Book of Love (1990)

I hadn't seen this movie in years, and I was so lucky to see it by chance on Comedy Central this morning. This movie is a charmer.Set in 1955, it covers some of the same nostalgic territory as "A Christmas Story," but it does so beautifully, with very accurate and attractive art direction.Chris Young, Keith Coogan, Danny Nucci, and John Cameron Mitchell are all at their most attractive and charming youthful best here. The fact that the film has all of them doing good work, as well as a lot of other talented character actors, is an indication of the craftsmanship that went into this picture.It's a portrait, a slice-of-life of our hero's last year of so of high school.The very last minute of the picture, seeing Michael McKeen as the hero grown up, just doesn't mesh with what came before, but don't let that keep you from seeing and appreciating this film. It's a delight.This is a pretty darn clean and wholesome picture. There may be some understandable sexual, hormonal aspects and humor here, but pretty much anyone age 14 (or 12) on up will be mature enough to enjoy this film.It's just too bad there aren't more recent credits for Chris Young. He's sweet, charming, and sensitive here. Surely there's a place for that among roles for character actors in their 30s.

The Book of Love is yet another addition to the cinematic tradition of the desperate teen virgin, a genre prevalent throughout most 80s teen comedies. However, this was only a mildly funny film that exaggerates the desperate attempt of four 1950s suburban teen friends to lose their virginity, complete with the typical wild imagination of the boys who still have to fill in the gaps of the largely unexplored territory of females, complete with parallels to comic book superheroes and buff movie stars, but it serves better as a nostalgia trip for those obscure films with your favorite 80s teen stars (most notably Chris Young, Keith Coogan, and Danny Nucci). It promises a few laughs but, unless you are one of the few that have immortalized it as a cult classic, you'll probably only wind up watching it once.

I enjoyed this 50's based coming of age comedy about love. I don't know about you, but I didn't see this at the cinema. I guess like everybody else, I saw it when it came on pay per view. Looks like a right to video winner. A fresh, young, and highly entertaining cast. The story has a little bit of "Porky's" style, but, who cares? That's what makes it an enjoyable movie.

Just what the world needs - another film glorifying morons growing up in the `50's. Let's go through a bad movie checklist (spoiler alert), shall we? Teenagers getting drunk but making it seem cool - check. Sending a little boy to a strip club - check. Introduce a lot of subplots but barely acknowledge them later - check. Ask the viewer to suspend their belief, a lot! - check. And finally, populate the film with unpleasant people - check. Add it up for a big waste of time and money on everyone's part.