'Take Me Home Tonight' entertaining, lacks depth

Do you like drugs and/or alcohol? Do you like Topher Grace? Do you yearn for the golden years of the 1980s – the days of parachute pants and clunky, "portable" cellular phones?

If you said yes to at least two of those, then "Take Me Home Tonight" is the movie for you.

Set in the tail end of the ‘80s, "Take Me Home Tonight" centers around Suncoast Video clerk Matt Frankin (Grace) and his quest to finally pronounce his love for his unrequited "high school crush", Tori Frederking (played by Aussie Teresa Palmer). Adding extraneous storylines to the movie was Dan Fogler's portrayal of Grace's high school buddy, Barry, who has just lost his job at a car dealership, as well as Anna Faris' portrayal of Matt's twin sister, Wendy, who has just gotten engaged to her long-time, moronic boyfriend.

After bumping into Tori and lying about being in the same career field as her, Matt gets the invite to a party later that night at his future brother-in-law's home. Matt sees this as his opening to reveal his feelings.

I really enjoyed this film, but if you're going to see it to see Topher Grace, don't even bother. I like Topher, but his performance in "Take Me Home Tonight" would be best described as "vanilla." His character, Matt – a prodigal genius who is having a crisis of identity and is unable to decide what he wants to do with his life – was a good deal deeper than Grace's portrayal.  Even with that kind of character depth, Grace is not the most interesting character in the movie.

Fogler's character, Barry, is, by far, the funniest character in the whole film. Getting canned from his job at a car dealership sends Barry on a sharp, downward spiral. He gets drunk, steals a car to get back at his former boss (and to give Matt a sweet ride to arrive to the party in) and gets coked out of his mind on some blow that he finds in the car. Barry spends over 70 percent of the movie high on cocaine, getting into crazy mini-adventures such as hitting on other guys' girlfriends, getting into a dance battle and even getting arrested. This zaniness finds its climax with one of the funniest scenes in the film, and probably the only scene ever, where Fogler is forced to have rough sex with Angie Everhart while a third party inches closer and closer to them both to get a better look.

In the end, Grace does get the girl – as you probably already expected – but not before winning her over, sleeping with her, revealing that he is actually a video store clerk who still lives at home and then revealing one of the biggest plot holes in the whole film.

Palmer's character is understandably angry when she finds out that Grace is a loser – and yes, I'm referring to both the character Matt and Topher Grace himself (Sorry, Foreman).  So, what would do you think he should do to win her back? If you suggest that he should risk his life in the most asinine fashion by riding down a hill in a metal sphere called "The Ball," then you are absolutely right. He "rides The Ball" to prove to himself and everyone else that he is…not afraid? There really is no clear reason why he does this other than to provide one last hilarious scene of Topher Grace screaming like a little girl and puking on himself.

Aside from those few problems, the film is very entertaining and I would recommend buying a ticket – so long as the ticket doesn't cost more than $6 (good luck).

3.5 out of 5 stars