Back in the Day

I had never heard of this movie until recently. I decided to watch it because it was shot in Newburgh and Evansville, Indiana which are located about 40 miles from where I live in Southern Illinois. Being familiar with the area was the main reason I wanted to watch this.

Jim lives a life in Hollywood. He decides to return to his hometown of Newburgh, Indiana for his twentieth class reunion at Castle High School. Jim gets to hangout with his childhood buddies and get reaquainted with the girl who got away. This movie was pretty funny. Most of the humor is pretty juvenile. What you expect from a film with Harland Williams and Nick Swardson? Again being familiar with Newburgh and Evansville probably made the film a bit more enjoyable to me since it was filmed "locally" and features Washington Square Mall and Green River Road of Evansville, Indiana.

I saw the great reviews here and, while not expecting a lot, I decided to give this a chance (especially because I like Morena Baccarin). Unfortunately, she wasn't enough to save this film. Now I see that the glowing reviews were probably written by friends of the director. That's my only explanation for how a movie with a rating under 5 can have five of its six reviews give it 10 star ratings.

The movie wasn't horrible, but not very memorable either. It didn't have many laughs (I only chuckled a few times) and didn't really have much charm either. Instead it relied on cliché characters who, while really trying to be, just weren't very funny.

It's more of a commentary on wanting to recapture the good old days than a comedy.

If you want to see a funny movie about a high school reunion, I recommend American Reunion instead. That has more memorable characters, more charm and, more importantly, much more humour.

Just watched it!

*THUMBS UP* I laughed. I cried. I farted.

Plenty of good laughs to be found in this film. Michael Rosenbaum wrote, directed, produced, and stars in this fun story about a guy going back home for his High School Class of 1994 twenty-year reunion. Great soundtrack with plenty of 80's nostalgia. His wacky adventures with his old high-school buddies are hysterical. It is a throwback to the classic 80's comedies like "Caddyshack" and "Animal House". Lots of toilet humor but hey it's not trying to be the next Oscar winner - it is just a fun raunchy romp with a madcap cast. I totally enjoyed it! Cheers!

This film was much better than I expected it to be. I was constantly laughing at the crazy jokes and situations. The movie just seemed like it followed the lives of average people, the kind of people you were friends with in high school. Some of the situations were a little cheesy, but the movie ends differently than you would probably suspect. Michael Rosenbaum's character is an actor in L.A. who's having a difficult time finding work, so he goes home to get away from that for a while and go to his high school reunion. We meet his friends and his ex-girlfriend who he is still in love with. Good to watch a movie that doesn't give you the bs that everything will just work your way if you want it hard enough. Watch this film, you won't regret it.

I had reservations heading into this film considering it's low score and lack of user reviews. In fact the lack of user reviews is what prompted me decide to write this, so that people had an idea what they were in for.

Obviously this movie isn't a big budget Hollywood comedy, however, it is far better than any generic comedy thrown your way this year. The film is filled with unique and original jokes that feel completely realistic as well as simultaneously unexpected and outrageous. The film really has an air of familiarity about it, you can really connect with the characters and goofs (despite some of the obvious clichés such as the arch nemesis Principal).

This isn't meant to be an extensive review and honestly I haven't really done that. But I do want to convey to anyone sitting on the fence - about whether or not to watch this film - that it is a thoroughly entertaining flick. Sort of like a more original, mature and actually watchable version of American Pie: Reunion, just without all the toilet humour and pointless gimmicks.... So actually nothing like AP:R at all.

Trust me, you will enjoy this film, give it a go and have fun!