This was an oddly impressive movie. Most of the time, when you see raunchy sex-comedies with that certain neon, dayglow aura about them, you expect them to be half-assed rip offs of the 80s teen sex comedy genre (if that can actually rise to the level of a genre) but Take Me Home Tonight achieved the rare feat of actually seeming less like an homage to the glories of 1980s cinema and actually seeming like it was elbowing its way into the genre itself- albeit 2 decades after the fact.
The plot is, of course, totally familiar. Mid-20s burnout Matt Franklin (Topher Grace) went to MIT, but hates engineering and winds up working at Suncoast Video. His parents- especially Dad (played by Michael Biehn! Awesome to see him again in something) are pressuring him to actually get off his ass and do something with his life. His twin sister Wendy (Anna Faris) is on the verge of either marrying her longtime boyfriend or potentially getting into graduate school in England and even best friend Barry (Dan Fogler) despite losing his job as a car salesman seems to have it more together than Matt does. Enter high school crush Tori Fredreking (Teresa Palmer) whom Matt has harbored a longtime, unrequited crush on since high school.
Because this is essentially an 80s Comedy released in 2011, we all know what happens next, right? There's a wild party- Matt tries to make himself cool by saying that he works at Goldman Sachs to try and get the girl There's cocaine, booze, boobs, wacky hijinks involving a gigantic metal ball and a stolen Mercedes-Benz and in the end, everyone discovers their zest for life and Matt, while he might not actually get the girl- at least gets her phone number and a little bit of courage to go out into the world and try to make something of himself. In other words, pick your heartwarming ending to any 80s comedy and insert here.
I know, I know- this seems like it should be totally unbearable. And yet it's not- the soundtrack kicks some major ass (any movie made after 1989 that includes 'The Safety Dance' on its soundtrack automatically kicks ass!) and all in all while it doesn't manage to be as original as it tries to be, it certainly is original enough not to seem like a total rip-off or lame homage to the 80s comedy genre.
Overall *** out of ****: An amusing trip back to the glories of the late 1980s. Funny- and while I might not plonk down 15 bucks to buy this thing, it's worth a buck to snag it from a RedBox if you're looking for a movie to watch.
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