Everyone of a certain age has films from their youth that they remember fondly despite having little recollection of the contents of the film. This can bring interesting outcomes when these precious teenage memories are revisited.
In some cases (Quick Change, Three Fugitives, Men at Work) you are pleased that your recollections were not too far off the mark, and the films hold up surprisingly well today.
Weird Science joins Teen Wolf and Fatal Attraction as the ‘other kind’. Films that were misremembered, where the central idea was perhaps too heavily leaned on and the remaining ideas were either too flimsy or non-existent.
In Weird Science two hopeless dweebs Wyatt and Gary decide that chasing – and being turned down by – girls is just too dang hard. So they decide to make their own. And that very night using only a few salacious pictures and an 80s computer that could only dream of growing up and becoming a fax machine, they did.
This new robot woman adopts the visage of the very well put together Kelly Le Brock, a former model with many and varied curves in appropriate locations.
But I must point out that this is not creepy, even though she’s twice their age. And a robot. And willing to do anything these teenage boys ask. Nope, not creepy. Because… Because… Because it’s magic… Or something…
Look it’s not creepy ?
The lads use their creation to impress the cool kids (one of whom is a young Robert Downey Jr), shock the olds and change their own lives. How they do that last bit I’m not so sure, given the crazy mixed messages that this film exudes. In one scene robo-girl essentially tells one of the guy’s parents to get over the fact their kid is boning a cyborg, then erases all memory of the incident. Five minutes later she is telling the same lads that they must be decent young men and find their own way.
But the poster is the premise – two guys (who could be YOU teens!) fabricate an uber-hottie, and hilarity most certainly does not ensue.
Like the computer they so effortlessly used to create, and the robot that emerged, Weird Science is an obsolete, outdated program, one that can only be misremembered into competence.
Final Rating – 5.5 / 10. Find your own way kids… Or build a robot woman… Seems quicker.
