MOVIE OF THE WEEK #3 (3/4/11): TAKE ME HOME TONIGHT

"Dude - if this movie were set in the new millennium we'd likely be texting while we were doing this, too!" Matt Franklin (Topher Grace) and Barry (Dan Fogler) speed into the night in a scene from Rogue Pictures' new comedy TAKE ME HOME TONIGHT.
Credit: Ron Batzdorff - SM / © 2011 Relativity Jackson, LLC and Internationale Filmproduktion Blackbird Dritte GmbH & Co. KG. All Rights Reserved..

KEY CAST MEMBERS: Topher Grace, Anna Faris (The House Bunny, Scary Movie 4), Dan Fogler, Teresa Palmer, Chris Pratt, Michelle Trachtenberg, Lucy Punch, Michael Ian Black, Demetri Martin and Angie Everhart

WRITER:Michael Browse, Jackie and Jeff Filgo (screenplay); Topher Grace and Gordon Kaywin (story by)

DIRECTOR: Michael Browse

WEB SITE: http://www.iamrogue.com/takemehometonight/fullsite

THE PLOT: Set in 1988, Take Me Home Tonight stars Topher Grace (who also helped come up with the film's original story) as Matt Franklin. A recent grad of MIT, Matt has not lived up to his potential, which is why he is still living at home with his parents and working at a Suncoast Video at a local mall ... But he's still doing better than his best friend Barry (Dan Fogler) can say at the end of the day. Doing better than both of them, however, is Matt's sister Wendy (Anna Faris), who recently applied to graduate school in Cambridge and is set to soon move in to a new condo with her boyfriend Kyle (Chris Pratt).

Kyle is throwing his annual Labor Day party, but Matt isn't planning on joining Barry and Wendy there ... But that all changes when Tori Frederking (Teresa Palmer) - a.k.a. his high school crush who never knew it - walks back into his life by walking into his store. And once she asks if he's going to Kyle's party, Matt realizes he has a lot of growing up to do ...

Especially if he plans to make this night the best night of his life.

THE TAKE: Take Me Home Tonight is not without its charms. Dan Fogler gets his Jack Black-on in good, humorous fashion, the jokes in general are OK, the nudity isn't gratuitous, the film eventually picks up steam and the soundtrack, in particular, is phenomenal. (If you grew up when MTV actually played videos, you'll likely love it more than you do the actual movie.)

And that's part of the problem - While the soundtrack is great and fits into every scene exceptionally well both in terms of the action and the setting, the movie itself does not. The aforementioned jokes don't really break any ground; there are some clever one-liners here and there, but this is not going to be quotable like say an Anchorman, Friday or even Step Brothers. Likewise, the characters aren't really all that developed besides Grace's (which makes sense if you think about how he was an executive producer), which is a shame as there was space to do more with what we were given. (You could remove Farris' character from the movie and likely wouldn't lose much, sadly.)

Worst of all, this movie really has NOTHING to do with the 80s other than simply providing a backdrop for the story. Other than making you groove to some tunes you may or may not have heard in a while, this movie could have taken place in 1978, 1998 or 2008 and not lost (or gained) a single thing. The setting is fun, but it could have been a great character; much like the majority of the film's other characters, though, it's a bit under-utilized.

PARTING SHOT: While it's probably not going to satisfy audiences looking for a long-term affair, Take Me Home Tonight is the comedic equivalent of a good one night stand, just without the awkward phone call thereafter.

RATING (OUT OF FOUR POSSIBLE BUCKETS OF POPCORN):