Back in the Day (2014)

Must See Movie...

Good start, but then it gets ruined

it is finally so absorbing because it plays like a lyrical road odyssey that’s also a detective story.

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

I just finished watching "Back in the Day" for the third time. I love this movie! It's an indie movie written and directed by Michael Rosenbaum, who also starred in it and was the executive producer. This is a sweet story about Jim, who is trying unsuccessfully to be an actor in Hollywood, and his attempt to recapture some of his youth and maybe find the meaning of happiness by returning to his small town in Indiana for a class reunion. While the ensuing madness is littered with potty humor, I still connected with the story, perhaps because it could have been the small town I grew up in.After arriving in Newburgh, Jim immediately falls back in with his group of high school buddies and they revert to their old selves, getting drunk, getting revenge for old grievances, and maybe falling back in love. The group, including Jim's former lover, Lori, soon revolves around Jim who held it together back in the day. But life has moved on and we soon find everyone's life turned upside down by Jim's return.Rosenbaum did a fine job on his first foray into writing and directing a full-length movie. The story is solid. The scenery around his home town is beautiful and used to good effect. The music from the late '80's is fitting.Perhaps because Rosenbaum was writing about his actual friends, the characters feel authentic and we are able to relate to them as real people. His town rallied around him and almost all of the movie was filmed there on location. The modest homes were real, as was the bar where they hang out, and the high school where the reunion dance is held. I remember the same kind of people and places from my own teen-age years. I was comfortable with this movie and enjoyed it tremendously. If you wait through the credits, there is a memorial to the actual Skunk (Jon Snyder), who passed away late last year, as well as a recent photo of Rosenbaum and his high school buddies.If you are looking for a feel-good comedy, I would definitely recommend buying "Back in the Day".

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.

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.

I LOVED this movie! It is filled with lots of love, friendship, and laughter. It was made by an extremely talented actor. Michael Rosenbaum is a very talented man, with a passion that I have not really seen, ever. He picked the perfect cast for it. He did a great job writing, directing and acting it this movie. He is a very talented man that does not always get the credit he deserves. The movie does have some nudity but there is very little. Back in The Day is a movie that is very refreshing, especially where movies today are overly romantic or overly action packed. I just can't stop watching it because it is funny, and makes your horrible days happy! Everyone should give this movie a shot, it's worth watching!