Plot Details: This opinion reveals major details about the movie''s plot.
Going though my video library recently I came across an old and battered copy of Weird Science. The cover is almost completely worn away and the tape itself looks like it’s been through a battle. Even so, I couldn’t resist popping it in the VCR and watching it for the umpteenth time. What is it about cheesy 80’s teen flicks that’s comforting? The story isn’t new, the plot is predictable and the characters are basic – so I am laying money on the fact that Kelly LeBrock is scantily clad through most of the film as one of the main attractors of teen aged boys. Even with an undeveloped plot and average for the time special effects – the movie truly deserves the title 㦼’s Classic”. If you’ve never seen this film but enjoy a good comedy then chances are you won’t be disappointed by it – but don’t expect to be rolling on the floor unless you can relate to teen pranks and gangs.
Weird Science
Garry and Wyatt are pretty much social outcasts, no matter what they try and do to be cool, it backfires on them. It doesn’t help that Ian [Robert Downey Jr] and Max [Robert Rustler] torment them every chance they get, their parents are oblivious and Wyatt’s older brother Chet lives to extort funds from him. Even with all this against them, they create the perfect woman. Taken from porn magazines and Cosmopolitan, they snip, cut and clip legs, arms, hair and other assorted body parts to make their perfect vision of the female persuasion. There’s just one small catch, she’s hell bent on fun, which usually results in the boys enduring a little humility as they climb to popularity. With the help of Wyatt’s computer and a little hacking into the government computer system, they get enough power to turbo charge a Barbie doll [where exactly did that come from?] and bring it to life. But that’s just the beginning … add into the mix some outlaw bikers that Lisa summons to teach the boys to be tougher, Garry’s parents meeting Lisa, the boys getting two sports cars and outrunning the police and about twenty other gut busting scenes.
One half of the dynamic geek duo, Garry is pretty content with being weird. He’s skinny, has absolutely no muscle tone and when he has the chance to take a shower with a beautiful naked woman, he does so with this all his clothes on. He isn’t nearly as spineless as Wyatt but he doesn’t have an older brother like Chet to bust his balls and torment him on a regular basis. Anthony Michael Hall was a great pick for this role and he broke away from his usual stereotype of “king of the geeks” when he got popular for a few days.
Best quote: “Anything more than a handful and you’re risking a sprained thumb”
Wyatt Donnelly Ilan Mitchell-Smith
[The Wild Life, Identity Crisis]
Wow. This kid is so spineless and wimpy it’s a wonder he made it this far in life without being squashed like a grape. Even the way he talks irks you and you know that if he was in your gym class you wouldn’t be able to resist smacking him around. I guess having an older brother like Chet isn’t easy; you don’t really see his parents in the film but you can sort of gather that they are control freaks. Wyatt never really lets loose after Lisa gives he and Garry the charmed life they always dreamed of, I was really hoping he’d crush Chet or turn into a babe magnet but hey, I just write the reviews.
Best quote: “ Gary, why are we wearing bras on our heads?”
Chet Donnelly Bill Paxton
[Aliens, Twister, Near Dark]
Paxton plays the controlling older brother so well that by the end of the film you really don’t feel sorry when Lisa zaps him and turns him into a fly eating, puss oozing monster. One of his best scenes involves when he has Wyatt, Garry and the girls in the kitchen [along with Lisa] and he’s asking them why the kitchen is blue, why there is a missile in the middle of the kitchen and then he opens the door and there are his grandparents – in a state of suspended animation – and blue. The look on his face is priceless. Paxton’s character served one purpose, to torment his brother and use him as a scapegoat whenever possible. Lisa put and end to that rather quickly after he offered to “butter her muffin”.
Best quote: “How 'bout a nice greasy pork sandwich served in a dirty ashtray?”
Lisa Kelly LeBrock
[Hard To Kill, The Woman in Red]
The computer created mega woman of every teen-age boys dreams, Lisa exists only to please Garry and Wyatt. Even though they created her and control her to a certain degree, she takes matters in to her own hands to get the boys to come out of their shells even if they wear their clothes in the shower. She shocks the hell out of Garry’s parents, taken them to a seedy bar, gives them sports cars and throws one of the most entertaining parties – complete with biker thugs, a missile and a flying piano. LeBrock doesn’t have a complicate role and to be brutally honest – she is there for the visual effect and she does a damn good job of looking hot as hell. When compared to today’s standards of what a “hot” chick is [large breasts] she might not garnish as many hottie points but I doubt that anyone else could have played the role as convincingly.
Best quote: “What would you little maniacs like to do first?”
The love interests of Garry and Wyatt are Deb [Suzanne Snyder] and Hilly [Judie Aronson], amazingly enough they want nothing to do with the two social outcasts until they are tossed into the spotlight by Lisa and her bewitching ways. They do a good job as eye candy but it’s rated PG-13 so anything that may have happened is left to your imagination. There is one scene where you see the clothes flying off a girl as the contents of the house are being sucked out the chimney but, to the best of my recollection, I think you see about a nanosecond of bare breast … but that might just be my imagination. If I popped the tape in right now to check that little factoid I’d get sucked into watching it from start to finish.
The Bottom Line
If you were in to any of the teen flicks in the late 80’s then consider Weird Science a staple. It’s far fetched but funny, the plot is pretty predictable and the special effects are cheesy but it’s the type of film that you can certainly watch over and over again and still get a ton of laughs out of it. There’s a minimal amount of swearing in it and almost no nudity, some sexually suggestive scenes [when Lisa is first created] but compared to today’s films, this one is so squeaky clean that it when it’s shown on regular television not much is edited out of it.
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