Take Me Home Tonight (2011)

Purely Joyful Movie!

Good concept, poorly executed.

A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

One of the best movies of the year! Incredible from the beginning to the end.

What's great about this comedy is a very specific feel of nostalgia for the 1980s, which is not forced, or cheeky. It has more of a time-machine like feel to it. Yeah, those were the 1980s, with dance-offs, hairstyles, the guy playing the guitar on the outskirts of the party, everybody "not sure what to do after school/college"... and Angie Everhart (OK, she's more like early 1990s, but, it's the same general period). But, most of all, it's the music. It's like the greatest hits compilation, but of hits that blend well with the story.Even some on-the-face-of-it silly choices, like all main actors except Theresa Palmer playing barely-post-teenagers in their mid thirties, actually go well with the general idea of the movie - they _were_ teenagers in the 1980s. OTOH, Theresa Palmer actually does a pretty good job of playing the "hot but normal" girl from the 80s, even though she was actually born in the 80s.It's not a great comedy in general, it's too naïve, relies too much on stupid/crazy gags, the romantic element is all-too-predictable, there are no great insights into human behavior and things that were meant as "learning opportunities" seem too preachy... But, it's not bad, actually quite OK, in general.So, it's a "teen comedy for grown-ups who were teens in the 80s". If you fit the bill, watch it, you'll have a great time. If not, you might not get the joke.

Alright, so going into this film, didn't know what to expect. Cast besides Topher Grace I didn't know and the story while it seemed done to death could be done well. So I put the movie in and began to watch it. What a terrible film, just awful. Now, I can't talk about the movie without spoilers, so if you're interested in seeing this movie, I'd advise against it, but only for the curious and willing.*******SPOILER ALERT********************************************Okay, lets get down to what's wrong with the film in several aspects.1. Cast/Characters: So when the film starts, we meet our protagonist Matt(Topher Grace) working at a video store in a mall. He's gone to school, but doesn't know what to do with his life. One day he sees the girl that he had a crush on in high school and the film is him lying to get with her. Already, I hate his character. Not because of where he is, but how he plans on getting to his goals. Lying about yourself to impress someone is SO done to death and this film doesn't provide anything new to add. But what about the other charters? Well, the other characters of the film are (sigh), Chris Pratt who is the boyfriend of Matt's sister. He's the usual self centered ass who wants things his way and take advantage of others. He's possibly worse than Grace because of this. Then there's Matt's friend, Barry, who also is also despicable for different reasons. Early in the film, he breaks into his old job and steals a car for Matt or revenge, either could have been the case. He's that awkward friend who gets him self into bad situations. Matt's sister wants to go to school in England and is smothered by Chris Pratt's character. She just provides a voice of reason. But wait you may say, what about Matt's love interest? She just exists in the movie, nothing more. She's a way for the plot to continue until the end. 2. Story: Movies can suffer from many reasons. The biggest one is the story. This particular story is the major problem in the movie. The problems for this story is partially from how the charters are written. Some are that idiot friend or love interest. But there's also situations and how the story flows. One thing that i'd give the movie some credit for is when Matt is facing being found out at a party later on with his love interest. He gets himself out of it with his math skills, something that the film established early on. Besides that scene, its all down hill. Just the love interest finding out that he's not who he says he is, Matt's sister finding the courage to stand up to Chris Pratt and what you'd expect from this kinda film. A point that isn't finalized is what Matt will do with his life. Its mentioned to him throughout the film, but they don't feel like finishing that off.WHAT THEY COULD HAVE DONE BETTER So, what could have been done to make this miserable film better? A few things could have made this film watchable all involve characters. If you finalized Matt's journey by going to an interview at Goldman Sachs to show him moving on with his life, that would be good. Even if you had his friend going to college, that would had been something to end on.

In the 80's, in Los Angeles, the video store clerk Matt Franklin (Topher Grace) is graduated in MIT but is kind of lost and does not know what he wants to be for the great deception of his father, the police officer Bill Franklin (Michael Biehn), who has invested one quarter of his savings to pay the MIT. Matt has a crush on the gorgeous Tori Frederking (Teresa Palmer) since the elementary school but he has never invited her to date and she moved to Europe. His twin sister Wendy Franklin (Anna Faris) has made an application to the master's degree in Cambridge but she is engaged of the brainless Kyle Masterson (Chris Pratt) and afraid to open the Cambridge's letter with the answer. Matt's best friend is the salesman Barry Nathan (Dan Fogler) has just been fired from his job at a car dealer. Out of the blue, Tori comes to the mall and stops at the video store to rent a video and Matt poses of banker to impress her. Tori invites him to go to a party in Kyle's house and Matt, who does not have a good relationship with Wendy's boyfriend, decides to go with Barry. However, he is decided to impress Tori and they rob a Mercedes Benz from Barry's former firm, in the beginning of a very crazy night."Take Me Home Tonight" is an entertaining feel good comedy that works mainly because of the chemistry between Topher Grace and Teresa Palmer. There are funny, but also silly situations and the surprising conclusion when Tori gives her phone number in her business card makes the viewer think whether it was normal, for this generation in the USA, pretend to be more than they really are or it is just a story. The talented Teresa Palmer is very gorgeous and Anna Faris is more restrained than usual. My vote is six.Title (Brazil): "Uma Noite Mais Que Louca" ("One More than Crazy Night")

The set in the 80's comedy "Take Me Home Tonight" is quite silly, but why did I have such a good time watching it? It is probably because it blinded me with goofy 80's science. This tainted love I have for this film it's probably due to the fact that it had a "one thing leads to another" engaging narrative. OK, those are "lies, lies, lies" yeaa. It is probably due to the 80's nostalgic factor that presented always something there to remind me of my youth. Anyways, time to get off the hot tub time machine and present you info on what this movie is about. "Take Me Home Tonight" stars Eddie Money as a former 80's rock star who goes on a rampage to get his popularity back. OK, maybe not, but that would have been mony mony, so good. It really stars Topher Grace as Matt Franklin, a recent M.I.T. Graduate who has not been successful in his career path and instead is stuck working in a video store. Matt still has a chronic crush on the girl he had a major infatuation with in high school, but he was too shy shy hush hush eye to eye to ask her out back then. Her name is Lola and she was a showgirl. OK, her name is really Tori and she has legs and knows how to use them. One afternoon, Tori shows up to the video store that Matt works at. Matt pretends to be a customer at the store and begins to give her some talk, talk and tells her that he is a successful banker. Why? Cause we are living in a material world, and she is a material girl. Tori, impressed by Matt's pseudo-credentials, asks Matt if he is going to a party where she and her friends will be at which is hosted by a mutual high school friend. Matt's reflex reaction to that is that he will most certainly be there. Accompanying Matt to the party is his goofball best friend Barry (Dan Flogler), a super freak who has just been fired and told to beat it at the auto dealership he worked at. Barry, no lothario himself, is quite chunky probably due to the fact that he is hungry like the wolf, time after time. Barry creates havoc in his quest to fight for his right to party. Then we have Wendy (Anna Faris), Matt's fraternal twin, who is very anxious in knowing if she was accepted to Cambridge University for her Masters. Wendy's boyfriend Kyle (Chris Pratt) is just one of those guys who just wants to party all the time, party all the time, party all the time; and when they kiss in reality Wendy is just kissing a fool. Is there going to be a white wedding for Wendy and Kyle, or will Kyle continue to unleash his partying rebel yells and not make Wendy his prerogative? There is not much substance to Jeff and Jackie Filgo's silly screenplay of "Take Me Home Tonight", no matter what new order you have it in. But somehow after it all sinks in, it somehow worked; I guess it must have been 80's love, but its over now. Kudos to Director Michael Dowse for dosing us with plenty of 80's especially in the first half of the picture; but Michael did you really want to hurt me with the over-the-top shenanigans in some of the film's party scenes? Nevertheless, I think somehow (maybe with a little abracadabra) Michael pulled it off and made me just want to have fun with this picture; so everybody have fun tonight, excuse my wangchungish language. None of the performances in the movie were of a good thing, even though I am saving Grace's work from free fallin by giving it a commendable effort. "Take Me Home Tonight" is a cool movie to relax with if you wanna go to it and be back on the 80's chain gang. **** Good