Absolutely the worst movie.

A brilliant film that helped define a genre

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

Love the realistic themes of this film: that some very bright older teenagers can indeed out- think many adults, and that nuclear proliferation is not the best answer to international conflicting interests. However, the actual execution of these themes as represented in the film are naive, sometimes stupid, and thus rendered as recklessly juvenile and thereby meaningless. Please pay as little actual attention as possible to the lab break-in and theft by the teenage protagonist, as it very well can render the remainder of the film meaningless. Also, please don't pay too close attention to how a career nuclear scientist and practitioner, as John Lithgow's character, could so easily succumb to naive and unrealistic ideations of a teenager who thinks he's smarter than he actually is. Should I even interject the implausibility of the "love" story between the title character and Cynthia Nixon? As in wanting to kiss immediately after only one of them smoking? And her parents then walking in but not smelling the cigarette smoke? And so, after all is said and done, this movie is excellent for taking the best idealistic approach to nuclear warfare, but consequently deserves some derision for failing to understand that the Hollywood answers it provides in the the film could not possibly even begin to adequately address the complexities of the real world we live in.

Not quite understanding the bad reviews here. Going in it's easy to see immediately that this movie was going to be flippant and a bit of a fairy tale. How can anyone take it seriously? Instead, just sit back and enjoy the ride.This movie is basically a series of unlikely events strung together. Can they happen, sure but probably in another dimension. But still, I found this film a guilty pleasure. It's best to just put your mind on hold for a bit and just have fun.On a side note, I really miss the 80's version of John Lithgow. He is such a great actor and back then he was at his prime.

This is the third of the four feature films directed by Marshall Brickman. It is ironic that the title is THE MANHATTAN PROJECT, because Brickman wrote Woody Allen's films MANHATTAN (1979, see my review) and MANHATTAN MURDER MYSTERY. Now, that's what I call throwing a name around! In this film, in order to escape Central Park perhaps, the location is shifted to Ithaca, New York, the location of Cornell University. They have lots of scientists there, but sshhhhh, I am telling you that only on a need to know basis and you must keep it to yourself. There are lots of FBI men around and they have guns. Brickman's first film was SIMON (1980, see my review), which was not entirely successful, and his second was LOVESICK (1983, see my review), which was an excellent romantic comedy. This film moves into new territory, and by that I do not just mean Brickman has temporarily migrated upstate. The film stars the 18 year-old Christopher Collet as a science prodigy who decides to build a small atomic bomb in order to try to win first prize at the National Science Fair. John Lithgow is excellent as the nuclear scientist who romantically befriends Collet's divorced mother (Jill Eikenberry with her bright blue eyes, and by the way you may have noticed that for at least three decades now all women in American movies are divorced) and from whom Collet steals the necessary plutonium. He has a very jolly girlfriend played by the 20 year-old Cynthia Nixon (no relation apparently to Tricky Dick), who helps him sneak out of the top secret lab. The film is very amusing and Brickman, who co-wrote the film, has added several very punchy comedic lines of dialogue, as one would expect from a Woody Allen author. Brickman does an excellent job of directing, and this film really is a good one. Naturally, the atomic bomb's unprimed detonation mechanism is accidentally set on timer by 'a spontaneous neutron emission'. Those neutrons really never could control themselves. Can the bomb be defused before it destroys 'New York, Pennsylvania, and Canada' as a worried Lieutenant Colonel puts it while his men brandish their sniper rifles and machine guns? It is all good fun and also rather hair-raising. Also, there's a message in there somewhere.

First: I was 12 when I watched this movie on the ol' VCR. If I were to rate this film based on what I know today (December 2012) then it's a bit (sarcasm) far-fetched albeit still a good story with good actors. Find Robert Sean Leonard nearly two decades before House, MD! But I digress... Think about the film in a mid-80s mindset. No Google, no wikipedia...just Encyclopedia Britannica and this thing they called a library way back in the day. The general public didn't have a clue about radioactive isotopes or computers in 1986 and the information wasn't at our fingertips like it is today. So let that go and enjoy the film. Summary: The quirky whiz kid who is seemingly a rube in areas outside of all things science and tech is sheldonesque in nature. John Lithgow plays a great lead proving early on why he's been nominated for two Oscars. The caper used to extract the plutonium is pure genius and fun! The film falls into three categories according to IMDb: Comedy, Sci-Fi, Thriller. It's a blend of all three...oh and "Comedy" is first because it's in alphabetical order, not because the film is foremost a comedy.For those people who are 35 and up this is a great film to sit down with the family and watch for good clean fun, a great story, a little US history (perspective only as we were in a nuclear arms race in the 80s), and inexpensive entertainment.Who cares if the green stuff would be deadly outside the lab, forget the reality and enjoy the film. It's a good one!