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On the one hand, you can try to capture the zeitgeist as it’s happening -- think Reality Bites or the classic John Hughes movies. The other choice is to look back a decade or two and try to sum up where we were -- see American Graffiti or Dazed and Confused. Take Me Home Tonight wants to be like a classic Brat Pack flick, but it makes the mistake of playing up to Gen-X nostalgia rather than creating memorable or original characters. Recent MIT grad Matt Franklin should be working for a Fortune 500 company and starting his upward climb to full-fledged yuppie-hood. Instead, the directionless 23-year-old confounds family and friends by taking a part-time job behind the counter of a video store at the Sherman Oaks Galleria. But Matt's silent protest against maturity comes to a screeching halt once his unrequited high school crush, Tori Frederking, walks into the store.
Matt finally boinks “The Frederking,” Barry slobbers over the ta-tas of a redhead with her date watching, coke is snorted, property is damaged and the soundtrack blasts Eighties covers (“Don’t You Want Me”). Take Me Home Tonight captures a moment in time with sly affection. You keep waiting for the engine to rev up, but it’s stuck on idle. A wonderfully campy '80s period comedy, Take Me Home Tonight is hilariously entertaining. The story follows a video store clerk named Matt Franklin who gets a second chance to win over his old high school crush when he learns that she's going to a local Labor Day party.
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Tori strips off her shirt, then her bra for Matt before the two have sex offscreen. Girls at a party offer themselves to strangers and are seen—somewhat clothed—engaged in various sexual activities. Masturbation, manual stimulation and oral sex are frequently and crudely referenced.
The late John Hughes loved giving moviegoers intense, daylong scenarios in which misfits learned life lessons. This film’s director, Michael Dowse, decided to use his template to teach a few, too. Wine coolers and white zin reign at this ’80s party. Drinks are served in numerous scenes, with alcohol showing up enough to deserve it’s own entry in the cast list. Cigarettes and joints are smoked, sometimes competitively with booze. Say about a coming-of-age movie set in 1988, shot in 2007 and just now released?
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For starters, I’d say Take Me Home Tonight has just enough heart and retro party spirit to hold the line before familiarity breeds contempt. Juliana was involved in a serious car accident in 2009 and suffered a traumatic brain injury. Her story has been widely followed across the nation since Medina's appearance on American Idol. It's a fun movie - great 80's music (surprised to hear a little "Jet Fighter" from The Three O'Clock - played at my high school...). Yes, it's well-worn territory, but Barry, the friend, is hilarious and makes it for me. Grace seems to play the same role in every movie, but he works in this one.
Matt runs into his high school dream girl, Tori, who acts like he never existed. He tries to impress her, and she invites him to a one-night-only mega-party hosted by Wendy's boyfriend. Despite fears of facing his more successful peers, Matt teams up with Wendy and his best friend, the hedonistic Barry. Along the way to the party, Barry steals a fancy convertible from the car dealership that just fired him for dishonesty. Now, the trio are in danger of running afoul of the law. Topher Grace was coming off That 70's Show in 2007 but really never had a truly strong role during the time period.
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Gen-Xers will immediately peg Michael Dowse’s limp comedy Take Me Home Tonight as a lame attempt to cash in on nostalgia -- they’ll see it as a fourth-rate Wedding Singer. Gen Y will think the same movie is a feeble copy of the current king of movie comedy, Judd Apatow -- they’ll see it as a fourth-rate Superbad. It’s the late ’80s, and floundering MIT grad Matt , unsure what to do with his life, works at Suncoast Video when his high-school crush, Tori , walks into the store. He pretends to be another customer, chats her up, and learns she works for a financial institution -- prompting him to lie and say he works at Goldman Sachs.
Matt apologizes to Tori, and she forgives him, then gives him her phone number. All who are still there 'whoop' it up at Matt's successful return. Knowing Tori has left her car at the party, Matt and Barry go back, where bets are being placed on who will "ride the ball", a giant, steel sphere that someone rides inside as it's rolled down a hill.
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It’s a mystery why this film is titled Take Me Home Tonight—an apparent shout-out to Eddie Money’s classic ’80s tune. No one goes home, no one takes anyone home, and the song itself isn’t heard. The film debuted at #11, with $3,464,679 during its opening weekend in 2,003 theaters in North America.
Recent MIT grad Matt Franklin should be well on his way to a successful career at a Fortune 500 company, but instead he rebels against maturity by taking a job at a video store. Matt rethinks his position when his unrequited high-school crush, Tori, walks in and invites him to an end-of-summer party. With the help of his twin sister and his best friend, Matt hatches a plan to change the course of his life. Now more than ever we’re bombarded by darkness in media, movies, and TV.
She fully exposes her breasts, which he gropes. And she performs oral sex on him and initiates intercourse—while her even older male friend lustfully watches. Barry is repulsed by the man’s presence, but not so much that he halts the activities … until the woman begins hitting him. After Barry flees, it’s implied that the woman and her friend couple as well. The former mathlete, who won the attendance award every year in high school, is now an MIT grad. Matt Franklin works at a video store and lives with his parents.
It's refreshing to see her in the smart girl role. Her relationship with her brother is surprisingly nuanced for an 80's flick. So yeah, it's between a 5 and 6 for me, but I'd be loathe to recommend it to the masses. Ok, the only reason I started watching this was for Anna Faris, but she didn't even have any comedy scenes!! Matt’s dad spends a few minutes trying to scare his kid straight when Matt and Barry, covered in white powder, wreck the Mercedes they’ve stolen. But then he just gives ’em a good clap on the back and lets them go back to their party.
This is a large metal sphere, apparently hammered together out of old junkyard parts. It's in the bed of your rival's pickup truck. Grace is nicely cast as the former high school nerd, and Fogler gets to be a bit more than the goofy sidekick; he actually gets most of the movie's action. Palmer has an undeniable spark, and Faris is one of our best current screen comediennes.
Over the next 12 hours, Matt steals a car, tries to win Tori’s heart, gets confronted by his cop dad about his future, and hears pretty much every overplayed ’80s tune you can think of. The only person who survives this tired retread of Reagan-era references is comic Demetri Martin as a parapalegic high-school friend of Matt’s who’s become a financial whiz. But instead, we get the high-octane antics of Barry, whom Folgler plays in a way that fuses the intensity of both Jonah Hill and Sam Kinison. He’s such an unlikable, grating character that we just hope he’ll OD early on at the party and we won’t have to see him anymore. If you’re aiming for a sweeping generational statement, there are two ways to go.
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