Summer Blockbusters of 1985: Real Genius

Howdy folks and welcome back to Day 5 of The Blockbuster Movies of 1985. This time around we enjoy a fun romp of parodying college life, being brilliant and the need to partying and cutting loose. With actors of such caliber as : William Atherton, Val Kilmer, Jon Gries and Patti D' Arbanville. This is Real Genius.

Miss, can you help me find my dog? I think he went to the hotel across the way.

The CIA are off in a secluded room in a secluded location view a VHS presentation of a top-secret project called Crossbow. A space shuttle has a laser weapon mounted via computer program allowing the weapon to flash fry a man on the ground with pinpoint accuracy. The problem still can't put out the power requirements for a steady laser stream. Professor Jerry Hathaway (William Atherton of Ghostbusters, Die Hard, Die Hard 2, The Last Samurai and Defiance) has taken the Pentagon's money to rebuild his house and is on the hook for this power issue to be corrected. Prodigy Mitch Taylor (Gabriel Jarret of Real Genius, Apollo 13, Poseidon and Frost/Nixon) joins this prestigous Pacific Technical University and will room with physics god Chris Knight (Val Kilmer of Top Secret, Top Gun, Willow, The Doors, Thunderheart, True Romance, Tombstone, Heat and Red Planet) who turns out to be a slacker who enjoys parties, pranks involving cryogenics. Hathaway foists off the laser project to his intern students and expect great things from them.

Safety, schmaftey. Let's burn something!

Under pressure to deliver the upgrades Hathaway gives Knight and Taylor a time table that is ridiculous and Knight rebels by having a indoor pool party with a bit of construction and Taylor meets Jordan (Michelle Meyrink of The Outsiders, Valley Girl, Revenge of the Nerds, Real Genius and Permanent Record) a hyperactive brilliant girl and lastly a mysterious guy Lazlo Hollyfield (Jon Gries of Joysticks, Running Scared, The Monster Squad, Martin, Beverly Hills, 90210, Get Shorty and The Maze) living in Mitch's closet.

The kids work together and crack the laser power problem and at the height of celebration only to be pointed out by Lazlo this is clearly a weapon of mass destruction. Our teen gang must work diligently to repair this problem and stop this weapon to going into production. Can the kids get this test to go belly up? Will Hathaway be forced to fork over his advancement?

Oh boy, time of facts that only film freaks enjoy!

The movie was inspired very loosely on actual events at California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, California. The "liquid nitrogen" coins have baffled viewers for many years and was actually in the first draft of the script points out that Chris preemptively made the frozen column hidden in the thermos. The scene in the trailer showing Chris floating on his lounge chair to several balloons is not shown in the VHS release and I am not certain if the DVD or Blu-Ray editions ever re-attach that scene.

Ugh pink on a blonde? Tsk!