As a big fan of Supergirl and the majority of Patrick Dempsey's body of work from the 80's, when I stumbled across Happy Together by doing that oh so dangerous link clicking on IMDB, I wondered why I had never heard of it before. After a quick trip to eBay and $10 later, I found out the answer to that question. It's because it isn't as good as the aforementioned titles. Plain and simple.

This movie disappeared into oblivion, because sadly, it deserved to. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying I hated it, because I didn't , but it was definitely missing some needed ingredients to make it a classic.

The basic premise for the story had a lot of potential. Straight laced Christopher is accidentally roomed with Alexandra when he arrives for his first year at college. The two are exact opposites, apart from the fact that one's a boy and the other's a girl, Chris just wants to write and study, while Alex is a party girl - an aspiring actress, books are the least of her worries.

In a bold move, this is where the movie steers from the typical "boy meets girl, boy dislikes girl, boy falls in love with girl, (insert problem here), problem solved, boy + girl = happily ever after" formula, you see while it may sound like a cookie cutter 80's romantic comedy, it isn't. Whether that's a good thing or a bad thing I guess is personal opinion, while it can be praised for it's attempt at a more artistic outing, too much drama in a romantic comedy can ultimately lead to it being left behind.

I read one review which stated that this film suffered from length, and I really think that was a very concise way to put it. Chris and Alex falling in love really doesn't take all that long. Maybe half an hour to 45 minutes in the movie for what you would normally wait for the last ten minutes to see. This pretty much blocked out room for all the usual 80's movies hijinks and cliché's - and those that we did see pop up felt rushed. So once your protagonists have reached their goal and found love, where to from there? This is where we see a fun comedy turn into a drama, and even though both Dempsey and Slater were credible in their roles, it just felt wrong. We've always wondered what would happen to our Samantha's & Jake's and our Janie's & Jeff's once the credits have rolled, but actually seeing it is very unsatisfying. Happy together should have ended with Alex and Chris falling in love and being "happy together", instead we had to watch them be unhappy in order to once again reach the "happy ending" that we were already treated to earlier in the movie, but perhaps I'm missing irony in the films title.

I've been harsh, I know, and I can't honestly understand how I could give Rockabilly Vampire a positive review and be so scathing to this piece either, but that's the way it is. If you still feel like this movie is your thing keep your eyes peeled for Brad Pitt in a one line role and Dan Schneider in an almost saviour-like comedic relief role for when things get a little too heavy. Go Ricky!