Soundtracked! Issue #9: Take Me Home Tonight

What springs to mind when you think of the 80s? Mullets? Miami Vice? Rubik’s cube? Robots in Disguise? Ferris Bueller? Who shot J.R? I’m a child of the 80s and for me there’s one aspect of this era that smacks all others in the luminous shell-suited nether-region – the distinctive voice of David Bowie (or as I knew him back then – Jareth the Goblin King). Anyone familiar with Labyrinth, the Jim (Muppets) Henson directed, George (Star Wars) Lucas produced 1986 fantasy extravaganza, will remember Bowie’s boisterous musical number ‘Magic Dance’. This simple, infectious, head-bopping beat, bursting out of Jareth’s castle at the centre of the labyrinth, springs to mind every time I recall the 80s.
If you’re a wee rascal aged 20 or younger, the only way to have experienced this pastel plastered decade is to have either befriended Emmett Brown or accidentally stumbled across your very own hot tub based time machine. For everyone else there are at least 524 classic films made during the 80s that present an accurate portrayal of this bygone era (the incredible late John Hughes duly deserves a mention). Alternatively, Hollywood has seen fit to churn out several overstated interpretations of the 80’s including Frank Coraci’s romantic comedy The Wedding Singer (1998) and more recently Steve Pink’s puerile time-travelling caper Hot Tub Time Machine (2010). Both films accentuate the garish fashion, social behaviour and apparent hedonism of the purportedly awesome 80s. These two films present this influential era as an incandescent hive of glitz and glamour which to me seems like wish-fulfilment on part of both film’s creators.

Thankfully, one aspect of both abovementioned films that does not elude 80s authenticity is in the inclusion of some true 80s tunage. In between Adam Sandler’s wit-smothered love songs, The Wedding Singer assembled a soundtrack crammed full of classic 80’s tracks including ‘Do You Really Want to Hurt Me’ by Culture Club, ‘Hold Me Now’ by The Thompson Twins, ‘Every Little Thing She Does is Magic’ from The Police, ‘White Wedding’ by Billie Idol (who also pops up in the film’s grand finish) and ‘China Girl’ from the one and only David Bowie. Last year’s Hot Tub Time Machine cranked up the rock meter to a scorching 11 with the inclusion of some big hair ballads including Mötley Crüe’s ‘Home Sweet Home’, ‘Cry Tough’ by Poison and one of the eras most recognisable power ballads ‘I Want To Know What Love Is’ from Foreigner.
The next of Hollywood’s endeavours to glamorise the late, great 80s has finally arrived with the release of Michael Dowse’s Take Me Home Tonight; a coming-of-age comedy set in the late 80’s, filmed in 2007, released in the US March 2011 and only now seeing the light of day here in the UK. Like its predecessors, Take Me Home Tonight features a smorgasbord of unforgettable music from the period in which it’s based. Before delving deeper (whilst fighting the urge to style my hair with lashings of hairspray and mousse), I’d like to note Take Me Home Tonight was by no means the best film caught at the cinema this week. In fact, it was by far the worst in terms of narrative, aesthetics and all round entertainment. Priest was pleasing on the peepers. Attack The Block was brutish but never boring, whilst Hanna, the story of a perfect 16 year-old assassin being pursued across a bleak vision of Europe was a complete knockout. It also featured a superb soundtrack by British electronic dance duo The Chemical Brothers that expertly mirrored the ever-changing moods and environments Hanna experienced during her perilous journey. Joe Wright’s emotional action thriller may have been the better film, with a series of governing tracks to match, but for the purpose of this feature, it couldn’t compete with a film bursting with music that evoked my happy childhood.

For those of you interested in the napkin thin storyline of Take Me Home Tonight, here’s your friendly narrative summary: Matt Franklin (Topher Grace – moving up a decade from That 70s Show to the 80s) is an MIT dropout now working at his local video store where he encounters his former high school crush Tori (the gorgeous Teresa Palmer). Suitably impressed by Matt’s whopping lie about being an investment banker, his unrequited love invites him along to a shindig she’s attending. Arriving at the bash with his loud, abrasive best bud Barry (Dan Fogler), matters are quickly complicated when Matt learns the Labour Day party is hosted by the chauvinist pig Kyle (Chris Pratt) who is dating his twin sister Wendy (Anna Faris). Cue a number of cringe-worthy acts performed in a series of kitschy scenarios. Similar to The Wedding Singer and Hot Tub Time Machine, Take Me Home Tonight sweeps us up, up and away in a sea of 80s showy nostalgia. From the ‘can you believe people wore that’ clothing to an aural assault of period references (Barry’s pre-cocaine-fuelled shenanigans invoke Matt to utter "take it easy, Scarface."), Take Me Home Tonight is literally littered with 80s iconography.
To be frank, Take Me Home Tonight’s 80s setting offers no valid contribution, story wise. The film could have been based in Bognor Regis a day before yesterday and still kept its undemanding, straightforward storyline. It seems the decision makers chose to base the film in this era as a means to include some truly decade-defining tunes... which, by the way, is freakin’ fine by me! Is it plausible to recommend a film solely for its soundtrack? In Take Me Home Tonight’s case I think I’ll make an exception. The entire soundtrack is a paean to pop music’s past and it rarely stops throughout the film’s slender screen time. Music fills the background, bounces from the radio and blasts out of the ghetto-blaster during the film’s crucial party scenes. From the artistically stylised open credit sequence depicting a high school yearbook changing to the beat of Duran Duran’s ‘Hungry Like the Wolf’ to the moment Tori enters the frame to the strains of ‘Bette Davis Eyes’ by Kim Carnes, the film deftly utilises some of that decade’s best known songs.

Also featured is the glam-rocky ‘Kickstart My Heart’ by Mötley Crüe, the poptastic ‘Everybody Have Fun Tonight’ by Wang Chung and 80’s hip hoppers N.W.A’s ‘Straight Outta Compton’ (which features one of the film’s funniest scenes involving both Matt and Barry, two suburban white men, riding down the freeway whilst lip-synching along). The film also shares two songs which feature on the soundtracks of both aforementioned examples; Hot Tub Time Machine’s increasingly ubiquitous ‘Safety Dance’ from Men Without Hats and The Wedding Singer’s irritatingly catchy ‘Video Killed the Radio Star’ by the Buggles.
Curiously missing from the film and its Music from the Motion Picture CD soundtrack is Eddie Money’s staple song of which the film is named after. Money’s classic 1986 track ‘Take Me Home Tonight’ made it into the film’s trailer but oddly failed to feature in the final film. All I can assume is some humdrum licensing laws kept Money from making an appearance on the retailing soundtrack, but even so, its omission in the film is glaringly obvious. Still, even with this one faux pas, the soundtrack is an atomic blast from the past for all unashamed fans of this kind of music. There are no hidden gems of the era here, just 19 tracks found on the most popular play lists of the 1980s. With such a vast selection of various artists making up the mix, the creators could have easily released this album as Now That’s What I Call 80s Music had the brand not already been established.

I suppose with such a diverse selection, listeners may dislike some additions more than others, but for any of you who grew up in the 80s (like me) I guarantee you’ll rediscover long-forgotten memories associated with each song. Speaking of dislikes, the closing cover of ‘Don’t You Want Me’ by Brooklyn rock band Atomic Tom fails to ignite the pleasure-sense as much as the synthpop sounds of The Human League. To its credit the song does have one hell of an awesome music video that’s bound to delight all true 80s film fanatics. It’s an absolute blast as the cast of Take Me Home Tonight attempt to pull off as many iconic and identifiable scenes from the most popular films of the 80s. I counted 39 in total including Ghost, Teen Wolf, Indiana Jones, Back to the Future and The Blues Brothers; watch the video at the end of this feature to see how many you can spot and leave a comment if you think you can find more.
Although a warm, wistful throwback to the classic comedies many of us grew up with, Take Me Home Tonight is still basically an overdone, unoriginal and above all, instantly forgettable film experience. The Music from the Motion Picture CD soundtrack however is a wet dream for all 80’s nostalgic nomads and will be enjoyed by both 80s aficionados and everyone else willing to check their musical ego at the door.
Source http://hangout.altsounds.com/