Real Genius

Coolidge has gotten onto something here, and the pity is that the story she's stuck with never gets her any deeper into it.

The humor is relentlessly cruel, smug, and disconnected from any sense of how human beings might behave in similar situations.

What lifts the production above the run-of-the-mill is swift direction by Martha Coolidge, who has a firm grasp over the manic material.

It does make you wonder if the drive of the US education system is ultimately to develop better weapons of mass-destruction, though Coolidge's movie is too hazily good-natured to capitalise on the tougher aspects of the material.

What the film needs, instead of these familiar teen-movie trappings, is a cleverness and eccentricity to match that of its characters. For the most part, these are qualities that it lacks.

Real Genius contains many pleasures, but one of the best is its conviction that the American campus contains life as we know it.

The mid-’80s were big on teen-oriented sci-coms (scientific comedies), so you may have overlooked this gem with a great early performance by Val Kilmer.

Not only does the film hold up fairly well, but the deeper aspects of the narrative become more obvious some 37 years since its release.

Let’s face it, how can you go wrong with “Smart people on ice!” ?

...a mostly watchable yet lamentably erratic piece of work...