Movie Nerd in Story Drain Turn It Off and Then Back on Again Funny
Great, strange, quirky film
Sadly, My Science Project was a very big risk that seems to transcend it's teen film genre. While people will cite better time-travel themed movies like Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure and Back o the Future, this one will certainly stand on its own due to the Twilight Zone quality of it. Great visuals, great idea, and the story didn't try to insult it's audience by making the story painfully obvious.
I especially liked Mike's character, a kind of good guy that was a diamond stuck in the pond scum. Unfortunately, his entire performance was stepped on by Fisher Steven's over the top performance. Dennis Hopper made a perfect cameo performance that really fit his bi-polar acting style.
While this film won't be considered one of the elite teen films of the 1980s like The Breakfast Club, Bill and Ted, River's Edge, Say Anything, Sixteen Candles and Ferris Bueller's Day Off, but it will fit comfortably with the silver medalists of that area, much like Can't Buy Me love, The Wraith and Three O'Clock High. A great film for teen movie aficionados.
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Classic 80's Sci-Fi
Man I've been watching My Science Project since way back when I was a kid. It was better then but the only thing that has really dated it is the special effects. The story is still good, Fisher Stevens is still funny, and Dennis Hopper is still far out man! I'm not saying that this movie is better than Star Wars or anything but it's a pretty good example of cheesy 80's Sci-Fi. The trick to watching My Science Project or indeed, any movie from the 80's, is to not take it seriously. Turn off the white hot critic's eye and just enjoy this movie for what it is. It's a great movie. Bottom Line: I can't think of many 80's movies in this genre that are this film's equal, except for maybe The Last Starfighter. If you can let me know.
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A forgotten classic!
Warning: Spoilers
When I saw this movie, way back when I was 13 years old, I wondered when every other kid would embrace it and treat it like the blockbuster I was sure that it would be. Then, it never happened.
In 1957, President Dwight D. Eisenhower is brought to Area 51 in the middle of the night to see a UFO. He orders them to get rid of it.
28 years later, it's found by high school gearhead Michael Harlan (Christine), who is searching through an airplane graveyard for something to turn in for his final science project so he can graduate. He's brought along Ellie (Danielle von Zerneck, La Bamba), his nerdy friend who wants to be his girlfriend, and along with her and his friend Vince (Fischer Stevens, not playing an Indian as he did in Short Circuit or a Hollywood style hacker as he did as Eugene "The Plague" Belford in Hackers) he has to figure out how the device works and how to not destroy the world.
Hippie science teacher Dr. Roberts (Dennis Hopper, in one of his first mainstream return roles) realizes that the gizmo is actually a portal to another dimension before he is teleported away. The machine goes out of control, helped by the meddling of jealous nerd Sherman (Raphael Sbarge).
All ends up well and good, despite a dinosaur attack, post-apocalyptic mutants attacking the school and the police searching for our heroes. Dr. Roberts even comes back, getting to see Woodstock one more time (Dennis Hopper is wearing the same outfit he wore in Easy Rider). Our hero gets an A and the girl. All is well.
Known as TimeBusters in Sweden, this is an 80's film about time travel. And no, it's not Back to the Future. It's interesting, though. And pretty much forgotten. It's worth revisiting.
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Part of the science comedy movie craze.
Movies come in phases now and then where a bunch of movies with similar themes come out at about the same time. There was the underwater craze of 89 ("The Abyss", "Leviathan", and "Deepstar Six") and there was the body switch craze ("Big", "Vice Versa", and one with Dudley Moore). This movie came out during the comedy with a science twist. The other two movies that came out during this phase are "Real Genius" and "Weird Science". I liked this phase as I enjoyed all three movies quite a bit. This one was no exception as it combined humor and science fiction very well. This one has a couple of kids finding this strange device that I think ended up being some type of engine. Anyway when this thing gets hooked up with power and turns on all sorts of strange stuff starts happening. The thing seems to be able to move time or open portals. The end is great as the thing really goes berserk and it turns the school (I think it was the school) into a battle zone complete with different times. There is a dinosaur and mutants. All in all I am probably in the minority in liking this one, but I thought it was really good.
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"When you're cool, the sun shine on you 24 hours a day."
High school student Michael Harlan (John Stockwell) is a kid with a fairly narrow focus: he's a car junkie. His girl dumps him because she thinks he spends more time tinkering with cars than with her. To get his science teacher Bob Roberts (Dennis Hopper) off his back, Mike scours a local military junkyard for any piece of junk that he can pass off as a science project. Well, the item that he steals is no ordinary junk: it was discovered back in the 1950s and is apparently an alien device that can create time-space warps. When Mike, his buddy Vince (Fisher Stevens), and Bob start messing around with the thing, an immense amount of havoc ensues as the high school is inundated with characters and animals from the past and a possible future.
Debuting director Jonathan R. Betuel, who'd written "The Last Starfighter", does alright with this first feature. It doesn't display *that* much imagination (we get cavemen, mutants, and a dinosaur, but not that much more), but it does have some good energy. Nicely shot in 2.35:1, it gets off to a solid start, and the characters are amusing to watch. Stockwell is likable in his first top billed role (after playing the best friend to car junkie Keith Gordon in "Christine"), and Danielle von Zerneck is appealing as his leading lady. Stevens, and Raphael Sbarge as the nerdy Sherman, are very much playing stereotypes, but they do give the roles 100%. The adult actors are largely wasted - Barry Corbin as Mikes' dad, Ann Wedgeworth as the dads' new wife, Richard Masur (who gets to be broader than usual) as a detective. The true standout performance in "My Science Project" comes from Hopper, who's perfectly cast as the former hippie who's all too happy to relive his protest filled youth. Robert DoQui, Michael Berryman, Pamela Springsteen, and an uncredited Al Leong all have small roles.
The music by Peter Bernstein is appropriate, the visual effects are well done overall (especially that dinosaur, the work of Doug Beswicks' team), and there are some funny lines here and there. All in all, the movie is juvenile, silly, and ridiculous, but it does do a respectable job of entertaining its audience. Stevens's line (used as my summary), when asked why he's wearing shades indoors, is truly a howler.
Seven out of 10.
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Great little sci-fi film for a good time.
Warning: Spoilers
I love 'My Science Project'. I first saw it on HBO one day back in 87 and loved it right away, it's a great sci-fi thriller, with many moments of comedy as well.
SPOILER ALERT!!!
It concerns a car nut high school student played by John Stockwell (you'd think that after the hell he went through with Christine, he'd stay the heck away from cars), who needs a science project to pass his science class, problem is, he doesn't have one. So one night he, and his new girlfreind are rumaging around in an old military junk yard outside of town hoping to find something suitable to impress his teacher, and find a very odd little machine. It's high tech looking, with a glass globe mounted in the middle that when powered up, emits electricity that resembles one of those plasma globes you'd find at Spencers Gifts in the mall. As he's cleaning it, he decides to hook it up to a power supply, this turns out to be a huge mistake as 'the gizmo', as it's called in the film, turns out to be an engine from a spacecraft and can locally warp time and space, bringing objects and people from other times into our own. It soon goes wildly out of control and eventually the whole school is caught in a warp, and it's up to Stockwell, and his wise cracking freind, played wonderfully by Fisher Stevens, to shut down the gizmo for good.
A very underrated film, with impressive visuals that still hold up well (except for the dinosaur), great acting from it's cast, inspired writing, and when watched on a good surround set up, a great audio mix to boot. It means no harm, and is fun.
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Hugely entertaining 80's sci-fi teen comedy blast
Warning: Spoilers
Car fanatic high school student Michael Harlan (a solid and amiable performance by John Stockwell) finds a mysterious globing orb in a military junkyard that he decides to pass off as his science project. Complications ensue when said orb creates a time vortex that threatens to unbalance the whole world.
Writer/director Jonathan R. Betuel relates the enjoyable story at a zippy pace, maintains a likeable lighthearted tone throughout, sprinkles in plenty of slyly amusing pop culture references, and pulls out the outrageous stops for the wild climax. Moreover, it's acted with zest by an enthusiastic cast: Fisher Stevens contributes a hilarious turn as Michael's wisecracking buddy Vince Latello, Danielle von Zerneck radiates tremendous charm as sweet nerdette Ellie Sawyer, Dennis Hopper has a field day as zonked-out ex-hippie science teacher Bob Roberts (and even pokes merry fun as his "Easy Rider" longhair persona), Raphael Sbarge makes a favorable impression as the geeky Sherman, and Richard Masur gets a rare chance to play it broadly as the browbeating Detective Isadore Nulty. In addition, the funky old school practical f/x hold up pretty well, there's a super exciting race against time chase set piece, and the teen protagonists are a colorful and appealing bunch. A total hoot.
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good comedy science fiction movie for teens
Warning: Spoilers
A young student realizes that he urgently needs to find a "science project" in order to graduate. Since he's pretty handy with all things automotive and mechanical, he sneaks into an army depot where old equipment is stored and steals a dusty, disused object which looks like a motor. He will soon find out that he has stumbled upon a piece of alien technology...
The 1980's, an excellent decade for fantasy and science fiction ! Here we've got a comedic version aimed at a teen audience and it works very well, mainly thanks to a jolly, unpretentious plot, good effects, good casting and good acting. There's good fun to be had as an unremarkable high school in an unremarkable town becomes the centre of an ever greater distortion of the space-time continuum.
The viewer also gets to enjoy some satirical snipes - for instance at the American army, which invests billions in state-of-the-art weaponry and then stores the results in some dusty, rusty depot remembered only by God. (By the way, I may live on another continent, but the phenomenon is common here too.) The movie even contains fleeting moments of visual poetry, what with the corridors of a modern high school getting used by a beautiful Egyptian princess being carried around by attendants. In the best Egyptian tradition, she even throws her admirers a lotus flower, as a token of her benevolence or amorous intent...
On the other hand there are a certain number of missed opportunities : the story, for instance, could have used some additional twists and turns. (I for one would have loved to see the "science project" of the protagonist battle it out with the "science project" of some of his fellow students.)
Still, an enjoyable romp - and Shakespeare at his wittiest, compared to some of the current cr*p.
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My Science Project: Underwhelming comedy sci-fi
Starring the late great Dennis Hopper and underrated talent Fisher Stevens this is an odd little 80's sci-fi comedy that I'd never heard of. I can only assume this is because it didn't do all too well.
It tells the story of a car nut who finds a mysterious device while searching for something to use for his science project. The device distorts time and space building to an epic climax featuring dinosaurs, laser firing space men and everything in between.
On paper this should have been outstanding but for whatever reason it fell flat.
The sci-fi side looks pretty terrible and does not even remotely meet its potential while the comedy element is so lacking it's hard to believe they even call it that. In fact the only comedy comes from Fisher Stevens who is one of the movies saving graces.
Those into 80's cheese might appreciate this but don't go expecting Weird Science (1985) because it isn't even close.
The Good:
Solid script
Fisher Stevens
The Bad:
Doesn't flow very well
Isn't funny
Things I Learnt From This Movie:
You can wear sunglasses during mug shots
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Another 80's teen comedy, but a good one!
mm-39 1 September 2020
Warning: Spoilers
Another 80's teen comedy, but a good one! My Science Project is like the adventure of Michael and Vinney. There is the problem Mike needs a science project to graduate and Mike's girlfriend just dropped him. Mike the power mech guy heads off with a nerd type girl on a sorta date at the air force grave yard and picks up ,un knownly, a U F O time warp engine for Mike's Science Project. Throw in Easy Rider Hopper as the science teacher as a time warp opens up at the high school we got a time warp of humor. Vinny's T V comments with Mike, and the library guy makes for great comic situation humor. The science teen comedy pulls it off. Well acted, directed and acted. 8 stars.
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My Science Project is a great movie! One of the best movies of all time!
Warning: Spoilers
This is one of the great movies of the 80s in My collection that I think about all the time.
My Science Project is one of My favorite films of all. The first time I saw I it I loved it! Its still as great today as it was then! What I love about it is for one how it was made! The 80s allowed it to be a masterpiece! The special effects are spectacular and I still think they are as good as the ones used currently! I like the actors and the characters they play! Fisher Stevens is hilarious! John Stockwell played his part very good. Danielle von Zerneck and Raphael Sbarge put on good performances! I really liked Richard Masur in the movie. His character Detective Jack Nulty was really a bad @$$ and a ruthless one at that! His accent and attitude was just so cool! I always like to see Barry Corbin in the movie. Dennis Hopper's character Bob Roberts was colorful and intelligent! This may sound strange but I believe My Science Project could be arguably his best movie! The laughing bum character was funny! Look for RoboCop's Robert DoQui and Big Trouble In Little China's Al Leong! The budget of the film is big and I have always liked what it has in store! Another thing I love about My Science Project is the score by Peter Bernstein! The music fits the film perfectly and the theme it has is just phenomenally spooky! Its so great! In My opinion This movie has very good acting by the talented actors, a cool story, spectacular effects, a wonderful 80s feel, and just about anything that you could put in a movie! I don't know why this classic movie hasn't received the attention it deserves I mean with all of the things it has I would think this movie would be considered one of the greats but sadly that hasn't happened. I personally think My Science Project is a classic movie that I believe is one of greatest of all time! It is always great to watch. If anyone reads this and hasn't seen My Science Project before then I strongly recommend you go rent it and then buy it! Its a true classic!
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Good mid 80's flick.
This was an OK movie. John Stockwell and Fisher Stevens were a good team. Latello's (Stevens) wise-cracks are what made this movie enjoyable for me! The story is slow at times, but the action picks up and so does the movie. I recommend this for a Saturday afternoon when you have nothing to watch.
All in all, a enjoyable film.
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I Was a Teenage Time Traveler.
'My Science Project' was a fun idea. John Stockwell is Michael Harlan, a slacker car jock who's got to come up with a real science project if he wants to pass his class. Digging around in some condemned military land, he finds a wierd gadget that causes major van damage. In the course of trying to figure out the extent of power of the little electrifying gizmo, his hippie science teacher, Bob (Dennis Hopper) is sucked into a time warp. But, he doesn't leave before figuring out that the thing that Mike Harlan found opens up all time warps. So, now Harlan and his friend Vince Latello (Fisher Stevens), Ellie Sawyer (Danielle von Zerneck), and a hopeless nerd named Sherman (Raphael Sbarge) have to fix the time dimensions while getting chased by strange guys from the government and dinosaurs and midevil warriors, and everything else. Mike's got a real mess on his hands.
It's probably one of the few films I really liked John Stockwell in because he didn't have to try to hard to be Mike Harlan, slacker car jockey who doesn't say much and likes to be left alone. Although, the better character in the movie was his big shot friend, Vince. But that's a typical kind of character for Fisher Stevens, who's always good in comedy.
And yes, as one viewer already mentioned, it follows a long line of 80s science fiction comedy or 80s sci-fi teen movies like 'Real Genius' (teens build a super laser); 'Back to the Future' (teen travels to past, present, and future via a Delorean time machine); Weird Science (teens make a girl on their computer); 'Peggy Sue Got Married' (adult goes back in time to relive being a teen); 'Mac and Me' (teens find friendly alien family), and so forth.
I like the idea for 'My Science Project,' but having all of the people and creatures from different time periods land in the present-day lacked a lot of fun that could've been achieved from a movie (perhaps a longer movie) like this. The finale battle scenes against the enemies from different time dimensions all took place in the school. So, the setting was static, and somewhat boring after awhile. Probably, too, because it was done so cheaply. A lot more could've been done if they were allowed to expand the setting by allowing Harlan and his friends to travel through time, too.
Nonetheless, if this be your cup of tea, then cheers!
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Great for a kid
I just saw this on DVD for the first time in probably about 15 years. I used to love it when I was about 7 years old. I was amazed how many lines I remembered. Though often I didn't remember them from this movie. I just remembered them as lines my 2 brothers and I worked into our vernacular growing up. Especially the timeless "Make my semesta!!!" Besides all the great one liners, there were guns, explosions, gladiators, monster's from the future and past, a TREX, dynamite, and lot's of cool electricity effects. Everything a 7 year old boy would love. So I highly recommend it for a boy child. But for everyone else, only if you are bored or really like seeing cheesy 80's flicks.
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Best 1980s Time Travel Movie (After Star Trek 4: The Voyage Home)
StuOz 27 February 2018
A kid makes a strange science project that leads to time travel.
Forget the over-rated "Bill And Ted", forget the "Back To The Future" movies, if you want a 1980s time travel flick you will find it here in "My Science Project".
For the life of me, I will never know why this film is now so forgotten and unknown while the above mentioned movies get free-to-air reruns every six months (atleast in Australia)!!!!????
What makes "My Science Project" so much better than the above films? I guess it partly comes down to the characters in the movie. From nutty Dennis Hopper, to the kid who keeps referencing all those 1960s/1970s shows/movies, and to the lead character who just comes over as pleasing (in a non Michael J Fox-sort of way).
But also the ending, which I dare not give away.
Granted, this is missing the mighty opening theme tune of the "Back To The Future" movies, but with the exception of the music, "My Science Project" wins hands down!
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Fun 80's sci-fi adventure!
Warning: Spoilers
1985's My Science Project is a childhood favorite of mine. Despite some awesome special effects, it's mostly forgotten today.
It begins in the 1950's. President Dwight D. Eisenhower is brought to an Arizona Air Force base and shown a crashed UFO. He orders the high-ranking generals, "Get rid of it!" Flashforward to modern times (a.k.a. the 1980's). Mike Harlan is a student at a high school in Carson, Arizona, known as "Motorhead Mike" to his friends because of his love of cars. He has problems. His single father is remarrying to an Avon saleswoman, he's recently had a bad breakup with his bitch girlfriend Crystal, and on top of everything else, he's going to flunk science unless his science project is, as the teacher (played by Dennis Hopper!) puts it, "dino-supreme." Mike is asked out on a date by nerdy girl Ellie Sawyer, and, to spite Crystal, he agrees, but Mike's idea of a date is to drag Ellie along to the nearby decommissioned Air Force base, now used as a junkyard. His brilliant plan is to find some random doo-dad to fix it up and pass it off as his science project. What he finds is a futuristic device which is apparently the engine or power source to the crashed UFO seen previously. It resembles a lightning globe from Spencer's Gifts.
After getting the "gizmo, " as Mike's deadbeat best friend Vince Latello calls it, back to school, Mike discovers that the thing gobbles up raw energy like a cop on a donut factory (to steal a line from Ghostbusters 2). Hooking it up to a car battery causes A) the battery to drain and melt (!), and B) a Grecian vase to appear out of thin air. Consulting school nerd Sherman Reardon, Mike and Vince learn that the device is capable of creating a time warp when it has access to power.
They show it to the science teacher who rather stupidly hooks it up to an electrical outlet, which results in him being zapped into the future, and, after some further complicated shenanigans, Mike, Ellie and Vince are forced to raid Mike's dad's hardware store for some dynamite, which they use to blow up an electrical tower, stopping the "gizmo" from feeding off Carson's power station. This gets them arrested. Well, Mike and Vince anyway. The cops ignore Ellie for some reason.
To prove their story and spring her kinda-sorta boyfriend, Ellie returns to the school to get the machine, where she encounters Sherman the nerd. Intrigued, Sherman repeats the science teacher's mistake and plugs the device back in, only this time, with nothing stopping it (the powerlines have been fixed), it starts sucking up so much energy that soon all of Carson is blacked out. Mike and Vince use the confusion to escape custody and quickly discover their school is now the center for an ever-expanding time warp threatening to consume all of Carson, and eventually the world.
Venturing within, our heroes have to find and rescue Ellie and unplug the device and stop the warp before it expands and destroys all of creation. To do so, they'll have to fight their way past a variety of grouchy individuals teleported in from other time periods, including a Roman gladiator, a caveman, Viet Cong soldiers, mutants from the future, and, in my personal favorite sequence, a giant tyrannosaurus rex.
So, it's a fairly small-scale film in terms of special effects. The tyrannosaur is the movie's big setpiece, but they went all-out on him. He's gorgeous. He's (apparently) a combination of a back-projected puppet and a full-size animatronic, and he looks very realistic for 1985. In fact I'd go so far as to say that he's the best-looking dinosaur made prior to Jurassic Park.
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This is a great sci-fi film!
My Science Project is a great 80s sci-fi movie about a kid in high school who sneaks into an old air force junkyard and stumbles upon an alien device discarded in a 1950s fallout shelter, and tries to turn it in as his science project. When his teacher, played by Dennis Hopper, finds a way to power the device, he zaps himself into another time dimension and from there, all hell breaks loose. Eventually, the kid and his best friend, played by Fisher Stevens, find themselves battling their way through Roman gladiators, the Viet Cong, post-apocalyptic mutants and even a Tyrannosaurus Rex in each room of their High School as they make their way toward the science hall to deactivate the device and save their town.
Those who criticize the writing and dialogue miss it's depth as it is as much a movie about trust as it is about time travel.
John Stockwell plays a believable high school cool kid who drives a muscle car and hangs out at auto shop. Fisher Stevens plays his hilariously bigoted sidekick buddy Vinnie from Brooklyn. Danielle von Zerneck plays Harlan's (Stockwell) geeky would-be bounce-back girlfriend after his bimbo girlfriend dumps him. Raphael Sbarge plays a hopelessly nerdy librarian that ultimately helps Harlan shut down the device. Dennis Hopper plays an unhinged ex-hippie turned science teacher who gets sent into another dimension but shows up at the end.
The special effects are dated but hold well. That T-Rex looked good! Don't get me wrong, it's no Jurassic Park, but it's no Gumby Claymation dinosaur either. If you can overlook the fact that the alien device looks like something you can buy from Spencer's Gifts and some of the cheesiness that comes with an 80s movie, it's a pretty exciting film.
If your a sci-fi fan, it's definitely worth a look. It's not just a good idea, it's a good movie as well. I loved it.
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Citizen Kane of Cheesy, 1980s, Teen Sci-Fi
Warning: Spoilers
I was five-years-old when this movie first came to HBO. I haven't seen it in a while, but I still have a good impression of it. If you like cheesy sci-fi films, you'll like this one.
<SPOILER ALERT> The premise of the movie is fantastic. A UFO crashes decades ago. What does the military do with it? They put it in a junkyard where high-schoolers have access to the strange craft's engine.
Now Michael tries to pass off the alien time-warp engine as his own science project. Now, I've studied to be a teacher, and there's no way on The Good Lord's earth that ANY teacher would believe this was a student's own project.
My favorite part was when they were trying to outrun the electric tendrils of the gizmo. Now let's see, electricity runs at THE SPEED OF LIGHT!!! According to Einstein, NOTHING but energy can go as fast as light. Yet, THEY OUTRUN THE TENDRILS! I don't care how good your car is, it can't run that fast! This is so cheesy, you have to love it.
I would have to say that Dennis Hopper, the teacher, and Fisher Stevens, the best-friend Vince, give Academy Award winning performances, if the Academy had a sense of humor. The best line belongs to Stevens. As Vince is having his mug shot taken, the cop asks him why he's wearing sunglasses at night (How '80s is that?). He replies, "When you're cool, the sun shines on you 24 hours a day." Great delivery.
If you like cheesy films, you must, MUST, see this one.
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A personal favorite
This is a very inventive movie, and when i was eight i wanted nothing more then to get my hands on that gizmo! This movie has it all: teen drama, roman gladiators, a time displaced gadget, annoying sidekicks, guns, dynamite, Dennis hopper as a hippie science teacher, fast cars, dinosaurs, WWII soldiers, high school, alien-like mutants, and a swirling vortex!!! what more could you want! Besides none of it is simply "there" it all is cohesive and goes well with the tone of the movie, there is so much to like about this movie, except that it drags a little in the beginning, otherwise it is a fun film like bill and Ted, or back to the future, nowhere as "big budget" as either but the special effects are very cool!
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One of those films from my Childhood
Warning: Spoilers
I remember watching this film as a kid, or more so as a teenager. In fact it was one of those films that I would hire from the video store every so often because, well, it was cool science fiction where some high school students happened to be the heroes - one of the regular tropes that you would encounter in the 80s (and honestly you just don't seem to see that all that much these days, unless you are dealing with films like the Hunger Games, and its many clones). The thing is that unlike the more modern films, this one was pretty much complete in and of itself.
The film is about this teenage grease monkey named Micheal who has two weeks to come up with an awesome science project otherwise he is going to fail (that sounds familiar). There is also this woman, Sawyer (actually her first name is Ellie, but for some reason everybody seems to refer to each other by their last name, something that didn't happen at my school - oh wait, it did, but only if you happened to have an unusual last name, like I do) who is the class journalist, but she wants a date, and since Micheal has just been dumped she manages to get him to agree to be her date.
There is a catch though, she has to accompany him to the junk yard which is used by the airforce so he can look for something that would be scientific enough, and he happens to find this strange device hidden in a bunker. We know where it has come from, namely because we are told at the beginning of the film, but none of our heroes do. It turns out that it has some time bending abilities, so they take it to the science teacher who performs some experiments, and promptly disappears.
Mind you, he isn't the only person who wants to experiment with it because the class nerd stumbles across it and unleashes what could be considered an world of pain, and it happens that Ellie is trapped in the science lab along with it. Thus our heroes have to travel through the school, in which beings from across time and space have converged, to rescue her.
Yeah, the plot is pretty basic, and it has all of those sacrifice and bravery type of themes, as well as people being forced to own up to their actions and to fix up the things that they have broken. I guess it can also be described as a coming of age film where the heroes come out on their own. Don't expect too much, the plot is basic, as are the special effects, and it certainly didn't break the bank at the cinemas. In fact, it is one of those films that has basically been forgotten amongst all the other block busters that have appeared since. Still, if you like 80s sci-fi it is worth checking out, just don't expect too much from it.
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Has a charm to it
I noticed a few bad reviews. One person said it was the Citizen Kane of bad movies. Seriously? This is hardly the worst movie, but I guess that might all depend on how life was affecting that person at that time. I mean their girlfriend or boyfriend might have left them and this movie might have been playing on the television as all that went down. SO I can understand that it may have been guilt by association. If this is a bad movie then I know what a guilty pleasure is now. I thought it had a nice charm to it overall. It was a decent plot. The leads all had personality. I thought the cute romance had some chemistry. Matter of fact, although its not the Breakfast Club of teen interpretation, I knew all these kids in high school. There was a Fisher Stevens character and I knew a Harlan type as well. It has a humor that is winning to it, especially the Fisher Stevens character. Of course it always comes down to a matter of taste. But when I saw this movie went down as one of the worst movies I had to champion it. To me whoever made it seemed to have a bit of love in their heart for it. Its a personal favorite for that reason. I must have seen this movie three times in the theatre. Granted its not the Godfather, or Close Encounters, or 2001 caliber. But the movie is well made with great special effects for the time. Its on youtube free. GIve it a chance if you don't have high expectations, or even if you do. With so much respect, the person who said this was the Citizen Kane of bad movies needs to see more movies. Gotta say, loved it. This movie has a small following. I hate to see myself as a follower, but just watched it recently and it holds up great. I hated the 80s. It may be nostalgia, but this is a fond memory from that time. Sure its mindless. But it sure is fun.
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Great 80's Movie!
If you've never seen this movie before, give it a try...It's a great 80's high school flick. Add it to your collection with Sixteen Candles, Weird Science, The Breakfast Club, Ferris Buehler and Pretty in Pink. Plus, John Stockwell looks yummy driving his massively sweet red GTO. He was a pretty good actor before he became a pretty good director, too. Vinnie (the guy who played Ben in the Short Circuit movies) has some awesome one liners and Dennis Hopper plays a hysterical former hippie science teacher. Plus, you can laugh at the 80's special effects and realize how good we have it now. Give it a try, it's a good time. If you like this one, also try The Philadelphia Experiment. Another 80's sci-fi flick that has pretty similar special effects.
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Really bad teen 80s flick...
and that's saying something! Story about some obnoxious teenager (John Stockwell) who finds a little "box" from a flying saucer that creates time/space distortions...or something. Bad beyond belief dialogue, a virtually incomprehensible plot (I assume that's from pre-release cutting...the film is barely 90 minutes), and lazy acting. Some of the special effects are cool (for 1985). I saw it primarily because of John Stockwell. A very handsome man, he was very good in other 80s flicks ("Losin' It", "Top Gun" and especially "Christine") but he's lousy in this. He looks depressed and like he doesn't care. Fisher's wisecracks are a blessing. A total waste of time. ALMOST bad/good.
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80s time travel kid's film
The 80s was the decade of nerds in main roles in Sci-Fi and fantasy. With the big successes of "WarGames" and "Ghostbusters" in 1985 there were at least five movies with teenagers involved in some kind of Sci-Fi experiments and this movie was one of them, even when not one of the most popular. But the movie is a fun 80s adventure with time travel (kind of anticipating "Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure"), a lot of silly moments and that stores some nice surprises, like Dennis Hopper in a cool secondary role.
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Enjoyable 80's sci-fi flick
It's the music in the eighties I think, its when its played or why. But you know eighties styled movies by the music and the ghostbusters style special fx which is as good as this gets for the larger part. The story though is poor and its not well executed either to the point where the movie doesn't seem to take itself seriously which adds humour.
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Source: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0089652/reviews
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