"Whatever you do, it’s what you’re gonna be. And I just don’t know what I wanna be. Yet."
I should probably start this review by letting you all know that I LOVE the 80’s. Be it movies, music, TV shows, I just think it really seemed like a fun era to be a young adult in. So from the moment I saw the first preview for “Take Me Home Tonight”, I was on board. I am a fan of the actors, the genre and the time period. How could it go wrong? Well I wouldn’t necessarily say it went completely wrong, but in the end my issue with movie could be summed up in one sentence: It really did not make me laugh.
Take Me Home Tonight tells the story of Matt (Topher Grace), a smart kid fresh out of graduating from MIT, who has no idea what he wants to do with his life. To pass the time, he works at a Suncoast Video and hangs out with his dorky friend and his sister (Anna Farris). One day he runs in to his high school crush. Knowing that she would not give him the time of day if she knew he worked at a video store, he lies to her about what he is doing with his life. This all culminates, like it always does, in a chance meeting at a party that is thrown by Farris’s boyfriend (played by real life husband and Parks and Rec. Favorite Chris Pratt) What ensues next is your usual mix of epic events that never really happen during parties and nights out.
From my previous statement about the movie not being funny, you may think that I really disliked this movie. Strangely, that is not true. Maybe it was the 80’s setting, or maybe it was my ability to relate to feeling of emptiness when you don’t know exactly what you want to do with your life, but I did kind of enjoy this movie. I have always been a big fan of Topher Grace and he does a good job of being likable in the lead. For those wondering, this movie was filmed four years ago so while Grace does still seem older then the role he is playing, its not as ridiculous as him playing the role now would be. Relative new comer Theresa Palmer does her job as the love interest and actually manages to be a part of the few laughs the movie does deliver. Not to mention, she is absolutely beautiful. Pratt and Farris are very good as supporting players and also manage to deliver some funny scenes as a couple stuck in a rut. For an 80’s aficionado like myself, the soundtrack was spot on, delivering most of the decades hits that you would expect it to. All in all, this movie had a decent amount of heart, and that surprised me.
What also surprised me however was the lack of funny in this movie. Boasting an R rating and a strong comedic cast, I expected to be laughing constantly. This turned out not to be the case, as I laughed maybe 5 times throughout the whole movie. Most of the big comedic moments are given to Matt’s friend Barry, played annoyingly over the top by Dan Fogler. The effort is there from Fogler but he fails so consistently to be funny, that I was welcoming the part of the movie where he seemed to disappear for about 20 minutes. I also think this movie was a waste of an R rating. Clearly the main reason the movie was rated R was the heavy focus on cocaine usage, but if they were already going to be rated R, would it have killed them to go back and make the movie a little raunchier? Outside of some MILF boobs and a few F bombs, it just felt like the movie treated the R rating as a burden rather than a gift.
So the bottom line is, Take Me Home Tonight is a comedy with a lot of heart, but not a lot of laughs. There are worse ways to kill time and if you are in your early to mid twenties like myself, the movie may end up hitting close to home for you. Just don’t go in expecting tour de force of laughter.
Rating: 6 out 10
No comments:
Post a Comment