Weird Science

Let me just put this out there:  Weird Science is a hot mess!  Obviously, it has its good points (Bill Paxton) and has earned a vocal fan base, but as the missing link between John Hughes' The Breakfast Club and Ferris Bueller's Day Off, the movie seems like the product of a completely different director.  Its defenders use that as a rallying cry.  But the uncomfortable premise of two teenage boys creating a living sex doll on their computer is a tough tightrope to walk...and Hughes' film comes precariously close to plunging to its doom.

Gary (Anthony Michael Hall) and Wyatt (Ilan Mitchell-Smith) are a pair of horny nerds who fantasize about a life of parties, girls and popularity.  They get all that and more after they create Lisa (Kelly LeBrock), an all-powerful computer girlfriend who instructs the boys in the finer points of sex, drugs and rock n' roll.  But Gary and Wyatt's new identities are far from a perfect fit, forcing them to stand up to bullies, big brothers and interdimensional mutants before they can find out who they truly are.

 

In its defense, Weird Science does attempt to teach a few moral lessons.  But watching LeBrock make-out with a 15-year-old boy is skeezy no matter how you spin things.  Hughes' film is much more comfortable scoring laughs from its scattershot sketch comedy approach.  It's a full-speed blender of '80s hairstyles, new wave music and movie references (actor Vernon Well reprises his role as the mohawk nemesis from The Road Warrior) that never stops to catch its breath.  LeBrock adds some warmth to her intentionally two-dimensional role and Bill Paxton launches himself into cinema immortality as Chet, the big brother from hell.  From any other director it would probably get dismissed as just another insignificant juvenile fantasy.  Then again, that might be just what Hughes planned in the first place. 

 

Arrow Video's new 4K Ultra-HD Blu-ray is wall-to-wall eye candy, featuring an HDR enhanced presentation of the theatrical version and seamlessly-branched extended version.  Extras include the archival 15-minute documentary It's Alive:  Resurrecting Weird Science along with more cast and crew interviews plus a collector’s booklet and fold-out poster.

 

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