What’s going on with the comedy genre? Why can’t anyone come up with something original? At least Take Me Home Tonight manages to create a pleasurable atmosphere. The plot’s predictable, the gags are unoriginal, the 80’s look is cartoonishly cliché and, overall, the film isn’t all that entertaining, but thanks to some pleasant characters, it’s surprisingly hard to flat out dislike. Now is that a backhanded compliment or what?
At the close of the summer of 1988, Matt Franklin (Topher Grace) is at a loss. He just graduated from MIT, but opted to work at a mall video store rather than a Fortune 500 company. His buddy, Barry (Dan Fogler), took a pass on college all together to work for a local car dealership. Unfortunately for him, his shady sales tactics catch up to him and he gets the boot. Then there’s Matt’s twin sister, Wendy (Anna Faris), who’s torn between her dream of going to graduate school and her boyfriend Kyle’s (Chris Pratt) dream of starting his own model family.
However, tonight everything changes because tonight is the night the trio takes their first baby steps forward and reunites with their high school class to get wasted, share success stories and witness someone ride “the ball” at a massive Labor Day party. For Matt that means finally talking to his high school crush, Tori Frederking (Teresa Palmer), for Barry it means washing away his jobless sorrows in cocaine and ladies and for Wendy, deciding whose goals are more important, hers or Kyle’s.
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