Back in the Day

2014 "Sometimes in order to move forward...you have to go back"
5| 1h34m| R| en
Details

Sometimes in order to move forward, you have to go back. And in this raunchy comedy, Jim Owens does just that when he heads home for his high school reunion. In an attempt to relive the glory days with his boys and explore an old romance, he nearly destroys his hometown and friendships.

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Reviews

Clevercell Very disappointing...
Baseshment I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.
Invaderbank The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.
Brainsbell The story-telling is good with flashbacks.The film is both funny and heartbreaking. You smile in a scene and get a soulcrushing revelation in the next.
vchimpanzee The movie begins with Jim's commercial for All City Insurance.In Los Angeles, Jim is not a successful insurance executive, or even a successful actor. He is known for those commercials, and people sometimes sit on his face because insurance ads are used on benches. When he returns home after a difficult commute on The 405, during which we are subjected for what passes for music in today's world, he checks his telephone messages. One is from his agent, who has more bad news for him. Another is an invitation to come back to Newberg for the Castle High School Class of 1994 reunion. He also got an invitation in the mail. The state where Newberg is located is not mentioned as far as I know, but the local mall has "Washington" in its name. It's not in California because it is mentioned that Jim left the state. Jim has not returned home in years because he feels like a failure. In a flashback, with actual music by Air Supply, Jim is having a good time with his friends and someone is naked.Jim has to fly to Newberg, and when he arrives, his loser friends are there to meet him. Actually, Len and T seem mature, but Skunk and Freeman might as well still be in high school. The guys go to a bar called The Knob, where they meet Angie, who slept with everyone and is pregnant for either the third or fourth time (I forget), yet she smokes, drinks, and wears extremely short skirts and hates her kids. Then Laurie walks in. She dated Jim in high school but they lost touch. Now she's marrying Mark, and seeing Mark reminds Jim or a highlight of his high school football career.The group gets together for a barbecue and the guys play some bizarre ball game. Skunk, who was drunk earlier, shows up having been the victim of a prank, which ended with him naked in a neighbor's pickup truck. Jim and Laurie have a good time together but they are just friends. Nothing more. It's not like Jim wants Laurie to stop the wedding.At last it is time for the reunion, but Mark has his bachelor party. Jim picks up Laurie in his red 1969 Mustang, which actually belongs to Len. Skunk shows up with his wife Carol, who doesn't like her husband to be called that, and the guys have trouble remembering that his real name is Stuart. Principal Teagley is positively evil. I don't mean the character you love to hate, like Lex Luthor. I mean he is evil. He makes a threat that cannot be said on broadcast TV, but even these guys are shocked by it. Jim and his friends are and always have been losers, and that's the way Teagley continues to treat them. The guys play a great prank on him later. Jim and Laurie have a good time once again, and one gets the impression they might end up together. Mark has problems at his bachelor party, and there is reason for hope. After the reunion comes one of the movies funniest scenes, which involves vomiting. No, it's not the vomiting that's so funny, but just the outrageous situations.Both Skunk and Freeman show they are more than just losers.So will Jim and Laurie get together again? I can say this much: as in most movies where the guy is marrying the wrong girl or the girl is marrying the wrong guy, there is one of those exciting and bizarre scenes. Morena Baccarin shows the talent that later got her a role in the respected TV series "Gotham". her character is really likable, and she's one of the few intelligent people in the movie.Michael Rosenbaum actually wrote and directed this, in addition to starring. My expectations of him may be a little high because of his outstanding role in "Smallville", but he does a good job here. If you're expecting an ordinary but overly silly romantic comedy, and not a masterpiece, this is pretty good.Is this fun for the whole family? Not even when cleaned up for broadcast. I hope I've provided enough hints. If not, let me say that at times every other sentence has a character's mouth blurred briefly with no sound. Skunk and his wife like S & M. One of the characters does Sharon Stone's move from "Basic Instinct". I've mentioned several scenes with nudity because of pranks or whatever. Still, if you can handle Seth McFarlane's Fox sitcoms, you might be able to enjoy this.Be sure and stay around for the outtakes with the closing credits!
subxerogravity I really did like the concept of the film. Michael Rosenbaum plays an actor unhappy with the way his life went, and when he comes back home to his high school reunion and tries to relive his glory days, which includes rekindling the magic with his high school sweet heart. It sounds like the regular formula but it's actually done more sophisticated than expected. Much props to Rosenbaum who was able to direct and act at the same time getting a lot from his character. The movie is filled with a few laughs, the best I feel come from a character named Ron, played by Nick Swardson who peaked in Jr. High after everyone was able to grow facial hair like he could.Although all the characters are interesting not all the actors were. I did not feel the chemistry that would suggest these guys are friends, yet alone for 20 years. I did not feel it click.Plus, this may be me nick picking, but the movie suggest that they are the class of 1994, yet I kept getting a late 80s vibe from the whole thing. I feel they really missed an opportunity to make fun of the 90s that could have added some much needed jokes. Overall it was good.
joshuapehrson1 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.
danew13 This is another pseudo nostalgic film where a struggling actor in Hollywood (Michael Rosenbaum)takes a journey down memory lane by flying back to Indiana for his high school reunion…and to hook up with his old flame, played by lovely Morena Baccarin.The trouble is she's about to be married after waiting years for her first love who never came back.Had the writer,who's also Rosenbaum, a better grasp of what moviegoers want to see he would have dwelled on this, eventually setting up a Graduate style bust-up at the wedding.Instead most of the film dealt with his old high school buddies and pointless flashbacks to the pranks they pulled as teenagers.In the end he heads back to L.A., sadder but wiser and with a new hot chick in his life.Also in the end you ask yourself why did I waste time on this banal, rather un-funny and pointless film that lacks charm and direction...the script that is. Still, the director was also Rosenbaum.