TAKE ME HOME TONIGHT
(R)
MOVIE: **1/2 (out of 5)
BLU-RAY EXPERIENCE: ** (out of 5)
BY KEVIN CARR
WHAT IT’S ABOUT
In this tribute to the late 80s, Topher Grace stars as a guy fresh out of college who doesn’t know what he wants to do with his life. When he runs into his high school crush, he tells her he’s a successful businessman, and they start to take interest in each other at an all-night party. However, the crazy antics of his friends make a mess of the evening, and the truth of his career path threatens to destroy his new possible love interest.
WHAT I LIKED
I grew up in the 80s, going to high school from 1987 through 1990. So as much as my pre-teen childhood was taken up in the 70s, I was a teenager during the decade of excess. This meant I was slathered in the pop culture of the day, from the music to the fashions. The designs and imagery that makes kids today chuckle makes me think fondly and nostalgically.
And that’s the greatest part about “Take Me Home Tonight.” All-night party movies tend to connect with a particular decade. “Dazed & Confused” locked in on the 70s. “Superbad” was for the 00s. And while “Take Me Home Tonight” hardly is the anthem movie for my generation (that probably belongs to “Revenge of the Nerds” more than anything else), it still pushed my buttons.
Overall, I liked the characters, even though some were real assholes. Topher Grace played an post-college 80s version of Eric Foreman, but he’s good at that sort of thing. And Dan Fogler as Grace’s off-kilter friend works to a degree, partly because his role as the go-to guy for comic relief burned out a couple years ago.
And the music. The music in this film is great. Like “That 70s Show,” this film doesn’t embody what it was like to be living in the 80s, but rather what it is like to remember the 80s, and the music is the key to that.
WHAT I DIDN’T LIKE
While this movie was fun to a degree, it felt too much like a rehashed independent film I’ve seen a dozen times. It’s nothing new to have the high school nerd crushing on the popular chick. And the side-story of the sister who’s in a loser relationship has been seen too many times.
Anna Faris is adorable, but she looks terrible in this film. Her lips are so scarred, presumably either in the early stages of or recovering from collagen injections for her role in “The House Bunny,” she looks like she’s been punched in the kisser a couple times. Sure, she’s cute, but she’s wasted in this film.
In the end, as enjoyable as the soundtrack and general nostalgia of this film is, it just doesn’t rise above wannabe status.
BLU-RAY FEATURES
Along with the Blu-ray disc, there’s a disc for Digital Copy. Additional features include the “Music Boom Box” which cycles through the key songs on the soundtrack, deleted scenes and a cast get-together reunion (which makes sense when you consider the fact that the film was shot more than three years ago). Finally, there’s a new music video of “Don’t You Want Me,” featuring the cast paying homage to a bevy of 80s flicks (well… a bevy of 80s flicks and “Ghost” from 1990). The reason I point this music video out is that as bad as Anna Faris looks in the film, she’s sizzling hot here. Yeah, that’s the kind of thing I notice.
WHO’S GOING TO LIKE THIS MOVIE
Someone looking for some 80s nostalgia.