Big Screen Blurb: Take Me Home Tonight

Let me make this perfectly clear. I am NOT Topher Grace. Yes, I have been told repeatedly that I bare a resemblance to the star of That 70’s Show and various big screen flicks. This comparison has always been flattering. That is, until Take Me Home Tonight—one of the more unfunny movies of the year. Sure, it has its moments—two or three anyway, but that’s not nearly enough to justify spending the time or cash on this baby.

Take Me Home Tonight is about 1984 high school grad Matt (Grace). Moving ahead four years after high school, the brainiac Matt has graduated from MIT. Success story waiting to happen, right? Well, not yet. Actually, he’s biding his time at Sun Coast Video in the mall. That’s when he sees the ole high school crush, Tori (Teresa Palmer). Matt invents an impressive job to begin the woo-ing process and it works. Meanwhile, his twin sister, Wendy (Anna Faris) and best friend, Barry (Dan Fogler) are both trying to figure out a few things of their own. Wendy is about to be engaged, where her life will be essentially dictated by her popular, but dim-witted beaux; and Barry has just lost his job selling cars. Yadayadayada the path to self-discovery starts with a stolen car and some coke only to end with a big metal ball and a swimming pool.

I’ll go with 1.5 Stars…yeah, pretty bad. As previously mentioned, it has a few funny moments, but all in all there’s nothing in this picture that would prompt me to recommend it. We open with the standard fare domino-effect destruction of a music store—which is pretty much a reflection of the entire movie. Ho-hum. Nothing unique. Nothing outrageously funny. Nothing of any inherent value.

Actually, it’s a flick that mirrors its message. The message relayed here centers on finding your path and carving out your own destination apart from peer and parental expectations. This movie struggles to find its own way. Is it expected to be funny-funny and striving to be gross-funny? Is it expected to create a teary-eyed ending; or charge us up if we haven’t yet quite found our niche in life? Who knows? I can take that kind of ambiguity if it has me rolling, but otherwise, no thanks.

Further, I’m still scratching my head to figure out why they chose 1988 instead of something present day. Why the 80’s? They didn’t want to mess with cell phones and Facebook? For that, we had to endure 114 minutes of whacked out hair and leg warmers?

Better luck next time, Topher. No need to waste your time on this one—skip it BIG, and unless you just find yourself craving poofed hair and some 80’s tunes, skip it altogether.

True…OUT!