The Worst Film Ever

When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

I'm not sure how I missed this movie for 30 years. I wasn't even aware of this title until it showed up on RetroPlex this morning. A rather nice little flick from early in Val Kilmer's career before 1990, when he and Brad Pitt became walking spare parts for each other.With flavors of Animal House, Fast Times, and a few others, I wish I had seen this when it came out, because 30 years later I have lost much of my first-time-sex sensibility and silliness that I would have appreciated more in '85.In any case, still entertaining, with Kilmer throwing off some very wild, young man mania. The story is fun, and certainly moves right along, not really bogging down during its running time. It kinda runs off the rails of plausibility at the end, but if you pull me in in the first few minutes, I can deal with that. (Remember Jaws? The end of that movie is ridiculous, but Spielberg had me with the opening scene at the beach.) Definitely worth a watch. Made me long for my old IBM XT.

Teenage geniuses (Val Kilmer and some other kid) deal with their abilities while developing a laser.The 1980s seemed to be dominated by John Hughes movies and John Cusack. This film does not have either one, though it does have Jon Gries if you need a little John in your movies. Not sure why you would, but maybe you do.What makes this film so great is the writing. The jokes are puns and clever twists, sort of the humor you might expect from the Marx Brothers or similar comedians. There are more than a few dirty jokes (the word "penis" comes up a lot), but even those tend to be rather clever.

There really is a difference between smart people and nerds. You can be smart and fun at the same time. You can be witty and someone socially desirable all at once. Getting good grades doesn't necessarily sentence you to a life as a social pariah. Most of the characters we meet in Real Genius are not actually nerds. The Kent character would be an exception. But Real Genius is a fun and reasonably intelligent comedy with exceptionally smart people as its heroes. And unlike the protagonists in Revenge of the Nerds, they aren't people you'd necessarily make fun of. But you can certainly laugh at them.Real Genius is the story of a handful of whiz kids at mythical Pacific Tech University who are unwittingly being used to develop a deadly weapon for the CIA. It turns out their smarmy professor (William Atherton) is using a government grant to refurbish his home while his students relentlessly spend all of their waking moments in a lab developing a laser beam which can eradicate a human target from space. Gabe Jarret is a 15 yr old new to the team who finds himself roomed with Val Kilmer; a genius who has long ago decided not to take school so seriously. Jarret only wants to work on the laser and live up to the expectations of his parents and the faculty. Kilmer wants to teach the kid how to have some fun. And all the while this dangerous weapon is being created in their lab. Finally, after several plot complications, the weapon is complete. But it takes a former whiz kid living in the steam tunnels beneath the dorm to point out that this laser can really only have one use. Feeling betrayed, the students gang up on their professor and use his weapon to teach him a lesson. Real Genius is not a particularly plausible film in terms of its plot, but it succeeds at its most basic goal. In other words, its funny. Kilmer has never been better, spouting smug one-liners that would make Chevy Chase or Bill Murray smile. Atherton always got to play the creep back in the 1980s, and as usual he does it quite well. Gabe Jarret never did much else, but he's as good as he needs to be as the new "stud" who can hardly believe he's doing what he's doing at age 15. The film has dated fairly well. It has a good soundtrack, good special f/x for the laser, and good cast with several memorable performances. There are some unnecessary elements, such as the mixer with student beauticians, and perhaps Jarret's relationship with the hyper girl down the hall was tacked on. But overall its still a winner after so many years. Worth a rental if you don't own it already. 8 of 10 stars.The Hound

This movie was terrible! Normally I love 80s movies, especially wacky, zany, or unique ones such as Better Off Dead, One Crazy Summer, and Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure. Real Genius falls into this wacky and zany category, but also falls into the obnoxious and not funny category. In this movie, a 15 year old genius boy with idiot parents gets into college at his young age, decides he can't take living there, decides he can take it after all, then it turns out he was involved in the creation of some super laser that can blast through anything. The plot was stupid and the jokes were all crude and not even funny. The movie was overall weird and had no charm. The genius kid also falls in love with a freak girl who never sleeps. This movie was lame and had crappy music and I regret ever watching it. Do yourself a favor and pick a different 80s comedy such as the ones I mentioned earlier.