Michael O'Keefe
A Bob Shaye film that has very little enlightenment to absorb. No hidden message to ponder. BOOK OF LOVE is fun to watch and that's about it. A divorced Jack Twiller(Michael McKean)receives a message from a former high school girlfriend which causes him to pick up his 1956 yearbook...then the memories of adventures and misadventures of puberty, love, sex and his school pals begin to roll. The teenage Jack(Chris Young)moves to a new town and immediately is befriended by Crutch(Keith Coogan). He is smitten with the class bombshell Lily(Josie Bissett), but she is busy being squired by Mr. Hotshot Angelo Gabooch(Beau Dremann). Oh. the trials and tribulations of a sex-driven teen. With Lily being untouchable, Jack makes a last minute date to the prom with Angelo's little sister Gina(Tricia Leigh Fisher).Sounds of the era keeps things rolling; tunes by the likes of: The Platters, The Diamonds, Little Richard, The Moonglows and The Wrens. Also in the cast: Danny Nucci, Aeryk Egan, Jill Jaress and John Cameron Mitchell. BOOK OF LOVE is pretty pale next to other coming-of-age flicks like say...DINER. Good watching though. Prop your feet up and grab a tall cool one...then enjoy.
reviewerinoimdbino
I hadn't seen this movie in years, and I was so lucky to see it by chance on Comedy Central this morning. This movie is a charmer.Set in 1955, it covers some of the same nostalgic territory as "A Christmas Story," but it does so beautifully, with very accurate and attractive art direction.Chris Young, Keith Coogan, Danny Nucci, and John Cameron Mitchell are all at their most attractive and charming youthful best here. The fact that the film has all of them doing good work, as well as a lot of other talented character actors, is an indication of the craftsmanship that went into this picture.It's a portrait, a slice-of-life of our hero's last year of so of high school.The very last minute of the picture, seeing Michael McKeen as the hero grown up, just doesn't mesh with what came before, but don't let that keep you from seeing and appreciating this film. It's a delight.This is a pretty darn clean and wholesome picture. There may be some understandable sexual, hormonal aspects and humor here, but pretty much anyone age 14 (or 12) on up will be mature enough to enjoy this film.It's just too bad there aren't more recent credits for Chris Young. He's sweet, charming, and sensitive here. Surely there's a place for that among roles for character actors in their 30s.
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.
solitaryman2
Book of Love is one of my favorite comedies: the cast is very good, and the performance of the actors is surprisingly fine for a film of that kind. It would have deserved more fortune than it had because it's far better than other acclaimed movies such as "American Pie" or "There's something about Mary".
AD
