Insidious & Take Me Home

This past weekend another pair of movies were on the agenda, and finally after having a number of movies that I liked I hit a couple that were just "meh".  Those two movies this past weekend were "Insidious" and "Take Me Home Tonight".  I won't spend a lot of time on either one (not that I spend a lot of time on any movie it seems), as I have a lot of other stuff to get done and I have a number of other posts that I have in my head to spend time on as well even if they may get done one per day.

I'll start with "Take Me Home Tonight", which is a story about a guy out of high school working a video store job despite being a smart guy with great potential.  While there are other characters, such as his sister who is with a loser who doesn't appreciate her but she doesn't see that until the end and his best friend who gets fired then goes on to do some coke to better fit in and gets himself in a couple of interesting situations, the story really does revolve around this one person.

The story is a pretty typical one, where the guy is running from his talent/intelligence because he doesn't want to be stuck in that career path and as such he's working a minor job ... and while working there his high school crush who he didn't have the guts to ask out before comes in.  He begins a web of lies (that he works at Goldman Sacs) and agrees to meet up with her at a party that night.  While there an awkward phase occurs where nothing looks to be different, but then she uses him as an escape from another guy and they begin to hang out.  Story goes on for a while and they end up sleeping together and then he tells the truth and she gets mad and storms off.  To win her back he goes back to the party where she returned to and makes a big speech, does something dumb (rides the ball), and gets her number in the end.

Overall the plot is long overdone, and while a bit slow at times it wasn't that bad.  It wasn't great either, just somewhere in the middle.  It was decent and I actually enjoyed hearing a number of old 80s songs, as the story was set in that time frame.  I don't know that I would recommend it, but I wouldn't warn someone to stay clear either.

The other movie was "Insidious" and was one of the first horror movies I've rented in a while.  This one really disappointed me.  The story is about a family who just moved into a new house and suddenly things happen and one of the kids ends up in a strange coma and then things really begin to happen more regularly.  Overall the story was just ok at best, but the flow of the story was horrible.  I found that like many movies where the family moves in and the first 30 minutes are build up where little happens and where there is little character development or interaction with other characters this one was really slow and boring during that introduction.

Once things got going, with the child lapsing into a coma, it picked up a bit but still seemed slow and boring really.  I give them credit in that they didn't go with gore to try to scare you as many horror movies do now but rather tried to set the mood with creep, and at times there were some rather creepy moments, but it certainly never was "scary" either.

The end twist, where the kid had actually left his body astral projecting and his absence left a window for other spirits is a less used one, but it really didn't add much either.  Turned out the father could do the same thing before his memories of it were repressed, and the father had to "go out" to find his kid and bring him back.

The end itself was disappointing as well, with the "rush" back to their bodies and the father being beat back by a spirit that haunted him as a child who then kills a medium that was there assisting the family before turning on the wife and the credits rolling.  Overall certainly one of the poorer movies I've seen lately in my opinion.  I think with time horror movies have fallen out of favor for me to some extent, but this kind of showing certainly doesn't help that.

Overall, don't bother with Insidious unless there's nothing else on and you're catching it on HBO or something similar, but feel free to enjoy Take Me Home and the 80s music if there aren't other options grabbing your attention at your local RedBox or wherever you may rent movies.