Real Genius
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Movie Reviews of Real Genius
Movie Review: Loved the gags!
Summary: 5 Stars
My own background is heavy in the arts and sciences, even coming out of college. This film is for those of us who can equate to the technical mind set and that type of journey through life.
This film is light hearted with its premise. Even the scene in the dorm where they fill the hallways with ice, so they can "body slide" the halls on the ice, reminds me of some of the things done at my college dorm so long ago.
If you think the pranks done in this movie don't happen in college, here are some examples of things I saw in my own college days while living on campus. One day someone put a vaseline slick on the carpet, so if you came running down the hallway, you'd be sliding down the length of hallway on your butt. (lol) On another occasion, I passed a trash barrel full of water vicariously and precisely balanced up against someone's door so that when they opened the door, the barrel would fall on them saturating them in water.
Then there was that one morning I woke to use the central bathroom down the hall and could not get out of my dorm room. I simply could not make the door knob turn, as though it were locked. Neither could my room mate. So I climbed out on the window ledge, two stories up no less on the narrow ledge, and got in through someone elses window, whose door was operating. As I stepped into the hallway, I could hear all the door knobs turning as each person was trying to get out of their room. What I learned was that some engineer had stuck pennies inbetween each door and door lip creating enough pressure so that the door knob would not turn. As I freed each person from each dorm, using a kitchen knife to pop out the pennies, I discovered that some doors were three penny doors, some were six penny doors; some were in betweeners. I couldn't stop laughing. I think I made about 45 cents that morning for my trouble and eventually got to use the bathroom when everyone else was done. This happened in just my freshman year.
In my senior year, while living with three other guys sharing an off campus apartment, one of my room mates decided to play a prank on me. One of our teachers kept a life size Marylyn Monroe manikin in his office. My friend Jym had come to me proposing I join him, and a few others, in sneaking into the office and steal the manikin. I turned him down on that offer and when I didn't join him, by the weekend, when I came in from classes one Friday evening, and climbed the stairs to the two level apartment we shared, to my bedroom, I found Marylyn; lying in my bed in a seductive pose, with my desk light covered in a red gel to mimic the red light district. (chuckling)
At that moment I didn't find it funny. Jym and his buddies could not stop laughing. After awhile I did laugh and suggested we send a randsom note telling the teacher if our demands were not met, we would take the pieces apart and send the teacher on a treasure hunt, all over campus, to find all the parts. In short, I have a few of my own college prank stories to tell. All of them are good memories 30 years later regardless. I've tried my whole life not to take life too seriously. Afterall, none us are getting out of it alive in the end.
I suppose if any of us had thought of it, we would have filled the hallways with ice, like they showed in this movie. The scene at the end of the film, showing the giant "Jiffy Pop" corn popper is a classic gag. Maybe U.S. leaders should learn from this scene, when it comes to dealing with people like Sedom Hussain, for instance. Instead of skud missling the enemy, maybe U.S. forces should have sent a heat ray into his home, after sending him a giant Jiffy Pop popper via International carrier and laid him out with a ton of Jiffy pop popcorn! You have to see the movie to appreciate what I'm talking about. I could not stop laughing when I first saw the gag done with the first viewing of this film.
The Amazon summary pretty well gives you the story. I'm just filling in some of the movie's highlights. Overall its a fun 80's film to watch. Val Kilmer was cute when this was made; so are the young college gals during the party scene. Makes me wish I was young again. Reminds me of all the fun times I had in college pursuing my technical studies.
So if you like a light hearted, fun story and a good laugh, then this film is for you. I certainly enjoyed it very much.
Movie Review: A 1980's cult comedy classic...
Summary: 5 Stars
The breakout film for Val Kilmer's career, Real Genius is one of the first films to portray the "nerd" as someone cool rather than as the taped-glasses, plaid pants cliché that dominated most of the 1980s. Evolving over time into a cult classic, this can be classified as more of a generational film. Most of the people I know who grew up in the 1980s have seen it. As such, it meets the criteria to be defined as a must see movie...
When fourteen-year-old Mitch Taylor (Gabriel Jarret) receives entrance into a highly prestigious college program at Pacific Tech, he's put to work by his mentor Professor Jerry Hathaway (William Atherton) on a highly experimental and difficult project - the development of a specific type of laser. But Mitch's studies are hindered by his more laid back roommate, Chris Knight (Val Kilmer), who would rather use his genius brain to have fun rather than be used by people. Explaining that he used to be just like Mitch, he one day learned that you can't through all of life with your nose in a book.
Garnering great influence with Mitch, Chris and the rest of the students engage in some crafty shenanigans (such as turning the dorm room floor to ice - ice that turns from solid to liquid). But Chris and Mitch are foiled by the Prof. Hathaway kiss-up, loser Kent Torokvei (Robert Prescott) who is always shadowing their activities and telling Hathaway. When Mitch meets up with Jordan (Michelle Meyrink) at an auditorium where the orchestra pit has been turned into a pool, the two develop a romance. But the party is crashed by Hathaway who threatens to send Mitch home.
With the military applying pressure on Hathaway to complete the laser project, he threatens to fail Chris. With Chris and Mitch working around the clock, the project makes great progress. But the team has to enlist the help of Lazlo Hollyfeld (Jon Gries), an eccentric former student who lives in their closet, before they make the breakthrough discovery that gives them an operational laser.
Celebrating out on the town, the team ponders the implications of the laser they have created. Realizing that it will be used for assassinations, they run back to lab only to find the laser missing. When they unleash a plan to get revenge on Prof. Hathaway, Kent and the professor's house become part of a great popcorn experiment...
Rife with a number of hilarious scenes, one of the more hilarious is when Mitch, Chris, Jordan, and their friend Ick gas Kent and insert a microphone in his mouth. They then speak to Kent, pretending to be God. The entire movie is worth that scene alone, but there are countless others in this popular teen classic. If you like clever comedy, Real Genius is one film that can't miss...
The DVD Report
Movie Review: "Socrates said it best, I drank what?"
Summary: 5 Stars
A lot (but not most) of my favorite movies are from the 80's. This was one of them. Val Kilmer (The Saint) plays Chris Knight, a college student at a very prestigious school in which the professor wants him to create a highly classified laser weapon (Chris doesn't know why him and his team have to create this laser; they just need to build it and see that it works) that can be used on a spaceship and can target anything on earth. Working a long side of him is Kent (Ed Begley Jr.) who also kisses Jerry's (William Atherton from Ghostbusters and the Die Hard movies) rear. Kent and Chris are also trying to get on Kerry's better side because of a sleek job. While Chris is a slacker and fools around a lot, Kent tries to solve the power problem with the laser and at the same time, as I said before, kiss Jerry's rear. Jerry recruits a smart 15 year old, Mitch (Gabe Jarrett) to work with Chris. Chris tries to get Mitch to mellow out and have a good time. Too many brain cells means no party and no "fun."
When Jerry threatens Chris to get his act together and solve the power problem, Chris as usual dooesn't take him seriously until Jerry also threatens to not allow Chris to graduate. The mad dash to create the ultimate weapon (looks a lot like the old Star Wars project from the Reagan years), to making this semester count with the usual college antics (turning the floor into a ice that turns to gas, going after beauticians, taking apart a car and reassembling it in a dorm bedroom, and inserting a listening device and microphone in the braces.
What follows up to the hijinks and laughs is when Chris, Lazlo (a middle aged student), Jordan, and Mitch find out the plans of the mad professor Dr. Hathaway (Atherton). They make a plan to try to stop the professor, leak it out to the local representatives and also end it with a laugh.
Lots of laughs and hijinks in what you would think would include nudity, but surprisingly; there is none. The picture and sound are great. There are no extras like deleted scenes, director's commentary and/or outakes. Just the usual interactive menu, theatrical coming attraction. This DVD includes both Widescreen and Fullscreen. If you like comedies, this is a great addition to your DVD library. If you like college hijinks and have Animal House and/or Revenge of the Nerds; you will like this one. The laughs are spread out and while it's not hillarious; it is a funny movie.
Movie Review: "Welcome To Pacific Tech's Smart People On Ice!"
Summary: 5 Stars
Prof: "Why do you wear that toy on your head?"
Chris Knight: "Because if I wear it anywhere else, it chafes. ... I didn't what to seem too stuffy. Y'know, all brains, no penis."
Man: "You are Chris Knight aren't you?"
Chris: "I hope so. I'm wearing his underwear."
'I remember the immortal words of Socrates who said, "I drank WHAT?"'
"This? This is ice. This is what happens to water when it gets too cold. This? This is Kent. This is what happens to people when they get too sexually frustrated."
There are so many really good memorable one-liners, as well as visual effects (re: bunny and crow slippers and an 'I "heart" Toxic Waste' t-shirt, etc.) in this film that it's hard to recall them all... and Val Kilmer delivers most of them himself with perfect timing. He seemed so natural that you forget he's acting... and isn't that the mark of a good actor. Unfortunately for the rest of us, and in this reviewers eyes his best role to date.
Along with another '80's "B" comedy, Running Scared (I wish that Billy Crystal and Gregory Hines had done more comedies together while Hines was still alive,) Real Genius is one of my all time favorite movies, though "Genius" has a much better ending. It's so watchable. I've seen it literally hundreds of times myself. It's an intelligently written and performed little comedy produced by Martha Coolidge, Real Genius has since become something of an icon. It contains both the subtle and the non-subtle. Though dated, the script, which is very well written, and most of the soundtrack holds up well under the test of time, I think.
Without the advent of HBO and Cinemax in the '80's that played it over and over and over, this film might have been missed by many, including this reviewer. Though expensive for a twenty year old movie, it is well worth it in my opinion. You won't be sorry unless you insist on watching mindless comedies ("Dumb and Dumber" comes to mind. The title says it all here.)
There are lots of movies that fit that description. If so, don't see Real Genius.
I hope this review helps you, and Good Luck with your own dreams.
Movie Review: Lasing a stick of dynamite!
Summary: 5 Stars
This is one of those movies that stays fun no matter how many times you see it year after year. Val Kilmer had made a couple of movies before this one, but this was his breakout role as the genius Chris Knight - a senior in college working on a project for his professor that he is largely indifferent to completing. Along comes the underage freshman, Mitch Taylor (wonderfully played by Gabriel Jarrett), who has been recruited to help finish the project.The movie is really about Mitch finding his way in a high-pressure college situation. He endures Kent, the jerk that tortures him and who works in the same lab. Kent is not untalented, but not a genius like Chris or Mitch and resents the favoritism genius claims. Kent tries to get attention by sucking up to Prof. Hathaway (brilliantly played in all his corruption by William Atherton), but never gets what he is seeking.
As just one minor example of the riches in this movie is the scene when Mitch is going to a packed math class. Soon people start bringing small tape recorders to class and not attending. Mitch is one of the few actually listening to the prof. Finally, Mitch is the only one in the class, even the prof becomes a reel-to-reel tape player with a sign attached that says encourages the students to listen carefully. While changes in technology would make that scene impossible today, it is still wonderfully effective.
Mitch also meets Jordan, a girl who is so hyperactive she doesn't sleep, finds time to invent things as well as resurface the floor in her dorm room. Jordan is magnificently played by Michelle Myrink and is one of those characters you wish you knew in real life as a friend. Although, frankly, Jordan would be exhausting to know. But her intelligence, innocence and kindness would more than compensate for the energy you would have to expend keeping up with her.
The movie is populated with wonderful characters of all sorts. The plot is hung on a very 80s theme, but that's OK, the final scene draws it all together in spectacular and funny way.
A classic.