SnoReptilePlenty Memorable, crazy movie

Stellead Don't listen to the Hype. It's awful

Chirphymium It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

Marva It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

BobbyT24 I have to admit, this movie was a fun, light movie when it first came out in 1991. I enjoyed it when I was in college. The reminiscing about lost loves and what-might-have-beens burn in all of us. I bought it again this week so I could watch it today when I'd reached the middle-age of the protagonist at the beginning of the movie. What I discovered is it did not age well as a story. I also realized how many holes in the story existed. Also, the lessons learned are not something any self-respecting parent/big brother would ever teach youngsters.SPOILER ALERTS COMING...This is a story of Jack Twiller, a newly-divorced, successful writer who gets a phone call from a friend about an old flame from high school he might want to contact. He opens an old yearbook and memories come flooding back. In flashback, Jack is a senior who moves to a new high school in 1956. He is befriended by Crutch, the neighbor kid who longs to be popular but can't ever seem to get a break. Jack and Crutch immediately cross paths with the local bully who just happens to be dating the cutest girl in school - and Jack's crush - and also happens to be the older brother to the cute, tough chick, Gina, who has a crush on Jack. The rest of the story is how Jack and his nerd-like gang of nice-guys create silliness and follies at every turn while Jack tries to be James Dean-cool and win the girl of his dreams. All the while, Jack doesn't realize she's a snob who only uses Jack to make her bully boyfriend jealous. Yes, you have seen this before. Here's the part you haven't seen before... Jack's little brother, Peanut, is a super-hero wannabe who watches his trusted older brother not only stick him in a washing machine (again) during the big party scene, but then proceeds to give the kid a beer (he's 9 btw) and takes him to a carnival strip show and leaves him there unescorted to basically drool at the striptease like any red-blooded 9yo pre-pubescent will do. No kidding. Where were the censors on this scene? And btw, I'm not a prude in any way about movies. But this scene was inappropriate on every level. With the exception of Jack's ridiculously caricatured '50s June Cleaver-esque mother, parents are pretty much non-existent. It's like the kids are set loose on the earth with few rules and no supervision. No wonder the bullies are able to chain a kid to his cot, put a candle in his butt, and sing him "Happy Birthday" before blowing out the candle at Ranger Camp. Again, yes, that is an actual scene. Truly not a family-friendly romp you'd expect for a 1950s nostalgia flick.If it all kind of seems formulaic, you are right. There isn't much new territory in this teenage romp about popularity, first loves, cars, and losing one's virginity on Prom Night. I thought it was fun - even funny at times - years ago. Today, it seemed slow, forced, and fairly boring actually. It just feels kinda hollow now. The only character I really liked this time around was the bully's younger sister, Gina. Finding out the guy chose a different girl after a memorable Prom Night with the right girl makes me wonder if the protagonist was paying attention to his real life -- or just day-dreaming past the best parts of his relationship. Please understand I like Chris Young, Keith Coogan, Michael McKean and some of the other actors in this movie. I just don't think this is a story I will watch again. My understanding is this movie is adapted from a book I've never read. From the reviews on this site, the book and movie are nothing alike. I would have to believe those reviews. If this movie was a book, I wouldn't waste my time when there are much more realistic and well-written stories from the 1950s I'd rather read/watch. To be honest, I'm saddened to feel the same about this movie today when I genuinely enjoyed it in 1991. Sad how times change. Even sadder knowing my joyful memories of this movie faded as well with this re-watching. I will be getting rid of this movie at the next garage sale.

Pepper Anne 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.

jamesbourke50 Here is a well worn scenario, I as the viewer, view the movie first andthen read the book thereafter. Cynics would cast judgement by saying that the movie could never hold a candle to the written source or vice versa is almost common place in today's transworld transference of book's into movie's.For myself, i had always been a fan of this nostalgia genre, whereby characters hark back to the past so as to rekindle that something they think is missing. Movies like "Back To The Future" "Mischief" and "Stand By Me" with the exception of the first named the last two were good old fashioned trips down memory lane.Based on the book "Jack In The Box" by the author William Kotzwinkle, who also wrote the script, The movie is a veritable cavalcade of what was best and somewhat naughty about being a teenager living in the 1950's, and who better to adapt the source novel than that of the original scribe himself, who one gets a sneaky suspicion the lead character is based.Now the curious thing about this whole production is that looking at it now, compared to then, this movie represents a who's who, who went onto what in the genre field. Firstly the company behind the movie and the director Robert Shaye, produced (i make no apologies for missing out the obvious) the classic "Alone In The Dark" and "Xtro". The Scripter surprisingly penned the story/script for "Nightmare On Elm Street 4" (Theory installed here was a two picture deal, scribble a story for Freddy and then we'll translate the novel).As for the cast Chris Young turned up in "Runestone" "Warlock 2" Danny Nucci appeared in "The Rock" and some other overblown Simpson/Bruckheimer productions. Finally John Cameron Mitchell transformed his offbroadway musical "Hedwig and the Angry Inch" into a really offbeat movie experience.In the novel there exists only one main character, that of Jack Twiller, an extreme dreamer from another age, everything he went through in the book was by turns funny and very graphic, but what the author did, was split the character of Jack into two character's giving Jack in the movie a younger brother named Peanut, who discovers like Jack did in the novel all things sexual.Regardless of what those jaded persons out there unknown might think of this movie and others like it, you just can't beat, it represents an age we children of another time (myself being a seventies child) never new. A great soundtrack, well rounded characters, outlandish scenes of major pornography allbeit of a PG13 nature pushing the envelope of an R rating.To this day "Book Of Love" is a movie that i cherish dearly, discover it and discover yourself, set aside that critic and appreciate a movie where everything works.A resounding 10 out of 10

the_other_kinsey_institute The movie has a simple goal, and that's to make you like the under-appreciated, overlooked geek known as Jack Twiller--to sympathize with his coming of age: the awkwardness, embarrassing moments, bullies, and, yes, even pimple cream. There is no great intellectual message, no uplifting moral to the movie. Quite honestly, it doesn't take itself that seriously, which is the entire point. This isn't an art house film, folks. It's a "kick back in your flannel jammies with some ice cream after a rotten day" kind of movie. It's a fun movie made simply to make us laugh. Stop analyzing and digging for profundity. Just laugh.