The Film
The writers of That '70s Show took star Topher Grace out of one decade and put him into Take Me Home Tonight, a comedy that relies on retro to entertain the audience.
Set in the summer of 1988, Matt Franklin (Grace) finds himself with an MIT degree and a full-time job at Suncoast Video. The only way he can win over his high school dream girl (Teresa Palmer) is to fake a job at Goldman Sachs and impress her at the biggest party of the year.
Take Me Home Tonight offers up a few nods to '80s nostalgia, from music and fashion all the way down to Matt's dad, who is played by Terminator star Michael Biehn. Unfortunately, the film itself is about as thin as Matt's era-appropriate tie.
First, we have the spineless-guy-wants-dream-girl plot, which is more overplayed than "Come On Eileen." Still, this movie should have been funny. Besides the totally tubular soundtrack, the film doesn't play up enough of the '80s angle. Instead of going full blast like Hot Tub Time Machine, it makes the time period more of a background prop. Also, it completely wastes Anna Faris, a good comedic actress, in the role of Matt's twin sister. She's given absolutely nothing funny to do in this movie. Instead, she plays the straight man to Matt's straight man. The filmmakers opted to give all of the funny to sidekick Dan Fogler, and rely on him being fat, coked up, and stupid to carry the film. Like, gag me with a spoon.
Still feeling nostalgic? Check out Beth McCabe's theatrical review of Take Me Home Tonight.
The Picture
Fox delivers a fair 2.40:1 transfer for Take Me Home Tonight. It gets the job done, but not that well. First, it's really dark. That would be fine, but it doesn't really suit the film's subject matter. Instead of using color to display some of the time period, this movie could really be from any era. There are maybe three guys wearing brightly colored Polo shirts (collars up, of course) and everyone seems to have a brightly lit pool. Even those occasional moments of pop are a bit on the dim side. The rest of the movie and its characters seem too cool for legwarmers, Members Only jackets, and everything else that the disc case seems to be selling. It's mostly dark colors at a few dark parties. Again, it could work, if the grain didn't wipe away most of the detail. There's no detail on gold tile in the bathroom, no gel-filled hair to dissect, and not much sparkle for Tori Frederking's (Teresa Palmer) sparkly gold dress.
The Sound
Take Me Home Tonight comes packing just the English DTS-HD Master Audio track. Like most comedies, the film is very dialogue heavy, which does sound great here. Besides one car accident swooping through the surrounds, there's very little other ambient noise. It doesn't matter though, because the main focus here is the very '80s soundtrack. This is where the film delivers, and it does it in a big way, blasting everything from Men Without Hats to NWA to Wang Chung throughout the entire soundfield.
The Extras
Fox has included deleted scenes, TV spots, a trailer, and the much-promoted music video for Take Me Home Tonight. Otherwise, there are two main extras included in this set. The "Cast Get Together" features all the main cast sitting on a couch, drinking and reminiscing about the film. Besides the two seconds spent on real-life couple Anna Faris and Chris Pratt meeting on the set, the 8 minutes is sort of weird. The things they talk about don't offer much info about the production, except a few inside jokes and segues into clips from the movie.
The "Music Boombox" is the more interesting extra, offering a playlist of every song that's featured in the movie. Click on the song, and you'll be treated to info about that band, as well as the option to find the song in the movie. It would have been cool if they offered the full song or even a video. However, it's a good feature for a movie that relies so heavily on music.
Final Thoughts
All things retro seem to resonate well with audiences. However, Take Me Home Tonight was sort of a blip at the box office. Maybe it's because the whole '80s thing is sort of an afterthought. The audio and video are decent, but the rest is a series of wasted opportunities. If you feel the need to take this one home tonight or any other night, you may want to think about trying it as a rental first.
Product Details
Where to Buy:
| Overall | |
|---|---|
| Video | |
| Audio | |
| Movie | |
| Extras |
