We had a bit of a disaster in our house this weekend. We had a power cut. Why would this be such a disaster you may think, with all the power off it's a perfect opportunity for family bonding -you know the sort of thing; sitting around talking or playing games with the children.
Well, it wasn't so much the fact that the power cut was a disaster - it was the fact that when it came back on it created a power surge and killed my satellite digital box!! After lengthy telephone conversations with Sky, we came to the conclusion that it could not be fixed over the telephone, and an engineer would not be able to come out until Tuesday. This left us with a terrible situation - NO SKY!!!
We had to call in drastic measures and have a look for a DVD to watch. My husband has loads of films I've not seen, but I was in the mode for something really funny to cheer me up - and this film proved to be it.
Real Genius is rated 15 and runs for 102 minutes. It was originally released in 1985 By Tristar Picture Inc. This DVD was released in 2002 by Columbia Tristar Home Entertainment. It cost £7.99.
This disc comes in a normal plastic DVD case with the title of the film and a picture of Val Kilmer on the front. Val is sat on an office desk, wearing a shirt and shorts with an 'I love toxic waste' tee shirt underneath.
The film is about a boy called Mitch Taylor (played by Gabe Jarret). Mitch is an extremely gifted fifteen year old.
He applies to go to Pacific Technical College (even though he is about five years too young.) At a Winter Science Fayre, Professor Hathaway (played by William Atherton) a teacher at the College arrives to tell Mitch he has been accepted.
Upon arrival at the College, Mitch has to share a room with Chris Knight (played by Val Kilmer).
When Mitch starts attending lectures, he is placed in charge of a group of students who are making a high powered laser.
Professor Hathaway is under pressure to have this laser finished, so he starts to resort to extreme tactics to try and make his students finish it in time.
Chris is trying to get the laser finished but Kent is determined to sabotage him in any way possible, no matter how much he has to bend the rules.
Why is Professor Hathaway so desperate to have the laser finished so quickly - is it in the interest of his students passing their exams, or does he have another, more dangerous motive.
I loved this film. It is genuinely funny, without having to resort to swearing or nudity that you tend to see in films made now. The laughs come thick and fast in this, and some of them are real blink and you miss them type of gags. This is the type of film that you would want to watch a second time because it is so funny and still pick up on the gags you missed out on the first time around.
Some of the gags that made me laugh were really so funny that I had to mention were;
At the Winter Science Fayre and experiment is being conducted on 'The effect of Alcohol on laboratory mice.' There are two identical cages, each with a mouse and a wheel in. One cage is labelled Alcohol the other Water. The mouse in the Water cage is running around happily in his wheel, while the mouse in the Alcohol cage is fast asleep - you really need to see it.
Another of the gags that stuck in my mind was an old lady asks Professor Hathaway what Einstein is really like, to which Professor Hathaway replies - 'Dead'.
There is also the time that Chris decides to cut slivers of liquid nitrogen to use as 'coins' for the coffee machine.
The ultimate revenge that Mitch, Chris and the rest of the students have on Kent and Professor Hathaway at the end of this film is absolute classic - it will have you reaching for the rewind button!!
As well as the numerous funny gags in this film, there is also the sad one, such as Kent recording an emotional telephone conversation Mitch has with his parents and then playing the recording to the entire canteen. At this point I really felt sorry for Mitch, you could feel his embarrassment.
At the beginning of this film Mitch is straight laced and just wants to spend his time studying and Chris wants to do nothing but party. Halfway through the film their roles are reversed and it comes across really well.
My favourite character in this has to be Chris. He has a wonderful carefree attitude and the jokes just roll off his tongue without any effort. I think that Val Kilmer really brings this character to life.
My least favourite character is Kent - not because he was badly acted or anything, but because the actor played him so well he just became the character that you love to hate. He's hated so much because he crawls around Professor Hathaway and constantly 'tells tales'.
The soundtrack is typical of the 80's so it is a bit out of date, even though there are songs on there you will recognise, but as it's the era of the film then they go well.
Unfortunately as with a lot of 80's films which are being released onto DVD, there are no special features. It does however include;
1) Trailers for Groundhog Day (which starred Bill Murray) and Hook (which starred Robin Williams.)
2) Subtitles - Allows you to have subtitles on during the film if hard of hearing etc.
3) Scene Selections - Allows you to pick certain points of the film to watch.
4) Audio Set Up - Lets you chose which language you want to hear the film in.
Overall this is a wonderfully funny film, plenty of gags to keep everyone entertained. You will need to watch the film twice to manage to hear and see all the gags. I had to rewind the DVD several times as my husband (who has seen this film several times) would say did you hear/see that then?
If this film was made now it would probably be rated a 12 as there is no language (or none that I remember hearing anyway) or nudity.
I would recommend this film to anyone and everyone.
![Real Genius [DVD] [1985]](http://picnicb.ciao.com/uk/78548189.jpg)
by (80%):
by (20%):
22.02.2006 14:04
good review gives a good insight to the film. Probably not my kind of film though but be sure to give it a go if i come across it.
17.02.2006 10:19
Good review - always on the hunt for new DVDs to add to my collection!
02.02.2006 12:55
Great... although now I know all the best bits I dont have to watch it!!! Lin x