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The teen and post-teen works of the late director John Hughes were never as raunchy as "Take Me Home Tonight," but this '80s-set comedy shares Hughes' sense of romance and charming characters.
Topher Grace, graduating from "That '70s Show" to the '80s, plays Matt Franklin, an MIT grad who doesn't know what to do with his life — so he works in a Suncoast video store. (Kids, there used to be these things called VHS tapes …)
He also pines over his high-school crush, Tori Frederking (Teresa Palmer, from "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" and "I Am Number Four"), the girl he never had the guts to ask out back in high school.
But now Matt has a chance to see Tori again, at a raucous Labor Day party thrown by the dimbulb Kyle (Chris Pratt), who's dating Matt's twin sister Wendy (Anna Faris, funny as always). Along for the ride is Matt's best friend Barry (Dan Fogler), who just got fired from his job selling cars. Barry decides to help Matt impress Tori by stealing a Mercedes convertible off the lot.
While Matt and Tori hit it off, and Wendy weighs grad school at Cambridge against life with Kyle, Barry gets nose-deep in the cocaine he found in the Mercedes' glove box — a discovery that makes him a sexual magnet.
Directed by Michael Dowse ("It's All Gone, Pete Tong") and written by the married team Jackie and Jeff Filgo ("Diary of a Wimpy Kid"), "Take Me Home Tonight" is steeped in late-'80s culture, from the teased hair to the New Wave soundtrack (which could have been taken from my college record collection).
The film unevenly handles its characters, grappling with the thorny problems of facing adulthood and sometimes engaging in amazingly childish behavior (such as "The Ball," a giant metal death-sphere that looms ominously in the movie's background).
Grace (who is one of the film's executive producers, and shares story credit with production partner Gordin Kaywin) comes into his own here, with a quiet leading-man gravity that belies his character's insecurities.
He's been waiting a long time — including the four years the movie sat on a shelf while some absolute crapburger comedies were released and forgotten — but "Take Me Home Tonight" shows Grace has what it takes to be a star.
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Take Me Home Tonight
The '80s comedy gets a raunchy redo in this uneven tale of a college grad trying to figure out what's next.
Where • Theaters everywhere.
When • Now open.
Rating • R for language, sexual content and drug use.
Running time • 114 mins.