For those of you who thought Topher Grace couldn’t do anything but seventies roles and bungle Marvel characters (seriously, Eddie Brock? This guy’s about as believable as Eddie Brock as Lindsay Lohan is as Jabba the Hutt.), well, you’ll be getting a note of validation as he does passably well with another retro decade: the eighties. The folks out at Fox sent out a copy of Take Me Home Tonight for us to review for you, and the end result is astoundingly watchable.

Take Me Home Tonight follows Matt Franklin, mall Suncoast Motion Picture Company worker, who believes his life to be going rapidly nowhere. But when his old high school crush Tori walks back into his life–and his job–he finds he’s got one opportunity to win her heart for the first time. But in order to pull this minor miracle off, he’s going to have to survive a night of drunken, brain-damaging debauchery in the grandest eighties style.

And just in case you’re worried about a lack of eighties references here, don’t be. This thing is positively dripping with eighties references. It’s so eighties it eats glasnost, sleeps perestroika, and breathes Alf. It’s so eighties that it’s always Morning in America…even in the afternoon.

The thing about Take Me Home Tonight is that it’s a pretty amazing commentary on life after high school. I remember thinking about a lot of this kind of thing when I got out of high school. In fact, it’s the kind of thing that’s not too hard to think about even well out of high school–the grand duel of what you want against what you need, the struggle to figure out just what to do with your life, comparing yourself to those around you and wondering if you come up short against them–and will resonate with a whole lot of people.

It resonates, and thus, it’s going to find plenty of people who enjoy it. Really, if you’ve ever looked at your life and wondered if that was all there was, or how you would stack up to the people you laughed at in high school today, well, this is your movie.

Of course, if you’re pretty satisfied with your life, or you’re not into the eighties, then you’re not going to find much to like here. But since that particular segment of the population is pretty small, you’ll probably do just fine here.

The Screenhead Ten Scale gives Take Me Home Tonight a nine out of ten for being a worthwhile performance that a lot of people will find common ground with. When you see something that might well describe your life, or that of one of your friends, it makes you that little bit more interested in watching. And Take Me Home Tonight will do just that.

The folks out at the BBC have sent off something I wondered if I’d ever see–you’re all familiar with the series Top Gear, right? We’ve reviewed a couple installments of it here previously. Well, they packed it up and brought it to the United States, where you’ll be able to catch it showing on the History Channel. And now, thanks to the BBC, we’ve got the Top Gear: The Complete First Season of the American version.

Top Gear: The Complete First Season once again gives us a show all about cars, as shot in what looks like a huge airplane hangar. But this time, the fun is all American as Adam Ferrara, Tanner Foust and Rutledge Wood take over the hosting duties to provide us with pretty much everything you could ever want to know about cars and the like.

You’ll get some differences, of course. “Star In A Reasonably Priced Car” has been replaced with “Big Star, Small Car”, which is about the same thing: celebrities on a test track behind the wheel of smallish cars. But you’ll get plenty of similarities here, including lots of comparisons, lots of comical car-driven skits, and plenty of both laughs and education.

One segment, for example pits a Dodge Viper against a Cobra…and not Shelby, either. A Cobra helicopter gunship. See? Snake rides, get it?And the Cobra gunship will be shooting at the Viper with simulated missile fire the whole time. The end result is a surprisingly exciting affair that’s at least somewhat the equal of the British show, but a wholly different animal all the same. There aren’t as many laughs here, nor so many audacious stunts, but you’ll still have plenty of fun here.

You’ll also get plenty of car reviews for cars that most of us will never be able to afford, let alone actually see. It’s almost masochistic, to watch so many cars you’ll never get the opportunity to touch go speeding merrily by, but at the same time, it’s great fun.

And yes, we have our own Stig. It’s not Top Gear without a Stig.

If you’re at all into cars, well, you’ll definitely want a copy of this for your home theater, assuming of course you haven’t already been watching it and recording it on the History Channel already. Still though, it’s worthwhile to have the second copy, just in case something happens to your DVR.

The Screenhead Ten Scale gives the American version of Top Gear a seven out of ten; it’s not as good as the original, but it’s still got plenty to enjoy.

Okay all you Glee fans you can get super excited because Twentieth Century Fox will have special advance showings of Glee: The 3D Concert Movie. It will unspool on August 10, 2011, giving fans of the global phenomenon, known as “Gleeks,” an early opportunity to celebrate, share and experience Glee like never before…and in 3D…two days prior to the film’s global launch.

Ticket holders for these special screenings will get a merchandise packet created especially for the event, including a GLEE logo lapel pin, commemorative ticket and lanyard, silicone bracelet, hat, commemorative Glee RealD 3D glasses, and backpack. It’s wild and it’s crazy!

The screenings will take place in 291 theaters across the U.S. and Canada. Tickets for the event go on sale July 13, for Gleeks on the official movie Facebook page. Public sales begin the next day at the special Gleek site. Ticket sales end August 2, to allow for mailing of the special ticket and bag.

I was so excited about the special screening that I forgot to show you the poster for the movie. What do you think!?

The movie is a new way to see all your favorite characters — including Rachel (played by Lea Michele), Finn (Cory Monteith), Mercedes (Amber Riley), Kurt (Chris Colfer), Artie (Kevin McHale), and Sue Sylvester (Jane Lynch) – as never before, with their spectacular musical performances, captured in 3D, interwoven with intimate behind-the-scenes revelations that are a story unto themselves. The movie is directed by Kevin Tancharoen.

I can’t believe that I am writing this and saying that Jack and Jill looks like a funny movie. Adam Sandler plays both Jack and Jill. They are twins; one is a boy and one is a girl. Neither one looks very handsome or pretty.

But that’s not the point. The point is that it is a little raunchy, most Sandler movies are, but I had fun watching this trailer.  Call me crazy or stupid, it still looks like a winner.

Katie Holmes also stars as Jack’s wife; she is adorable. Al Pacino also stars as a love struck man hitting on Sandler as Jill.

With every passing installment of the House of Payne series, I wonder, more and more, how this thing stays on the air. Because it seems like it only gets more depressing with each passing installment. In fact, it says on the back of the box, “the family comedy everyone can relate to!”, and I can’t help but agree with that…if by “everyone” you mean “everyone who’s ever been in an Anton Chekhov novel”. Seriously, I saw a live performance of The Cherry Orchard when I was in college, and by comparison, that was an episode of Mister Ed compared to Tyler Perry’s ultra-depressing House of Payne. But would House of Payne Volume Eight be more of the same? Or would the broken clock that is Tyler Perry’s career be right for the first time today?

Once again we go back out to the Payne house, which is generally a house of its homophonic equivalent, with horrors and terrors and all the pits and perils of domestic life, often hitting one right after the other like some kind of bizarre fun house attraction. And this season will feature the Paynes once again…but in something of a new light.

For once, the season didn’t start off with horror and terror and disaster. I was puzzled!  No one caught fire. No one’s house caught fire. No one got laid off. And there were jokes.  Funny jokes. Curtis and Ella were in rare form, their new neighbors were a little weird but weird in a funny way, there was a little discontent going on over at the condo, but this was really rather minor, and interspersed with wholesome lessons about teaching a baby the value of fishing.

And then it took a bizarre left turn of the most lunatic sort. But even then, the twist was funny. But this doesn’t last long as the weird and angsty kicks back up in earnest. And even this doesn’t last either. It’s strange, but most of the time I didn’t see it coming. This may well be the best season of Tyler Perry’s House of Payne yet, not that that’s saying much. It may be less charitable, but more accurate, to say it’s merely less painful than normal. Or even, to reuse the sweet pun in the headline, less payneful.

The Screenhead Ten Scale, meanwhile, gives Tyler Perry’s House of Payne Volume Eight a more than tolerable seven out of ten. It’s a pretty decent showing they had here, and probably the best one yet. If you haven’t been pleased with earlier installments, you’ll be surprised by this one.

Vampire movies have always been kind of a strange batch. We’ve had some truly great ones–Salem’s Lot (either one, really, including the sequel), John Carpenter’s Vampires, 30 Days of Night–and of course, a legion of truly lesser pieces. And sometimes, we’ve had some vampire movies that have just been indescribable. One of those titles comes to us via the IFC, who sent out a copy of Vampires.

Basically, three years before the film was released, a company was contracted to shoot a documentary about the vampire community in Belgium. Sounds bizarre on the surface, but they took the deal and dispatched a film crew. Their sound man was promptly devoured. Subsequent attempts actually went worse, if you can believe that, until they sent out just one last crew under what were called “perfectly safe conditions”. Considering that the film is actually dedicated to the film crew–as well as one crewman’s arm–the end result is going to be only marginally better than previous ventures.

Vampires is chilling for many reasons, but the biggest one is that these vampires believe that they’re performing a valuable service to the community. They genuinely believe they’re helping society by kidnapping people and draining them of their blood. Frankly, it’s enough to make you think that  vampire hunters are our greatest natural resource, if these egomaniacal amoral psychotics are actually out there.

And yet, at the same time, Vampires is a real sight to see. This is a documentary devoted to an entirely fictional community, and yet, at every length, it’s believable. This is what you’d expect a movie about vampires to look like, and that’s strange enough in its own right. I mean, seriously–when’s the last time you saw a viable documentary about vampires? And even better, a fictionalized documentary? That’s just what the IFC will put on, and that makes Vampires a really rare and unique find that’s as chilling as it is compelling. It’s even got some funny bits in it that can’t be denied.

It’s hard to believe that a believable documentary about vampires can actually exist, especially given that vampires themselves don’t actually exist. You get an incredible look at their culture, their ceremony, their rules and guidelines, everything. They even do a great follow-up piece keeping up with a vampire clan that was forced to move.

The Screenhead Ten Scale gives Vampires a full ten out of ten by virtue of its sheer uniqueness. There is very little, if anything, out there that’s like this. This is a beautiful little movie, and vampire fans are going to love this.

I have to admit, going in to see Cars 2 today had me nervous. After all, I wasn’t all that fond of Cars from the word go. This much Larry The Cable Guy in one place had me downright quaking. “Git ‘er done” is on my list of most annoying catch phrases of all time, locked in a tie for first with Carlos Mencia and his condescending chalkboard screech “Dee DEE dee!”. But then I remembered, this was a Pixar movie, and Pixar has yet to do a bad movie. Would Cars 2 be the first?

Cars 2 takes us back to Radiator Springs, where the Lightning McQueen racing empire is shaping up nicely. Lightning’s just taken his fourth Piston Cup, and is looking for a little down time following a great season. But that’s not to be as soon enough, oil magnate Miles Axelrod has introduced a new sustainable superfuel, and to prove its value, he’s launched a worldwide Grand Prix race on three countries’ soil in a bid to show off what it can do. But when a shadowy organization starts using the superfuel to take out the racers, it’s going to be up to…of all cars, Mater…to step in and save the world from a conspiracy that goes a lot farther than anyone might expect.

There’s a lot more Mater in this one than in the previous, and Lightning McQueen is actually almost of secondary importance here. This may be strange, no mistake there, but it’s also decidedly interesting. This complete yokel is going to save the world? It’s like an Ernest movie, mixed with a James Bond thriller and set entirely on a giant Hot Wheels track.

There are also a huge number of shoutouts and “Hey-it’s-that-guy” effects going on in here. Watch for Bruce Campbell to show up in yet another voiceover, as well as Sig Hansen from Deadliest Catch, and a nod to Ratatouille, among others. And of course, you’ll get extra value by way of a Toy Story short, which is pretty funny in its own right.

Frankly, I was afraid that this one wasn’t going to come off–a sequel to one of the worst Pixar movies yet?–but I definitely enjoyed this one more than the previous. There’s a lot of action here, good laughs…it’s a fun summer movie. Don’t look for this to be really involved, or even make sense in a lot of parts (What is a crab boat doing in a movie where everyone consumes gas and oil?), but still, it’s a very fun title.

The Screenhead Ten Scale joins the contrarians on this one and gives Cars 2 an eight out of ten for being an exciting, fun ride that’s well worth the Pixar name. It’s no Up, no Toy Story Pick A Number, but it’s a fine addition in its own right.

Let me tell you about my next giveaway that the whole family can enjoy.

Big Idea Entertainment is a faith-based studio and producer of children’s and family programming, characters and brands. Big Idea released an all-new DVD title, VeggieTales Live! Sing Yourself Silly. The DVD is available wherever DVDs are sold, particularly in Christian and general market stores.

The DVD captures all the fun of the live tour with energetic dancers, loads of bubbles, confetti, big bouncy characters and 18 of the most classic and popular VeggieTales silly songs performed live on a stage including “His Cheeseburger,” “Love My Lips!,” “The Hairbrush Song,” plus a few hits from the 80’s that both parents and kids will enjoy! There are also several fun and family-friendly bonus features included such as a peek behind the curtain on “Larry’s Backstage Pass.”

“After our successful Live! show tour last fall, we wanted to bring the VeggieTales’ high-energy and hilarious performance into households everywhere across the country, “said Leslie Ferrell, General Manager of Big Idea Entertainment. “We’re happy to provide this fun DVD full of music that’s perfect for the entire family.”

Bob, Larry and the whole crew are taking to the stage with the silliest Silly Song Countdown ever! This high energy song and dance spectacular takes silliness to a whole new level! But sometimes silliness just isn’t enough! Archibald Asparagus prefers songs that have lessons, Mr. Lunt wants to sing about food, and Jimmy and Jerry are stuck in the 80’s! But there’s only so much time…will the VeggieTales crew learn the importance of sharing so that the show can go and everyone will be able to sing themselves silly?

I have a copy of Sing Yourself Silly to giveaway! Just post your name and I will pick the winner June 29, 2011.

We’ve been following the manic adventures of the Boy Meets World crew for since disc one, and the folks at Lions Gate got us out a copy of the next step in the series by sending out a copy of Boy Meets World Season Five. We’ve seen a lot of ups and downs in the series, and some downright insanity come out of this, but what will this season give us?

Boy Meets World Season Five represents the last year of high school for our familiar gang–best friends Cory and Shawn, Cory’s girlfriend Topanga, Cory’s and the rest–and of course, this year will be packed full of strange things and bizarre occurrences, leading up to the strangest of all as Cory proposes marriage to Topanga, despite the fact that neither has actually voted in a free election.

This year is going to be unusually heavy on the drama, for some reason, especially considering how previous seasons stacked up. And when you couple that with the fact that the characters are still bizarre and full of comedy in its own right.

How best to describe this? Well…okay. Anyone remember those old high school, or maybe college, chemistry classes where they tossed sodium into water and things burst into flame? Yeah, that’s exactly what this is. The sodium is the comedy. The water is the drama. And putting these two together is an unnerving combination. I never thought I’d use the word “unnerving” in connection with anything about Boy Meets World–I’ve seen like three seasons of this show now and I’ve never been able to connect the word “unnerving” to it. This combination is too weird for words.

In fact, there’s a line from the show itself that’s the perfect descriptor, in which Mr. Feeny looks squarely at the camera and declares in no uncertain terms: “It just gets weirder.” And this show’s been getting progressively weirder since its first season, but this one is a whole new level of weird. This is weird I would not have thought would be possible from this series. Boy Meets World was never supposed to be weird on par with X-Files, or worse. This is the kind of weird you might find in some YouTube videos. I haven’t seen this kind of weird since I saw the Candle Cove video.

The Screenhead Ten Scale gives Boy Meets World Season Five a seven out of ten for being bizarre in most every respect, and for being downright compelling due to its sheer unpredictability. This should not be this weird. This is a sitcom, from ABC. And yet, it’s entirely too lunatic to be anything but. How the last seasons will end leaves me baffled just to think about.