The next movie I watched for John Hughes week in #Johnuary is Weird Science. This is one that I have seen several times over the years although I probably hadn’t seen it for about 15 years. I had very good memories of it so I was looking forward to watching it again.
This one is written and directed by John Hughes. Here are my real time thoughts whilst watching it.
- It’s a cool title sequence with the Weird Science theme song and the lightning effect on the names. Possibly the ‘fanciest’ title sequence of John Hughes’ films
- Bill Paxton really is great as Chet in this movie
- I had totally forgotten that ‘Robert Downey’ (no Jr) is in the film too
- Hughes goes extremely quickly into the concept of making a girl. We don’t get much time to get to know the two male leads at all. I wonder if more stuff was shot and then just dropped in the final cut as it was running long
- The score sounds a lot like Ghostbusters in places
- “Anything bigger than a handful and you’re risking a sprained tongue”. Classic line
- The CG bits are very Lawnmower Man. I like that.
- They scan in a photo of Einstein and it ‘assimilates his brain’? That’s a pretty clever computer he’s got there
- Nice appearance of Dave Lee Roth on the TV!
- That first shot of Kelly LeBrock is just iconic.
- Of course the actor who plays the caretaker in The Breakfast Club, John Kapelos, makes an appearance again. I also spotted Steve James from American Ninja in an uncredited and non-speaking role!
- Both the boys break the fourth wall again. Hughes does love doing that
- This film really is every adolescent boy’s wet dream. I certainly remember thinking that back when I first saw this when I was an adolescent boy
- There are lots of little moments that are quite memorable and iconic and that I totally forgot were from this movie. Just small things like Robert Downey Jr and his mate doing the silly dance in the background while their girlfriends aren’t watching, Bill Paxton opening the door with the back of his foot, Kelly LeBrock opening the house door to see about a hundred party guests etc
- This is possibly one of the best house parties on film. That’s a list I’d love to see. I’ll be googling for that later as I’m sure someone’s done it
- I love the dancing photograph when they try to make the second woman.
- Bennett from Commando! I don’t think I ever knew that was him in this movie but I totally recognised him right away this time. Vernon Wells. Also from Mad Max 2. He looks a lot scarier in this film than he did in Commando
- The slime monster Chet is hilarious. Very John Carpenter-esque
- The film does actually pose an interesting dilemma; after you create your perfect virtual girl in a computer (as you do) and then fall in love with real girls, what do you do with your virtual girl? I’d heard this film might be remade, and perhaps in today’s AI / chatbot world it could be quite relevant
- A TV series based on the show ran for 4 years and 88 episodes. I’ve never seen it though. Might check that one out.
I did really enjoy this film every time I’ve seen it in the past and I was worried I wouldn’t enjoy it as much this time. But it totally held up well and I think I probably appreciated it even more, reviewing it as part of John Hughes week. Certainly a bit of a departure from his other work, but a lot of fun nonetheless. Let’s see how highly it ranks at the end of the week.
Images from Blu-Ray.com