PhilPaine.com

I’m fond of this goofy 1980s com­edy about two whiz-kids who are scammed into work­ing on a mil­i­tary laser project by a mega­lo­ma­niac sci­en­tist. William Ather­ton played his patent­ed “ass­hole” vil­lain. Val Kilmer, who played the extro­verted stu­dent, went on to a high-pro­file film career. Gabriel Jar­ret, who played the intro­vert, did not (it was per­haps an omen that his name was mis­spelled in the cred­its). His role was writ­ten with a degree of psy­cho­log­i­cal real­ism, despite the absurd com­edy plot. For once, the love inter­est isn’t a bomb­shell babe who is “plain” because she wears glass­es and ties her hair back, then sud­denly whips them off and unties her hair in the final scene. Instead, she is rep­re­sented as extreme­ly geeky. Boy geek falls for girl geek in a rel­a­tively cred­i­ble way. For that alone, the film deserves some kind of award.