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It's the 1980s, and math genius Matt Franklin has graduated from MIT but can't decide what he wants to do with his life ... One day his old high school crush, Tori Frederking , walks in, and to win a date with her, he lies about being a successful banker. She invites him to a party, and Matt shows up with his best friend Barry -- a loud, precocious car salesman who has just lost his job. Accompanied by Matt's sister, Wendy , they steal a car to make the ruse complete. While Barry experiments with cocaine, a dance-off, and sex with strange women, Matt must figure out a way to keep Tori interested without letting his lie get out of control.
What could have made it better is a little more supportive comedy. I think "Take Me Home Tonight" relied too heavily on Dan Fogler's character for comedy purposes. All in all, was surprisingly funny, but very predictable in the same aspect. I did not want to see this movie, because it really seemed like just another film about people being idiots at a party, and that's pretty much what it was, with two major exceptions. First, it was set in 1984, and it was really cool to see the lengths they went to, to keep everything as accurate as they could.
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Covering up the evidence seems to delight the officer, in fact, as he chuckles over the “fun” crimes they’ve committed. Barry and Matt find a bag of cocaine, and Barry not only snorts it, but covers his face with it. (After making a mess of things, he muses, “But it looks so easy in movies.”) Others join him, too. When women figure out that he’s carrying drugs, they hit on him in order to get some. Barry and a “cougar” old enough to be his mother do coke together and become amorous.
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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TAKE ME HOME TONIGHT follows Matt Franklin, a recent MIT graduate. Matt is unable to determine a real career path, so he works in a mall video store. His sister, Wendy, is smart and hopes to go to on to an Ivy League graduate school but is torn by her love for a dumb boyfriend, who wants to marry her.
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.
Topher Grace (TV’s “That’70s Show”), the star and executive producer of TAKE ME HOME TONIGHT, describes his new R-rated comedy as a “lost John Hughes film,” an attempt to make a John Hughes movie for current times. Indeed, it plays like an adult version of Hughes’ teen-movie SIXTEEN CANDLES, only with adults facing the dilemmas. The characters are entertaining, up to a point, with most of the main characters, except for the protagonist’s hedonistic sidekick, meant to be sweet rather than just lewd or immature. Regrettably, however, although TAKE ME HOME TONIGHT has some of the heart and charm of the Hughes movies, its R-rated content almost totally erases the moral boundaries that made them special. The movie, directed by Michael Dowse, is one raucous night, one raunchy party, American Graffiti filtered through Dazed and Confused and the Shermer High films of John Hughes. For spice, add Anna Faris as Matt’s twin sister in a relationship with Chris Pratt as the jock dipstick ready to put a ring on it.
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.
Matt finds Tori and tries to apologize, but she is unwilling to forgive him. Feeling he has nothing to lose, Matt volunteers to "ride the ball", hitting several parked cars then flying off an embankment, landing in a backyard swimming pool. He almost drowns before escaping the sinking ball. The title comes from the 1986 Eddie Money song of the same name, also played in the theatrical trailer and on the menu screen of the Blu-Ray and DVD releases.
Grace had a lot of involvement including crafting the story and producing the movie. The cast is loaded with other great actors in comedy including Anna Faris, Chris Pratt and Michael Biehn. However it is the young Teresa Palmer that really steals the scenes that she is in. Still Take Me Home Tonight is an underwhelming product. The 1980's is captured pretty well with the setting and the soundtrack but it is still a clichéd rom-com that really has nothing new to offer. There is very little humour and the story is just so generic that it is almost immediately forgettable.
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.
When Matt’s policeman dad arrives on the scene and not only doesn’t penalize or arrest him, he helps Matt cover up his wrongdoings. Still, expect lots of strong language ("f--k," "s--t," "p---y," and more), drug use and drinking, and sexual situations, innuendoes, and even some nudity. And parents who fondly remember the era of skinny ties and shoulder pads.
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