moriarty@fluke.UUCP (Jeff Meyer) (08/18/85)
After the weekend of July 4th, I am very cagey about what films I go to see.
Most of the large studios have released the good/popular stuff by then, and
the also rans begin to appear after this time. Now, this isn't all bad;
you'll run into something that was well-made but not having enough Teenage
Viewer Potential (i.e. it ain't about space people, chainsaw murderers, or
Eddie Murphy) to make it early on. But you have to hunt carefully, and
that's what I've been doing. Tonight's experiment in Big-Screen Gambling
was _Real_Genius_, a film which I had hopes for. Number Uno, both Gene and
Roger AT THE MOVIES had liked it; and two, the premise of a group of
eccentric high-achievement students and their projects and escapades had a
great deal of appeal to me (and some nostalgia (note: 'Nuff said, except
that I am not, by anyone's definition, a genius. Far from it...)).
Well, first the credit. While the two main characters, both genius physics
whizes at a fictional Tech college (one (Val Kilmer) a senior, and the other
(?) a 16-year-old advanced freshman) are reacting with one another, it is a
very pleasant film to follow. Their dorm life antics, wise-cracking
dialogue, and work on a high-powered laser are a lot of fun to watch. Also,
Kilmer's advice to his younger collegue, about the particular problems of
being very smart, was well done; the two have an excellent chemistry, and
you get to like the characters a great deal, particularly the freshman.
Also engaging is a 70's ex-student who lives in the heating tunnels (Note to
Reedies: sound familiar?), a hyper-kinetic female who juggles interests like
duckpins and becomes the freshman's love interest (also nicely, and
innocently, done), and a fellow dormie/genius who specializes in growing
huge cherries and turning hallways into ice arenas... But the
director/writer has done a very nice job here, and the two other
screenwriters provide some very good one-liners for Kilmer.
The sad part is that the last 1/4 of the film seems to flake at the edges,
so that the characters are lost in favor of one rather silly special effect,
and the effort it takes to build up to it. It almost reminded me of one of
those Disney/Kurt Russel farces that plagued the 60s and 70s. The fine
detail in each of the characterizations is drowned by a Mission
Impossible/Bill Murray prank, and while it is done better here than in most
places, it still is a let-down after the first 3/4...
In summary, a Good film overall, with a letdown ending; still, the jokes,
acting and general fun at the beginning make up for it.
"Can you hammer a 6-inch spike into a wooden
plank with your penis?"
"Uh, not right now."
"Tsk. A girl has to have some standards."
[Is this the correct wording for the quote?]
He's hard as rock, tough as nails, dense as concrete.
He's...
Moriarty, aka Jeff Meyer
John Fluke Mfg. Co., Inc.
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