Weird Science (1985) Reviews

• THE 80's comedy

  chvylvr802003-10-15

  Weird Science is the best 80's comedy that was ever made. I'm saying it. Ghostbusters, Summer Rental, The Great Outdoors, Strange Brew, Gung Ho, Mr. Mom, all of these movies have their place, but none of them can match Weird Science for laughs or pure....eightiesness. Yes eightiesness is a quality. It's a corny, dated quality but one that is tangible and valued by my fellow eighties loving brethren to this day. Come back with me if you will to a time when Anthony Michael Hall was still fielding calls and Kelly LeBrock was French for sexy. Weird Science has everything that an eighties comedy needs: A least one hot girl, a few actors who are no longer working or who do anything that will come along, plenty of dashing eighties threads, a corny as hell eighties soundtrack,(and Oingo Boingo is as corny and eighties as they get), and plenty of cheap funny jokes. Undoubtedly the best thing about Weird Science is Bill Paxton, who plays Wyatt's older brother Chet. Chet is the worst big brother ever to grace a movie screen and is a role model for all big brothers everywhere, me included. Chet delights in extorting money and valuables from Wyatt in exchange for his silence about Wyatt's activities. The best part in the movie is when Chet gets turned into the toad thing or whatever it is. Man I love that part. The rest of the cast does a good job of being their stock characters. Kelly LeBrock does a good job of being hot. Robert Downey Jr. shows none of the signs of future drug addiction. The film is unremarkable in the fact that it isn't anything groundbreaking or special. It's just a funny movie. And an eighties classic. Bottom Line: If you grew up in the eighties and you never saw Weird Science then you must atone for your crimes by going out and buying it right now. Then send me an email telling me how grateful you are that I put you on the path to rightousness and eighties correctness.

  More

• Funky Teen Sci-Fi (spoilers)

  vertigo_142004-08-08

  80s! I'm living in the 80s! If you love 80s teen movies, then Weird Science ought to be in your catalogue. It is one of director John Hughes most memorable, and one of the 80s most original. Written in two days, this is a teen science fiction film, the story of two teenage loners, Wyatt (the always grimacing Ilan-Mitchell Smith) and Gary (Anthony Michael Hall before he went deadpan) and their weird way of discovering girls. A variation on Frankenstein, the teenagers create a beautiful woman (the super cool Kelly LeBrock) using their computer and some clever hacking skills (of course, it's exaggerated). Their creation is Lisa, the chic English accent woman who brings a little life to the subtle Illinois suburb. As the antithesis of both Wyatt and Gary's personalities, she's going to show these boys a little adventure, get them to loosen up, and for crying out loud, gain some self-esteem. Because Lisa is a lady with some supernatural power like freezing grandparents in time, erasing the memory of a bad first impression with Gary's parents, turning Wyatt's obnoxious military school brother Chet (Bill Paxton in his funniest, most arrogant role yet) into a giant pus maggot, or even having a gang of mutant bikers storming a house party. And Lisa's greatest gift to the boys: showing them true love by helping them along to meet the two girls they've been after all along, their high school classmates, Deb and Hilly, who are unfortunately hung up on the dweeb bullies, Max (Robert Russler) and Ian (Robert Downey, Jr.). So essentially, it deals with many aspects of teen angst (but more like just teen self-esteem or self-consciousness issues) within one story. Parents, class status (done subtly here as opposed to Some Kind of Wonderful or Pretty in Pink), relationships, etc. It works well, and is done quite humorously. One of my favorite scenes is when the trio (Lisa, Gary, and Wyatt) go to the night club looking pretty out of place (they're not only the only white people there, but probably the only ones under thirty). Once Anthony Michael Hall's character, Gary, gets drunk and starts with his slang, it's hilarious. Reminds me a little of Adventures in Babysitting when the gang drops in on the club and they're not allowed to leave until they sing. So eventually, they loosen up and have a little fun. It's a wonderful movie with a classic John Hughes comic touch (says the mutant biker to Gary and Wyatt after they threaten to kill them if they don't leave, "Please don't tell anyone about this. I'd hate to lose my teaching job.). Plus, it's got a great soundtrack, featuring Killing Joke, Lords of the New Church, and Oingo Boingo doing the title song. The music video for it was fantastic, and not only features clips from the movie, but Kelly LeBrock herself in Oingo Boingo's own rendition of creating the woman via technology. Although not one of John Hughes' best (I think Sixteen Candles is still his greatest), it is certainly one of his most memorable and one that I will love no matter how old I get. So have yourself a lazy Saturday, pop in the movie, and enjoy.

  More

• Essential Viewing for the 80s generation

  grid2121998-12-27

  Weird Science is the product of the prolific '80s' writer/director John Hughes (who later went on to create films such as 'Home Alone'). This man single-handedly crafted movies about teenagers for teenagers, without ever becoming patronising or authoritative. Weird Science epitomises the 80s with its fast cars, shoulder pads and big hair. To be honest, Weird Science is synonymous with that decade and reflects most if not all, of its hopes and aspirations (computers in every home, robotic servants etc.). Looking back on it now it's incredibly dated, however and more importantly, the film is still as entertaining today as it was over ten years ago! Anyone who grew up in the 80s and is beginning to reminisce will instantly relate to the exploits of the two lead characters Gary (Anthony Michael Hall) and Wyatt (Ilan Mitchell-Smith), as they use their computer and associated paraphernalia to create a beautiful girlfriend (Kelly LeBrock). Although not Hughes' best work, this was reserved (in my opinion) for the later 'Ferris Beuller's Day Off' which was far more appealing to a wider audience - Weird Science will always be a 'Geeky' 80s classic. The film was so popular it spawned it's own TV series - ten years later! Unless you lived through that decade the film won't touch you in quite the same way. You needed to have been in awe of Tron, to have worn stone washed jeans and to have owned at least two pairs of illuminous [odd] socks, to really appreciate the naivety of the main characters as they place their faith in computers and 'modern' technology. Today to a younger - more clued up audience, Weird Science could get lost amongst so many other 80s flicks with inferior technology and visual special FX to today's CGI standards. However there is something quintessentially 80s, something oh so Duran Duran about Weird Science that separates it from even the best of today's films. It's that central 'Hughes' element with its visual nuances and audible gags that makes this a timeless classic, watchable again and again. If you know what 'ghetto blaster' is definitely watch this film, if you were born after 1984 take everything with a pinch of salt and pay attention - you might learn something.

  More

• Bill Paxton is unleashed to audiences

  baumer2000-02-02

  I'm not sure how many people really read these reviews in IMDb but if there are people out there like me that enjoy this forum quite a bit, then they will know that I have loved Bill Paxton's work forever. I can tell you he was in Stripes and he was one of the punks in Terminator and he even had a small role in Commando. His three best films in my opinion are True Lies, Aliens and his classic turn as Chet in Weird Science. Anyone that has seen this film will tell you that they loved it when Chet comes home to find it snowing in his room. Or how fun it was to watch him torture Wyatt by extorting money from him. "For Christ sakes Wyatt will you cover yourself! " Bill Paxton may be best known for his work in James Cameron films but it is John Hughes that we have to thank for unleashing him onto audiences with this amazing turn as Chet Donnelly. He is the meanest, nastiest older brother and yet he is screamingly funny. Bill Paxton had a cameo in a film called The Last Supper years later and his character really could have been a grown up Chet. But it is here that we get to laugh at some of Paxton's best work. Weird Science is one hell of a funny film and John Hughes is responsible for that, but if Chet wasn't played by Bill Paxton then it just wouldn't have been the same. As the film goes, it is quite good. I don't believe it is Hughes' best, that honour, in my opinion, goes to The Breakfast Club, but it is very very entertaining. And as one reviewer said before me, you had to have grown up in the 80's to really appreciate this film. And underneath all of what this film is about, it is still just a film about the insecurities of being a teen, getting the girl and living happily ever after. I think Hughes may have been writing the script for Sixteen Candles, stopped in the middle of it and then took acid with Chevy Chase or John Candy and then came up with this idea because some of the situations really are right out of nowhere. Take for example the actual creation of Lisa. The two geeks hook up a doll to the game of Operation?? and then with bras around their heads, they connect the computer and then lightning and winds invade their room and then Kelly LeBrock walks out of their closet. Acid for sure. Then there is the scene with Vernon Wells and his biker buddies. A highschool house party and then a bunch of guys on motorcycles straight out of Mad Max breaks into the house and starts to terrorize the kids. Acid trip for sure. Acid aside, Weird Science is a trip through time. If you were born in the 70's and went to highschool in the 80's like I did, then you are probably familiar with the name John Hughes, and if you are then you are probably a fan of most of his work. Along with Ferris, Sixteen Candles, Breakfast Club and some of his adult films like Planes Trains... She's Having a Baby and even Vacation, Weird Science is a film that should be seen again. It is 15 years old and perhaps people can say it is dated some, but to me it is a throwback to what films were like in the 80's. This film is fun, hysterical and enjoyable. And it has Bill Paxton in one of the funniest roles in any career. This is a fun film and if you haven't seen this in quite some time, then maybe you should. 8 out of 10

  More

• That's not a joke! THAT is a severe behavioral disorder!

  cwbellor2012-08-31

  Does a movie need definitive plot points or events that move the characters forward? No! Weird Science proves that a movie need be nothing more than a series of jokes and visual gags. But Weird Science is also a movie with a message. That message – horny boys and science is a wicked combination. Once you see John Hughes' masterpiece about Frankensex, you will be asking yourself why you ever quoted The Breakfast Club. I sense you doubting that Weird Science effectively taps into the troubled teen psyche with sincerity and insight. Well consider the following. A bodacious babe is front and center with Einstein's intellect and essence of David Lee Roth. A teenage girl is stripped naked by a vacuum cleaner chimney – which is okay cuz it's in the name of science. Bill Paxton is reduced to a Jim Hensonesque troll! A giant phallic missile penetrates a suburban house. Still not convinced? Well, just watch the last half hour. A gang of road ragers crashes the obligatory 80s teen party, do donuts all over the floors and smack random guys in the crotch. Bennet from Commando asks the heroes if they have tossed off to any good books lately and Anthony Michael Hall get's all Dirty Harry on their uninvited post- apocalypse asses. This is a work of unparalleled brilliance and sophistication. It's got Robert Downey Jr. in it too!

  More