A Rant & Movie Review: "Take Me Home Tonight"

I've been reading reviews for the movie "Take Me Home Tonight" and after seeing the flick myself I can tell many of the "professional" movie reviewers either were not really watching the movie or have a lower IQ than they realize.

Let's get right into this, I'll provide movie information itself at the end. Robert Ebert: what are you talking about? Ebert rants in his review about this and that, but labels people in the movie wrong. For example he refers to one character as the lead's arch rival. At no point was this guy ever considered an arch rival or nemesis, sure the guy was a jock-ish type compared to the lead's nerd, but the only negative banter between them is almost on a friendly level. In the high school flashback snapshots some other dude was shown to be his "rival" because he was always hanging around the girl of the lead's dreams. Other reviewers go on about the movie not being funny and point out scenes that were supposed to make us laugh. You're making that call on assumption! Someone sitting writing a movie review that was not involved with the production of the movie doesn't have a clue what the filmmakers were really trying to do, only the filmmakers could tell you that.

Cliches are being pointed out left and right by reviewers. Yes, this is a very formula movie, a formula you have seen time and time again. However, many if not most of the reviews I have read have been slightly inaccurate with their pointing out of clichés used. It is almost like they did not watch the entire movie or were assuming those clichés played out the way they did. In reality this formula movie does tread on cliché, but it also dares to add slight touches of newness to the mix. Ever so slight, but enough that someone who actually pays attention to movies and not my own voice that cannot wait to get out and give a scathing review that the ego deems witty, might notice.. This IS a formula movie, but done in an entertaining way.

I was not laughing during the movie. This is true. A movie can be a comedy, but not really make you laugh, and still be good. You cannot judge a movie based on how it is being marketed by the studios. The filmmakers have no say in that.

The actors in "Take Me Home Tonight" are all spot on. The movie stars Topher Grace, Dan Fogler, Anna Faris, Teresa Palmer, and Chris Pratt amongst others. Chris Pratt was involved in one of the funnier scenes where the jock type gets all emotional and cries. The characters in this movie are nothing excitingly new, but the way the stereotypes are handled is not too blunt with cliché. Perhaps if the movie took place while they were still in high school one could complain about them being too caricature. But this movie takes place years after high school and actually shows the slight tweaks to their caricatures, which I found to be humorous even if it was not the same type of humor as say telling a penis joke like a Judd Apatow movie. The love interest as played by Teresa Palmer does not get any grand line or character development per-say, but I will point out that I thought Teresa Palmer was lovely based on the power of screen presence alone.

The real reason you want to go see this movie is because of the music. If you dig the 80's vibe, then this is a movie driven scene by scene by those rocking sounds.

"Take Me Home Tonight" is not the greatest new thing or hilarious. However, I did find it entertaining, which is what I wanted from it! If you want some deep meaning to life revealed in full, or an inspirational message about sexuality and the mentally challenged who play football then not for you. If you are wanting profane jokes about butts and weeniers because that's what makes you laugh: not for you, they go the drug and sex route here more visually than verbally. If you're someone who can identify with not knowing what you wanted to be right out of high school or having had a huge crush on a girl that never went away, but you never did anything about it: then you may identify with and enjoy this movie a good deal. I don't think I need to cover the plot synopsis in this review, you probably get the drift.

The movie "Take Me Home Tonight" as directed by Michael Dowse is mostly forgettable, but worth a rental some day. As I write this it is playing in theaters though and the only reason to catch that version is if your theater has a great sound system and you want to hear those 80's tunes.

Formula movies keep getting made because they can still resonate with audiences. Sometimes they come off old and boring, sometimes they do enough to be called entertaining: this one entertained me.