Day 138: "I'm Matt Franklin, and I work at Suncoast Video in the Mall, and I live with my parents!"

Remember St. Elmo's Fire? The 80's Brat Pack movie about recent college graduates and the struggles they had trying to figure out what to do with their lives?  Now, take the skeleton of that story, make it a movie in 2011, add a ton of 80's related humor, and you've got Take Me Home Tonight.  A set of twins and their friend attend a Labor Day party, and over the course of the night, chaos reigns, very poor decisions are made, and new relationships are formed.  Wow, this is an 80's movie.  The first third to half of the movie starts slowly, setting up what is to come.  Having gone through a couple of issues similar to the main character, it was a bit uncomfortable for me to watch, but funny uncomfortable.  The second half of the story picks up considerably, and ends in true "John Hughes" fashion.

Topher Grace stars as Matt Franklin, the recent college grad who cannot figure out what to do with his life.  It was kind of disappointing seeing him play this, because it seemed like his part was a "what if" for Foreman, the character he made famous in the TV series: That 70's Show.  It wasn't really stretching his acting abilities.  Anna Faris is his sister Wendy, a much smarter role than I am accustomed to seeing her in.  Dan Fogler is their loser childhood buddy Barry Nathan, the real comedy in this film.  If he was on screen, something bad and/or funny was about to happen.

The music is pulled straight from the period, but with one notable exception (I won't tell you which song, but if you're a fan of the era, you'll figure it out pretty quickly).  It wants to be a John Hughes movie very badly, but doesn't quite pull it off.  Easy A would be a better example of this.  Not terrible, by a long shot, but not the best movie I've seen over the last 138 days.  6.75/10.

See you tomorrow, and GO WATCH A MOVIE!!