Dance 'Til Dawn (1988)

Okay, this movie was made for network television so it's quite censored for the audience anyway. This movie was made as a prom movie starring television child stars like Alyssa Milano as the cool, popular girl who ends up in a movie theater on her prom night. Tracey Gold plays the unpopular girl who gets asked out by the popular boy for prom night. Her parents are played by Kelsey Grammar and Edie McClurg. Back in the day, it was quite normal for network stars to work on television movies like this. Christina Applegate and Matthew Perry play a young couple who push too hard. Her parents are played by Mary Frann. Alan Thicke plays the father of a nerd boy who would rather be watching the stars. He manages to get together with Milano's character. While it was a sweet film, I wished that it was shown more or available. They don't make television movies or comedic movies like they used too.

When I first saw this one late night on a local station, I was already much too old for its target audience. Yet I couldn't help but be drawn into this world. Yes, the kids were somewhat stereotyped and unrealistic. But my own prom was never this much fun. Not to mention a cast that was a Who's Who of late '80s sitcoms from all four networks of the time.Cut to today, fourteen years after the movie premiered. Hens Tooth Video's new DVD is spartan, with no special features whatsoever, but with a nicely sharp picture. And I'm pulled right back into it. Something has changed now. I'm even older, but it still speaks to me. Then it hits me. I'm not only wishing I was young again, I'm also thinking like the parents in this film, whose age I have, alas, reached. I sympathize with them and all their troubles. They no longer seem simply the addled adults. In the final scene at Huds, we see how the experiences of their own youth shaped and misshaped their adult lives. And in truth, not many of us weren't badly messed up as kids. The movie feels more balanced, now that I've seen it from both sides.So don't just dismiss this as a lightweight teen flick. It has something for everyone - the young, the old and the young at heart.

Dance 'Till Dawn is a goofy prom movie surprisingly jam-packed with big stars and real laughs. A very young Alyssa Milano is funny and sweetly beautiful, fresh from "who's the Boss?"Kelsey Grammer is hilarious as a religious zealot determined to ruin his daughter's prom night. Matthew Perry turns in his best-ever acting performance as Christina Applegate's whipped boyfriend. This movie is very hard to find, but pester your video store to get it

I saw this cheeseball as the Late Movie the other day. Like most things of the 80's, its fake, superficial, and predictable, but that's what makes its laughable. Still love those deep-throat be-bops and dodoots and "ohhhh. yeahhh"'s