| Take Me Home Tonight | |
|---|---|
Theatrical release poster |
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| Directed by | Michael Dowse |
| Produced by | Ryan Kavanaugh[1] Jim Whitaker[1] Susan Bowen[1] |
| Screenplay by | Jackie Filgo Jeff Filgo |
| Story by | Topher Grace Gordon Kaywin |
| Starring | Topher Grace Anna Faris Dan Fogler Teresa Palmer |
| Music by | Trevor Horn |
| Cinematography | Terry Stacey |
| Editing by | Lee Haxall |
| Studio | Rogue Imagine Entertainment |
| Distributed by | Relativity Media |
| Release date(s) | March 4, 2011 |
| Running time | 97 minutes 114 minutes Extended Cut |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $19 million[2] |
| Box office | $6,923,891[3] |
Take Me Home Tonight is a 2011 American retro comedy film starring an ensemble cast including Topher Grace, Anna Faris, Teresa Palmer, Dan Fogler, and Michelle Trachtenberg. The film was written by the writers of That '70s Show and directed by Michael Dowse. The title spawns from the 1986 Eddie Money song of the same name, also played in the theatrical trailer. Shooting began on the week starting February 19, 2007,[4] in Phoenix, Arizona.[5] The film received its wide theatrical release on March 4, 2011. Prior to release the film was titled Young Americans and Kids in America.
Despite having the name, the song "Take Me Home Tonight" by Eddie Money is never played in the film. Only the first trailer includes the song, as well as the menu screen of the Blu-Ray and DVD versions of the movie.
Contents |
Set in 1988 Los Angeles, the film begins in a mall music store with recent MIT graduate Matt Franklin (Topher Grace), his twin sister Wendy (Anna Faris), and his best friend Barry Nathan (Dan Fogler) as they try to figure out when to see Matt's dream girl Tori Fredreking (Teresa Palmer). Following graduation, Matt has been working at a Suncoast Video store while trying to figure out what to do with his life (something in which his father, who has spent a quarter of his savings on Matt's MIT education, has grown impatient). While working one day, Tori randomly walks into the store. When, Matt see hers, he quickly leaves out the back door of the store, removes his employee vest and casually returns to the store through the front public entrance. After acting like he doesn't see her, she recognizes him from high school and strikes up a conversation with him. He acts oblivious to how she feels she knows him. When she then asks him where he works, he lies and tells her he's at Goldman Sachs in an effort to impress her. Tori then invites him to a Labor Day weekend party held by Wendy's boyfriend, Kyle Masterson (Chris Pratt). Matt, Barry, and Wendy drive to the party later that night, but before they arrive, Barry steals a brand new red convertible (Mercedes-Benz 560 SL [R107]) from the dealership where he got fired from earlier in the day. Matt and Barry arrive to the party in style (trying to sell that Matt is supposed to be a Goldman Sachs banker), while Wendy—refusing to join them, but eager to be a spectator—follows them in her less-than-elegant, faded red 1985 Plymouth Reliant.
At the party, Kyle challenges people to ride the "ball", a hollow steel sphere that is supposed to ride down the street (a traditional dare at their high school that no one's ever taken, as alluded to by Matt's father during a family supper early in the movie). Matt runs into Carlos (Demetri Martin), a high school classmate who actually works at Goldman Sachs and attempts to convince him to cover his lie that he works there too. Meanwhile, Barry tries cocaine that Matt found in the stolen car shortly after they left the dealership, and is subsequently involved in a dance battle. Kyle then proposes to Wendy in front of the crowd gathered for the dance-off. Matt is displeased with Wendy's acceptance of the proposal and pulls her aside, where they argue that Kyle isn't going to be a good husband to her and that he will not support her in her endeavors. She stands up for Kyle, but seemingly begins processing Matt's opinion as Matt walks out in frustration.
Then Matt and Barry leave with Tori and her friends to a business party in Beverly Hills. On the drive to the party, Tori tells Matt that her boss, Peter (Michael Ian Black), hired her just to see her naked. At the party, Tori reveals to Matt that she hates her job. Matt and Tori leave the party, enter the backyard of a neighbor's home, and jump on a trampoline where they play truth or dare. When they get too far, Matt ends up sleeping with her. Then, Matt tells Tori the truth about his job, causing Tori to become upset and leave.
During the nighttime drive back to Kyle's party, Barry tells Matt that he should have that one night of enjoyment. Barry then snorts more of the cocaine. He persuades a heavily dejected Matt to do it despite driving the car. In a state of vulnerability, Matt leans over to succumb to the pestering and try some of the drug. Barry is supposed to keep his eyes on the road and take the wheel, but fails to do so. They end up driving off the road and into a ditch. After Matt declares that the night couldn't get any worse, they are graced by the presence of a police car which pulls to the rear of their car. Much to their surprise, it's Matt's LAPD policeman father (Michael Biehn) and his police partner. Matt's father is already disappointed in his pursuit of a good job to utilize his MIT education, so he uses this as leverage to damage the car even more to say that Matt should be working for a better company to pay off all the damages. Mr. Franklin and his partner take Matt and Barry into custody and begin driving them to the police station, but mid-way there, his partner cracks up and says he can't keep up the act any more, to which Mr. Franklin begins to chuckle. They ultimately pull the police car over in a random neighborhood and let Matt and Barry off with a warning. Matt apologizes for being a failure and his father states that he can't credit himself as a failure because he hasn't even tried, stating that he's actually less than a failure. After being condescending, he then, in a more inspiring tone, tells Matt to take a shot at anything in life.
Back at Kyle's party, Wendy is scared to open a letter of admissions, after applying for graduate school in England at the University of Cambridge. Kyle opens the letter for her, and tells her that she has been rejected in a relieved tone. Wendy takes offense and recognizes that Matt's opinion of Kyle is true and ends the engagement just hours after publicly accepting the proposal.
Matt and Barry walk back to Kyle's party. As a crowd assembles near the steel ball, Barry starts to talk to a goth girl (Michelle Trachtenberg) he had run into at the party earlier in the night. He tells her that he is going to ride the ball and gets ready to throw his hat into the ring. Also amidst the crowd, Matt tries to tell Tori he was sorry for lying to her. Tori is unwilling to forgive him since she states he's as scared as the rest of the little boys at the party and had hoped that he was different. After one drunk party goer gets scared sober and decides not to ride the ball, Barry is getting ready to accept the challenge to impress the goth girl. However, Matt — feeling he has nothing to lose — beats Barry to the punch. Matt raises his hand and volunteers to take his place. Walking away from Tori and towards the ominous steel ball, the crowd begins to applaud Matt's courage.
Barry tries to discourage Matt from riding the ball, even offering to ride it for him but Matt tells him to f-off. He climbs into the ball where his sister, Wendy, tells Kyle not to let him ride the ball. Kyle tells Wendy that the hill goes up and the ball will come to a rest shortly after being released. But as Kyle releases the ball it begins to roll down the hill hitting vehicles parked along the street as it zig-zags uncontrollably down the street. Eventually, the ball goes off the road and begins a tumble down an embankment. Matt throws-up in the spinning ball before finally crashing through a residential fence and landing in a swimming pool. Matt nearly drowns at the bottom of the pool — as he is seemingly locked in the steel ball — but manages to get the hatch open in time to swim to the surface. An out-of-breath Barry rushes to Matt's attention. They walk back to the party, where as the party is winding down and the sun is coming up, a more confident Matt tells Tori he wants her phone number. After playing a little hard-to-get, Tori is actually impressed by Matt's sudden forwardness and rattles off her phone number. She smiles and walks out of the scene. The last scene features Matt, Barry, and Wendy leaving in the same Dodge Aries that Wendy followed them to the party in earlier in the movie to go get a much deserved breakfast.
Matt's father, investigating a smashed fence and the "ball" in the bottom of the pool in the early hours of the morning, finds Matt's Suncoast Video name tag floating in the pool. He smiles a proud smirk before quickly putting the name tag in his pocket and returning to a serious face.
Principal photography was completed in 2007, but Universal Studios shelved the film until its 2011 theatrical release.[6] Topher Grace posted that the release of the film was delayed when the studio didn't know how to handle and promote a youth comedy film with portrayal of cocaine use, as the drug was prominent in the 1980s.[7]
Its release remained delayed until Relativity Media subsidiary Rogue acquired the film from Universal Pictures for $10 million.[6][2] The film was previously titled Young Americans and Kids in America, titles of popular songs by David Bowie and Kim Wilde.
On March 3, 2011, while being interviewed on Ryan Seacrest's KISS FM radio show, Topher Grace announced to former American Idol contestant Chris Medina that 1% of the film's box office revenue would be donated to the care of Medina's injured fiance, Juliana Ramos. Juliana was involved in a serious car accident in 2009 and suffered a traumatic brain injury. Her story has been widely followed across the nation since Medina's appearance on American Idol.
The film was released in the U.S. on March 4, 2011. The DVD and Blu-Ray was released on July 12th, 2011. The Blu-Ray edition includes an additional digital copy.[8] Relativity released a trailer for the film in December 2010.
Take Me Home Tonight has received negative reviews from film critics.[9] Based on 109 reviews on Rotten Tomatoes, the movie has an overall approval rating of 28%, with an average rating of 4.6/10.[10] Peter Travers of Rolling Stone writes that "Take Me Home Tonight has just enough heart and retro party spirit to hold the line before familiarity breeds contempt."[11] Critics have praised the leads and felt the film was heartwarming but was not nearly as original and funny as it was suggested to be. David Denby of The New Yorker writes that "(Topher) Grace has a way about him, the young Australian actress Palmer is lovely and crisp, and the Canadian writer-director Michael Dowse manages the exuberant traffic well enough."[12]
Colin Covert of the Minneapolis Star Tribune gave the film 3 out of 4 stars, writing that the movie is a "winning rag bag of gags, combining fast-paced physical shtick with a clever script. There's romantic comedy savvy period satire and "Jackass"-style stunts...Take Me Home Tonight is a time capsule from the heyday of John Hughes and Cameron Crowe, a time when comedies allowed their characters to be human as well as humorous."[13]
Take Me Home Tonight opened poorly in 2,003 theaters with a mere $3,500,000 opening averaging about $1750 per theater.[14]