Take Me Home Tonight was a movie I went to see on release. From memory, it was early evening one Friday night. I was the only one there! Admittedly, this film was criminally underpromoted, but to have a screen to yourself on a Friday night at the biggest cinema in the area was a first for me. Having re-watched Take Me Home Tonight recently, I felt it stood up well. Not ground breaking, but a solid enjoyable movie. As is the case with even the best online casinos in australia, sometimes things can go under the radar. Box office receipts suggest that Take Me Home Tonight didn’t do a huge amount of business. It can also be said that reviews of the movie are average at best overall. At Rotten Tomatoes, Take Me Home Tonight holds just a 28% approval rating. The numbers are more favourable over at IMDB, with a much more respectable 6.3/10.
Having dug a little deeper into the film’s history, I think I have uncovered the main reason why Take Me Home Tonight struggled on release. Having been filmed in 2007, Take Me Home Tonight did not actually hit the big screen until 2011. There were apparently issues between Universal and Relativity Media, which meant long delays between filming and the actual release of the movie. No gambling scenes such as real money online slots spring to mind, something which may have hindered negotiations further. Star Topher Grace has also commented that there was some reservations from the studio due to the drug use portrayed throughout the course of the film. While I didn’t consider this particularly provocative, it probably wouldn’t be suitable for younger audiences. However, the movie’s age rating reflects that fact.
Grace told MTV;
“It tested really well. It’s an audience film. It’s not drama, but there was a real hesitation because there is so much cocaine in it, and our feeling at the time was, ‘You can’t do a movie about Prohibition without alcohol, and you really can’t do a movie about partying in the ’80s, at the age these kids are, without showing cocaine use.”
Thanks to producers Brian Grazer and Ron Howard, they were able to finally get Take Me Home Tonight out to consumers.
“We had fun producing, but those guys are the real deal. We learned a lot from them, and they’re probably the greatest producers of our time. So, they encouraged us to not change the cut, which I thought was a really cool move.”
Interesting fact – Take Me Home Tonight is named after the the Eddie Money song. However, this tune does not feature at any point in the movie.
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