this is a very good movie, i thought it would be so pathetic and stupid though for the longest time, so i never rented it. but peter is an adorable, "real-life" character, and erica is okay too. i love that matt is devoted to his friend, but it would have been better if matt had been gay, with peter as his love intrest. the music is sub-par, and nothing special, but not detestingly bad or anything. a great coming of age movie for anyone. this movie is truly 6 or 7 seven years before its time. i don't know how this movie did in the box office or anything since i was merely 10 when it came into theaters but if it were to come out now it would be an enormous success. sad thing is that that is the last thing, tv or movie that josh schaeffer (peter) ever did, i wonder why? but anyway i whole-hearted suggest and recommend this movie to anyone not sure to rent it or buy or what-not. VERY-VERY GOOD! and i thought that it would be bad because it had keri russell in it, how wrong i was... you won't regret it, watch it!

I wouldn't read the rest of this if you did not see the movie.

I am much closer to the parents' ages in this movie. Not that that in itself means I am the wrong audience for this movie, but let's say I am not the target demographic either.

Nevertheless, the movie was very funny, very touching and I ended up loving it, despite some missteps along the way.

Peter is a self-proclaimed 'spaz' who is pining away for the beauty across the street, Erica. He vows to spend all his time under her bedroom window in order to win her love. The neighborhood is filled with colorful characters, beginning in Peter's house with his Grandfather who gives Peter the inspiration to follow his dream. His best friend lives nearby, too, but he is mostly consumed with his fantasies of sex. One of the neighbors works for the FBI and circles the block several times before parking. There is the stereotyped 'crazy' neighborhood lady, who eats in the car, mows the lawn at night and does gardening in her scuba mask and mouthpiece. There are neighborhood kids and enough to keep Peter occupied until Erica dumps the jerk (he is needlessly disgusting) she is currently dating.

As the movie progresses, there are many hysterically funny scenes (Peter talks at length about Erica's body, down to the smallest detail),some touching ones (when Peter tells the crazy lady what the neighbors say about her, she has a good reason for the things she does - eats in the car because the radio reception is better, mows the lawn at night due to the humidity) and some stupid ones (his Grandfather passes away & Peter is suspicious of another neighbors' habit of dragging heavy bags in and out of his house). It all comes together in the end, Peter grows up and gets the girl.

To say this was better than I was expecting is a huge understatement. I was happy to spend 90 minutes on Peter's block with him & the neighbors.

A film that I'd never heard of and chanced upon by accident, Eight Days a Week deserves to be a mainstay of teen cinema in the same way that John Hughes' eighties work is.

Joshua Schaeffer has just the right balance of geek and cool individualism to pull off a character that could very easily fall into stalker territory and R.D. Robb is excellent as his sex-obsessed sidekick; keeping what could very easily become a caricature grounded in reality. The supporting cast of oddballs never overshadow the main story, but equally don't feel like padding as we learn more about their slightly kooky lives.

It's a shame that films like this go unnoticed in a world where much more crass attempts at summing up teenage life (complete with thirty year old actors) can become box office hits.