“Weird Science” (1985)
All of us have strep throat this week, so there’s been more comfort TV than usual. My husband and I followed the recent viewing of 16 Candles with Weird Science, John Hughes’ teen-boy wish-fulfillment movie, in which two geeks build a dream woman. This movie could easily have been hateful. Instead, it’s merely (surprisingly) not that offensive, thanks to the geeks’ believability, Kelly LeBrock’s knowledge and power, and a lack of actual sex. Intermittently entertaining for some funny lines, and interesting to see Robert Downey Jr with a sky-high gelled coif, but eminently skippable. This is from IMDB’s trivia:
Although he wrote the screenplay, John Hughes was not overly invested in it and was adamant about not directing the film. He changed his mind when Universal offered him a deal: if said yes to directing Weird Science, they would greenlight a project Hughes cared much more deeply about AND wanted to direct: The Breakfast Club (1985). Hughes would later state that he was irritated by the time he had to take away from the latter film to work on this one.