It has often been said that once you love "Weird Science" you'll also like "Real Genius". And while I guess this is true, I really wouldn't place both movies into the same category an onto the same level.
This is really a movie in the vain of other great, classic goofball '80's comedies, focusing on young students. Looking back at it, this really was the golden age for comedies and the lovers of the genre and time period will surely be able to appreciate this movie.
And I can certainly appreciate this movie as well, for what it is. That doesn't mean that I can simply ignore all of its flaws and weaknesses as well though. The movie is fun but that is about all that the movie is.
One of the things that I thought the movie was really lacking in was its story. And I'm not just talking about its main premise but more so about all of its developments, the way things progress and the characters. I guess part of this can also be blamed on the directing by Martha Coolidge, since the main premise itself remains still quite good and fun. I just could never really get involved with its story or its characters, which was a real shame, since this seemed to be what the movie was really pushing for. It wanted you to really love all of its characters and made some of them as goofy as possible.
But really the only character that truly works out and becomes a greatly fun and memorable one is the Val Kilmer character. But this in itself is still enough to make the movie a real fun and entertaining one to watch! It makes it once more obvious what a waste it is that Val Kilmer never really broke through as a comedy actor and didn't do more movies like this during his career. Most people now days only known and recognize him for his serious movie roles. In this movie he looked almost as outrageous as he does now days and that is saying a lot! Val Kilmer his look has changed very drastically over the last couple of years and with change I mean his pretty extreme sudden weight gain, while he was once a true Hollywood heartthrob.
The sort of 'childish' '80's teenage comedy approach is what makes the movie actually charming and in a way also irresistible to watch. It provides the movie with plenty of crazy situations, as well as some serious teenage issues, that still appeal and apply to teenagers this present day. This is also really what makes these genre movies from the '80's such timeless ones and are also really the reason why some of them are still being so popular to watch now days.
I would exactly classify this movie as one of the classics- or best examples for its genre but it's definitely worth giving a go.
7/10
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