I
wish that Keanu Reeves still made fun and entertaining movies like this
one. Okay, maybe that wouldn't make much sense, it would be like John
Cusack being in anything other than a romantic comedy targeted at 40
plus women. But I have to go out there and say it. Bar Bill & Ted,
The Night Before has got to be my absolute favourite thing that
Keanu has ever done. I don't know who told him it was time to be a
serious actor, but they need a face smashing. Sure, it's a little hard
to follow on first watch, or if you walk in halfway through, but it's
definitely a funny flick with a cute story. And who can say no to Keanu
before he lost that awesome Ted-esque bounce when he spoke? Not me!
That's who! (I am aware that makes no grammatical sense, and I also
don't care).
 The
movie begins with a dishevelled looking Winston Connelly waking up in a
parking lot with no memory of who he is, where he is, or how he got
there. All he knows is that he is dressed to go to the prom, but he
can't remember anything else. Winston heads over to what he believes is
his car, but he doesn't remember where his keys are. A man offers to
help him get inside the car without keys, and gullible Winston is happy
for the help, which leads to him having his car stolen. As the man
speeds away in Winstons car, the parking attendant runs out of his
office yelling after Winston that he has his keys. Not a good start for
Winston, and things aren't going to get much better anytime soon. As he
wanders around trying to piece his night together, he eventually makes
it to a diner, where small flashes of his memory start to return to him.
Winston, despite the advantage
of being a young, cute, Keanu Reeves, is somehow the worlds biggest
dork. Unfortunately for Tara (Lori Loughlin), she lost a bet with her
friend Lisa, which means Winston has to be her date to the prom.
Winston doesn't appear to be bothered by this arrangement in the
slightest. He's absolutely thrilled to be taking Tara to the prom, and
seems oblivious to the fact that all her friends are laughing at him.
Tara's father is a police officer, and warns Winston (while polishing
his gun), that he must have Tara home by midnight, or there will be
trouble.
 Tara
is an absolute brat, and seems repulsed by Winston, immediately asking
him if he has enough money for her to get a cab home if he "gets
weird". Winston assures her that he does, but thinks they are going to
have a great time and with that, they head off. When Tara realises it's
taking quite a long time to get to the prom, she asks Winston if he is
lost. He's using the compass built in to the dash of his car to judge
the direction in which he is driving, but in a rather dumb move has
left a present for Tara, a cute little magnet, sitting on top of it -
meaning they have been driving in the wrong direction and they are
indeed lost. And to make matters worse, the area they are driving in to
begins looking seedier and seedier. Winston remembers stopping at
a bar for Tara to call her father, but then his memory blanks out
again. He heads back to the bar to see if he can find the answers (and
Tara) there.
When he gets to the bar he is
greeted by a waitress who tells him that after the bartender spiked his
drink, Winston got a little crazy. Not only did he dance like a fool,
get up on stage and try to sing, but he ended up accidentally selling
Tara to a pimp named Tito, which explains the wad of cash in his
pocket. The waitress tells him Tito is looking for him, because he sold
him a girl who wasn't a whore, so he wants his money back. Everyone in
town fears Tito, and the waitress tells him he should too. Tito will be
waiting for him the next morning, so he should find the girl and get
out of there.
Winston leaves to try and find Tara straight away and before long finds
himself in all sorts of trouble. While asking for information about
Tito, he ends up getting himself taken hostage by some guys robbing a
toy store. Thankfully they only wanted to use him to get away from the
cops, and it isn't long before Winston is back on Tara's trail.
 Winston
races around asking anyone who will listen if they knew where a girl in
a pink party dress was and discovers that once Tito found out Tara
wasn't a whore he sold her to a Madam named Galbaby. After heading over
there, Winston finds Tara's dress - but it's not Tara who is wearing
it. After getting some information from the girl in the dress and
another visit to a guy named Cueball, Winston finds out that Tara is
with a guy named Fat Jack, who plans to "test the merchandise", before
shipping Tara out of the country first thing in the morning.
Winston manages to track down
a very unimpressed Tara, who thankfully is okay. Her bratty attitude
hasn't changed much, but she seems surprised at the lengths Winston has
gone through to save her. Winston on the other hand, has been through
hell and starts giving Tara back some attitude in return. Armed with
his lighter that looks like a gun, Winston and Tara manage to get away
from Fat Jack...but they still have to get past Tito. Not to mention
the trouble Winston is going to be in once Tara's father gets a hold of
him.
I think one of this movies
strong points is it's ability to suck you in. The timing is all over
the place. Not in a bad way - it's actually pretty clever. The way the
film is presented to you makes you want to keep watching, just to find
out how in the hell they got into the mess that they did. Keanu is
awesome as always in his earlier roles, and Lori Loughlin was gorgeous
as the spolied Tara. If you haven't seen it, it's definitely worth a
look if you can track it down.
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Year: 1988
