Take Me Home Tonight

This creaky nostagia trip focuses on a raucous night for a group of young friends during the summer of 1988. The John Hughes-style action kicks off for nerdy MIT graduate Matt Franklin (Topher Grace) when high-school crush Tori (Teresa Palmer) walks into the video store where he's working. His errant best friend (Dan Fogler) and sister (Anna Faris) bring mayhem to a teetering storyline: getting fired, cocaine, car theft, idiocy and an unopened letter from Cambridge university. More 80s than the 80s, this throwback tries a little too hard to be madcap and carefree, ending up instead as a juddering wad of big hair, great songs and bad fashion. There are good moments, mostly with the supporting cast: Bob Odenkirk, Demetri Martin as a disabled classmate and Michael Biehn, who shines in his tiny role as Matt's cop father. But Faris is wasted in her role as the sister who can't put on lip gloss. Grace co-wrote the story and executive-produced, so he gets most of the close-ups and some of the best lines in this obvious labour of love. There's a good, snappy screwball comedy buried somewhere in the movie, but director Michael Dowse can't unearth it.