“From my heart and from my hand, why don’t people understand?”
John Hughes wrote and directed the teen science fiction comedy Weird Science. Despite being a very successful film, it is rarely mentioned in conversations about some of Hughes’ most successful films such as Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club, Home Alone, and Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. I can actually understand this, as Weird Science isn’t nearly as iconic as those films, but it definitely deserves a little bit of attention.
The film stars Anthony Michael Hall and Ilan Mitchell-Smith as Gary and Wyatt, two high school losers who decide to create a virtual woman to interact with in order to become noticed by girls in the real world. Instead of creating a virtual woman, however, the duo manage to conjure up Lisa (Kelly Lebrock), a very real, very beautiful, and apparently very magical dream woman. Lisa takes the boys to a bar, throws a huge party at their home, and does her best to make the boys become confident enough to approach girls on their own and find love. The results are chaotic and absurd. A nuclear missile emerges from Wyatt’s bedroom, a biker gang invades his home, his brother is transformed into a pile of poop, and more insane things occur. It’s a wild film that tosses any and all actual science out of the window.
Mitchell-Smith and Hall are hilarious as the duo of Wyatt and Gary. Lebrock is simply stunning as Lisa. She’s also the funniest cast member in my opinion. Bill Paxton co-stars as Chet, Wyatt’s older, meaner, and pompous brother. Robert Downey, Jr. and Robert Rusler appear as Ian and Max, two bullies who terrorize Wyatt and Gary throughout the film and force them to create another dream woman just for them. Suzanne Snyder and Judie Aronson star as Deb and Hilly. The are Ian and Max’s girlfriends but they hate the way that the duo torture Wyatt and Gary. Wyatt and Gary pursue relationships with them in the film.
The film also features science fiction and horror regulars Vernon Wells and Michael Berryman as members of the biker gang that infiltrate the party at Wyatt’s house. Kim Malin, Playboy Playmate of the Month in May, 1982, also has a brief but very revealing role in the film as a young woman playing the piano during Wyatt’s party who has her clothes sucked off of her body and is then unceremoniously tossed out of the house and into a pool via the chimney. Malin performed her own stunts in the film.
The film is completely bonkers and panders to the lowest common denominator with its sophomoric humor. It was ripped apart by contemporary critics who felt that it was written for fourteen year-old boys. I don’t disagree with them on the lowbrow humor, but the film is much better than they say in my opinion. Yes, there are moments such as the previously mentioned young lady that gets her clothes ripped off and Gary and Wyatt taking a shower in their underwear with a very naked Lisa (although no nudity is shown in that particular scene), but there are also hilarious moments involving Gary and Wyatt getting drunk at a bar and talking about their “love” lives and Chet simply being Chet.
The film definitely isn’t one of Hughes’ best movies but it is worth a look. Heck, it spawned a reasonably successful TV series in the 1990’s that starred Vanessa Angel, so someone found it worthy of their attention. Many of the film’s stars would go on to very successful careers such as Downey, Jr. and Paxton. Lebrock was already a well known model who previously starred in The Woman In Red (1984) and her career would continue to be successful well into the 1990’s. Anthony Michael Hall was already very popular thanks to his appearances in Sixteen Candles and The Breakfast Club, but his star would fade not long after Weird Science. He would spend the late 80’s and all of the 90’s in excellent supporting roles and would rise to fame once again as the star of the television series based upon the film The Dead Zone in the early 2000’s.
Also of note is the film’s theme song, Weird Science, performed by Oingo Boingo and written by that band’s frontman (and future film composer for a ton of successful Tim Burton films), Danny Elfman.
Yes, Weird Science is a completely insane sophomoric film but it works. The science doesn’t add up, Lisa is apparently gifted with unlimited knowledge and magical powers, and the boys are placed in completely unbelievable situations but the movie is funny and worth a look.
Thanks for revisiting this oft forgotten film from John Hughes. I hope that you enjoyed my review. Let me know what you love or hate about this film in the comments section!
Ken's Alternate Universe! 