Movie review: ‘Weird Science’

FloridaGator80

John Hughes was a film icon across the 1980s, but he was actually a much more prolific writer (46 credits) compared to his directing resume (eight credits). Still, for those eight films he was both writer and director … and it shows in the complete quality of each (well, I’m not a big fan of his last – “Curly Sue”). “Weird Science” isn’t his best, but it’s still solid and much better than every Hughes copycat. Further, he was the original author of National Lampoon stories that became the “Vacation” franchise on the big screen! You know him and you must enjoy his work, or you wouldn’t still be reading right now.

‘Weird Science’
(1985; 94 minutes; rated PG-13; directed by John Hughes and starring Anthony Michael Hall, Ilan Mitchell-Smith and Kelly LeBrock)

THEIR DREAM GIRL CAME FROM A COMPUTER

(NOTE: I expanded this review with a bit of additional opinion, some extra trivia and the updating of some links on Aug. 20, 2016. I again expanded this review on Nov. 9, 2019. I once again expanded the review on Jan. 26, 2023.)

John Hughes certainly had an ear for the voice of teens in the 1980s. With the “Brat Pack” breaking out with his “The Breakfast Club” and also in “St. Elmo’s Fire” in 1985, he became the force behind the youth market and he just wasn’t peaking … he was keeping it at a peak. His big kick off, of course, was his “Sixteen Candles” from the year before with some of the “Pack” to be.

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Hughes also came out with “Weird Science” in 1985 (“The Breakfast Club” came debuted in the U.S. on Feb. 15 while “Weird Science” had its premiere on Aug. 2) and while just one member of the “Brat Pack” was on hand for the film, it has the clear teen vision of Hughes, tells a creative story and teens and adults alike could identify with something in the film.

As far as Hughes’ eight directorial efforts go, I personally like “Uncle Buck” the best (click here for my review). His use of the ensemble casts in his “Brat Pack” films is great, but John Candy is just too good as “Buck Russell.”

In “Weird Science,” two friends, “Brat Packer” Anthony Michael Hall as “Gary Wallace” and Ilan Mitchell-Smith as “Wyatt Donnelly,” are lonely geeks who would like girlfriends (or even just friends). They’re the butt of jokes for a couple of the “cool guys” at school, but, naturally, have their eyes on the other guys’ girlfriends. The young ladies aren’t really that smitten by the two loudmouth jerks as you’ll quickly notice.

Through a strange (“weird?”) inspiration from watching a classic “Frankenstein” monster flick, the boys use a computer and witchcraft to create the perfect woman: Kelly LeBrock, who is ultimately named “Lisa” after one of the boys’ past girl fixations. LeBrock then leads them on a coming-of-age journey from a bar filled with a minority clientele to being party guys at “Wyatt’s” house to a final confrontation with Mitchell-Smith’s brother.

Here’s a look at some of the primary cast:

  • Hall continued his geek-blunders-through-life acting in this one and continued to do a good job with it. He’s earnest, hyper and funny as the sparkplug of the duo. Hall was also in “The Breakfast Club” and “Sixteen Candles” and in his career has numerous TV movies and series (including “Pirates of Silicon Valley” where he played Bill Gates and most recently “Psych”) and movies including “National Lampoon’s Vacation” where he was “Rusty Griswold” and on the other end of the scale with dreck such as “Johnny Be Good” with Robert Downey Jr. (click here for my review of that football stinker) and “Freddy Got Fingered.”
  • Mitchell-Smith did a good job as the shy, even-tempered, play-it-safe “Wyatt” and he accomplished it without trying to step in front of Hall. He left acting after only 10 credits in 1991, including the film “The Chocolate War.” Mitchell-Smith has since pursued a career in academia and is a college professor in Texas, according to IMDb.com. However, he returned to the world of entertainment by voicing on a TV episode in 2015 and in 2017 played “Mr. Connelly” in the “Weird Science” episode on TV’s “The Goldbergs.”
  • LeBrock brings more than just her sensational looks to the screen. She all-too-easily plays the coolest of the cool while managing to keep the sexuality in the PG-13 range (although the shower scene at the beginning could have been more than a close call to an R). LeBrock, whom we’ll forgive for marrying Steven Segal, clearly has fun here and was also in “Hard to Kill,” “The Woman in Red” with Gene Wilder and “Wrongfully Accused” in a career where she’s limited herself to 16 credits.
  • The versatile and talented Bill Paxton plays “Chet Donnelly,” who is Mitchell-Smith’s abusive brother. The four-time Golden Globe nominee (not for this one) is pitch-perfect as the blustering, overbearing tough-guy who extorts money from his younger brother by force or threatening to squeal to their parents about indiscretions by Mitchell-Smith. Paxton would extend his great work as a jerk who turns into a whimpering mess as a soldier in “Aliens” (click here for my review) the next year. He’s also been in “Apollo 13,” “Twister,” “True Lies” (click here for my review) and the little-remembered but excellent vampire film “Near Dark” (click here for my review). You might also remember him in the HBO series “Big Love” and he had a small part in “Streets of Fire” (click here for my review). Paxton unfortunately died at 61 in 2017 following heart surgery.
  • The lead characters’ tormentors, “Ian” and “Max” played by Robert Downey (no “Jr.” in the credits for this one from 1985) and Robert Rusler respectively, finally come over to the boys’ side and try to create another woman but only produce a Pershing nuclear-tipped missile. Downey has been in a number of critically acclaimed roles including “Chaplin,” “Less than Zero” and “Tropic Thunder” (really? “Tropic Thunder?”). He is a key component in the “Iron Man” franchise and was in “Natural Born Killers.” Rusler, whose first movie credit is this one, has been in “Shag: The Movie” and “A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge.”
  • The least subtle supporting actor is Vernon Wells, who plays biker leader “Lord General.” Wells’ costume in the film (right down to Mohawk and face paint) is exactly the same as the character “Wez” he played in “Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior.” In fact, earlier in the film Downey refers to Rusler as “Mad Max.”
  • The most interesting supporting roles are Hall’s parents, played by Britt Leach as “Al Wallace” and Barbara Lang as “Lucy Wallace.” Lang does a great job being horrified by LeBrock’s candid assessment of Hall and his erotic fantasies but it is Leach who hits the homerun when he cannot remember his own son after LeBrock casts a forgetful spell over him so Hall won’t get into trouble. Lang had only two other roles in her career (both on TV, including one on “Charlie’s Angels”) while Leach was more prolific with 71, including “The Great Outdoors” and “Baby Boom.”
  • There’s much too little screen time for Suzanne Snyder and Judie Aronson, who play the boys’ ultimate girlfriends “Deb” and “Hilly.” Both do a competent job (I’d say Aronson does just a little bit better because she has a bit more to work with), but their lack of screen time didn’t make this one a career booster for either. Snyder was also in the underratedly endearing “Fools Rush In,” while Aronson was in “Hannibal.”

The best scene in the film is early on when LeBrock takes the boys to a bar with mostly black patrons for a little fun. Hall is especially good as he asks a bunch of hard-drinking adults if they’re doing OK with their parents. The bar patrons have small parts, but they do a good job, especially …

“Weird Science” was the 38th ranked film at the box office in 1985 with $23.8 million at domestic theaters ($38.9 million worldwide), according to Box Office Mojo. “The Breakfast Club” was 16th with $45.8 million (oddly, it didn’t earn as much as the much worse comedy “European Vacation” at 14th with $49.3 million). “St. Elmo’s Fire” was 23rd at $37.8 million. The No. 1 film in the U.S. that year was “Back to the Future” with $210.6 million. Here are the films from 1985 that I’ve reviewed for my blog:

Other cast and film notes (via IMDb.com):

  • Paxton said he got the “greasy pork sandwich” line from his father, who used to say that to him while he was hung over.
  • During a bathroom scene, there is a Playboy magazine issue that featured LeBrock.
  • Hughes died in 2009 at the age of 59 of a heart attack in New York City. He reportedly wrote “Weird Science” in two days.
  • Directly from IMDb.com: “Kelly LeBrock‘s character name was inspired by Apple Computer’s first GUI computer, the Apple Lisa.”
  • Hall makes a reference in the film to a girlfriend in Canada and his character in “The Breakfast Club” also makes reference to an imaginary girlfriend in Canada.
  • The jacket worn by LeBrock was once sold at auction for $25,000.
  • LeBrock first turned down her part: She said she was vacationing in France and having “too much fun” riding horses on the beach.
  • Finally and directly from IMDb.com: “The piano girl (October 1982 Playboy Centerfold Kym Malin) actually performed her own stunts. This included the use of a scaffold when hoisted up where the chimney is a makeshift vacuum where her clothes were ripped off and a crane when hoisted in the air where the piano girl lands in the swimming pool half naked (in real life her Playboy centerfold pictorial used a swimming pool in the background).”

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