Take Me Home Tonight

Franklin (Topher Grace) is a recent MIT grad who is unsure just what he wants to do with the rest of his life, so he spends his post-grad summer working at a mall video store. He enjoys the anonymity of the job until the girl of his high school dreams, Tori Frederking (Teresa Palmer), walks in and, after he lies to her about having a job at a big investment company, invites him to an end of the summer blow out party where all the popular kids will gather once again to be cool for a night before starting their adult lives. Directed by Michael Dowse (It’s All Gone Pete Tong), Take Me Home Tonight does a great job of capturing the look, the feel and the fashion madness of the1980s, from the Flock of Seagull haircuts to the Men Without Hats dance moves. What separates it from the mass of similar movies that seem to hit theaters every five years or so ever since Animal House first made being dumb and drunk in college popular film fodder, is the strong script and the equally effective acting. While it, unfortunately, still thinks a movie like this has to have its share of gross out scenes to be effective, Take Me Home Tonight balances the scale by also giving us something to think about as we watch it.