Real Genius

A comedy set at a technical university. Mitch is fifteen and has been admitted to university. He is exceptional at physics and nobody speaks to him as an equal. He is given a room-mate. Chris is in his final year; the cleverest student in the place and he never studies. Chris amuses himself all day. He floods the corridor with ice, turns the laboratory into a playground, and half attends his classes. Professor Hathaway is running a project. He has his students build a laser and tells them it is a piece of research. Mitch and Chris work on it. They labour for months and finally make it work. Then they find out. The laser is not for research; it was ordered by the military and designed to hit a single person from the air. From there the film becomes a story of revenge. The students decide to teach the professor a lesson. What the narrative is interested in is not science but who you work for: its question is whom a piece of work belongs to and who is responsible for its result. Chris's line is the emotional axis. He used to be like Mitch and decided to enjoy himself after realising he was burning out. There is also someone living in a cupboard. Lazlo was a student at the same school years ago and now lives in the tunnels under the dormitory; he is the film's strangest and best idea. The finale fills a house with popcorn. The scene was done entirely with practical effects and is counted among the most discussed comedy endings of its period. The tone is light but the argument is serious. The narrative states its view of weapons research plainly. Val Kilmer, Gabriel Jarret, Michelle Meyrink and William Atherton are in the cast. Martha Coolidge directed. Who it is for: anyone who likes 1980s campus comedy. Who it is not for: anyone looking for realism; the science is entirely invented and some supporting characters are types.