Take Me Home
Tonight
Take Me Home Tonight
is not so much nostalgic
for the 1980s as it is nostalgic for the movies of the 1980s. Specifically
the teen sex comedies – and not the good ones like Risky Business or
The Sure Thing, but the really cheesy ones with generic names like
Spring Break, Losin’ It, Private Resort, Class, Fraternity Vacation and
Just One of the Guys.
That’s not necessarily a bad thing; most of those films were dumb but mostly
they were rather fun. And some of them were real launching pads for stardom
– Tom Cruise, Rob Lowe, Johnny Depp, Tim Robbins, John Cusack, Sherilynn
Fenn, Rob Morrow and Andrew McCarthy all got one of their first major roles
in those above movies.
The
creators of this film obviously love the genre and they have done an
interesting thing – instead of making a loving
tribute to 80s movies, Take Me Home Tonight has simply made an
1980s film in the 2010s.
In
fact, the detail that this film takes place in the 80s barely matters to the
storyline. There is very little made of the time period. There are a few
weird outfits, one brief breakdancing interlude, a few big hairdos (but not
nearly enough) and wall to wall hit songs from the span of the decade.
To
give you an idea how broad the film’s take on the 80s is, in the opening
scene our heroes are in a record store. That store is decorated with
“currently” successful record posters – which veer from Olivia Newton-John’s
Physical (which came out in early 1981) to Guns’N’Roses’ Appetite
for Destruction (which came out in late 1988) as well as several other
iconic 80s albums that were sprinkled between them throughout the decade.
What are they trying to say – the store is still trying to promote the
7-year-old ON-J album, or they got into a time machine to get the G’N’R CD?
Or, the filmmakers can’t be bothered to figure out when exactly the story
takes place and find out what exactly was popular at that time? There is
also a wall full of Whitney Houston’s Whitney CD (1987), but when
that album came out CDs were just becoming popular – so while there may be
some CDs, there would have also been LP versions of the title. It is little
stuff, but it shows a carelessness on the filmmakers’ part.
However, if they do not do their homework on the era, they certainly have
the storyline down pat. Nerdy guy (Topher Grace) has been nursing a crush
for the prettiest girl in his school (Teresa Palmer) for years without ever
taking his shot. Finally, on one long, glorious party night he gets to know
the object of his affection. While he is trying to get her attention, he
gets into mischief with his animal best friend (Dan Fogler) and his
sweet-but-goofy twin sister (Anna Faris.)
Nobody is exactly stretching themselves here. Grace played essentially the
same role for years on That 70s Show. Fogler also has done similar
nostalgic humor in Fanboys and Balls of Fury. Faris has
played variations on this sweet-but-slow girl many times.
It’s
not all new for them, but they are all good at the roles.
None
of it is overly original and a good deal of it is not really as good as the
films that inspired it, but Take Me Home Tonight has enough laughs to
offer a qualified recommendation.
Jay S. Jacobs
Copyright ©2011 PopEntertainment.com.
All rights reserved. Posted: March 11, 2011.
