finds out that she’s turned into an accidental bitch. Best part is that she works at a magazine called Poise, and is selling secrets to its equally cringe-worthily titled Sparkle – original.
CROSSROADS
This is the Britney we all grew up with; not a girl, but not yet a woman. Years before the kids, Kevin Federline and, god forbid, the head shaving fiasco, Britney starred in Crossroads: a tween road-trip movie epic, recounting the sun-drenched days of a group of gal-pals who travel cross-country in search of big-city lights and Brit’s long lost mom (played by none other than Kim Cattrall). Britney nostalgia, sob.
BRING IT ON
If you like cheerleaders, you’re sure to love Bring it On! Upping the sass levels a notch or three, this 2000 high-school hit is next level. Kirsten Dunst proves she is not to be messed with and the Toro Cheer Squad will have you regurgitating their routines ten to the dozen. I’m sexy, I’m cute, I’m popular to boot. I’m bitchin’, great hair, the boys all love to stare… Okay, we’ll stop now.
FREAKY FRIDAY
Another classic from Wonderland cover-girl Lindsay Lohan, this time around she partakes in a body-swap with her mother, for reasons relating to a dodgy fortune cookie…. What the storyline lacks in scientific accuracy, it makes up for with Jamie Lee Curtis acting like a teenage girl, and Lindsay being a royal rock chick. Classic.
MEAN GIRLS
Obviously we have saved the best until last. The film that taught us all the rules of girl world turned ten this year, providing the inspiration for our Summer Mean Girls Issue of Wonderland, which sees regulation hottie (L-Lohan) star as cover girl. Quotable to the extreme, Mean Girls taught us the correct day to wear pink, the difference between a regular mom and a cool mom and like, the rules of feminism! So fetch.
Words: Elliot Rose.