Real Genius

It's interesting to note that nearly 30 years after this, the secret technology proposed and funded by the government and developed for use by the military, would, in fact, be used for a far more sinister purpose: laser pointy cat toys.

One of my all time favorite "it's ok to be a smart geek" type movies. I liked it because it was cool to be smart but not in the tired, cliched geeks v. jocks type of way.

No real geniuses were involved in the making of this movie

Val Kilmer is the typical 80's comedy version of "cool." That is to say, he's really obnoxious. Flippant and quippy, with a painfully forced devil-may-care attitude. The film is stuffed to gills with stock characters, or at least characters who you feel like you've seen a thousand times before. There are pretty much zero laughs in the whole movie, but it's slightly entertaining once it starts picking up steam.

Kilmer is obnoxious, but the film is surprisingly watchable nonsense.

kilmer has so many good one liners and is simply so damned cool that it makes up for every folly in this title. it's a good comedy that would have hands down made the a-grade had the last twenty minutes continued on the same shenanigan laden path that it began with.

A ridiculously subjective grade, but fuck it, I like it.

Harmless, dopey fun. If 80's teen comedies are your thing, this is a decent one.

Any movie with lasers can't be completely worthless.

I loved all the stuff with the characters and the antics they pull. I couldn't have cared less about the science stuff.

Lacking in jokes for a comedy, this is an inferior version of Weird Science more or less. Funniest thing about Real Genius is Ocelot's comment about the teen lead resembling Sarah Jessica Parker.

A fun light-hearted movie that I'd seen a lot as a kid on TV but kept mixing up with Top Secret.

Real Genius is an odd film in terms of its structure. The first 2 acts set-up & complete Mitch's (Jarret) coming-of-age /fitting-in story arc, while the 3rd act concludes with a morality play introduced via a deus-ex-machina from Lazlo (Gries). There are plenty of silly jokes & hijinks throughout. Jarret is okay, but Kilmer steals the show with his party-down attitude. Prescott's aptly named Kent, however, exemplifies everything wrong with the portrayal of nerds in the film.

Enjoyable college-antics comedy gets some extra oomph from some of the neat twists in the characters and incidents (especially Kilmer’s indulging in underplayed drollery in the “Belushi role”). Meanders when it should be picking up the pace, and can’t settle on how much weight to give to Atherton’s skullduggery (the opening scene seems particularly out of place); a slide into silliness in the final act doesn’t sit well with the relatively grounded stuff that comes before. Breezy enough fun.

There are some funny moments in this 80's comedy movie about geniuses. There are also some good performances - Jon Gries was one of my favorites as well as William Atherton. I didn't grow up with this movie so it doesn't hold a special place in my heart that means that it is harder for me to not fault this movie for its missteps. It really wasn't very funny and the script was boring so it's not something that I would watch again. It also isn't terrible it's just there.

Solid thematic work about overcoming social fear despite wanting badly to be accepted forms the backdrop for a setting of high performance college students coming to realize their limitations. Accidentally deep, but mostly just another coming of age story with familiar themes.

Val Kilmer nails the role of Chris Knight in this lighthearted comedy. His performance encompassed more than just delivering lines. He used his entire body to create this free-spirited character.

professor dickless

A very 80's teen comedy, but more substantive than the rest w/ its plot about the military's appropriation of the work of scientists. While its characters aren't as well-drawn as the teens in John Hughes' films, it's light fun in a Meatballs way with Kilmer channeling a frenetic Groucho Marx as the mentor rather than Murray's disheveled slacker. The direction and acting is well above average for the genre as well w/ the lead (a Rachel Maddow twin) conveying the necessary likeability & innocence

What if the heroes of ANIMAL HOUSE were kinder, gentler, and smarter?

It'd take a real genius to identify comedy in this shit pile

Silly but makes some great jokes about academia, love William Atherton as the malicious professor.

All ego, awkward for the sake of awkward, constantly unreal. Maybe that's your thing.

Pretty dumb.

This teen comedy which I had never heard of is actually pretty decent and fits nicely into the 80s canon alongside Weird Science, Ferris B., Fast Times and the rest. The film had a few flaws - the lead was overshadowed by Val Kilmer and other characters, and there weren't enough "iconic" crazy scenes like the swimming pool auditorium. But overall the plot and structure were strong and the good guys won in a very memorable and imaginative finale. What's not to like about popcorn remodelling?!

Mitch looks exactly like Sarah Jessica Parker.

Fun, mostly for being a strange twist on otherwise conventional teen movie tropes. It's not particularly funny for a comedy, though, and overuses montages.

Shortlived victory ftl. The government probably has the schematics and will be building again within the week.

Underrated and powered by Val Kilmer

Campy and dated, it still gives a few laughs even though it seems like you have seen it a thousand times before (even if you havent).

Fairly notable because it's so strange and the story is an interesting spin on the typical teen romance story.

Just a classic 80s comedy. Val Kilmer at his best. i recently got my wife to watch this (she's only 24, and was 1 when the movie came out) and she actually enjoyed it a lot!

I hear its really cool to look down your nose at it because it is 80s twaddle, but it is probably as fun as the 80s get.

I came to this movie late in life, but Jesus Christ its so good. Sorry dudes who told me to see it and I ignored them for fucking years.

Catchy title sequence, made up of a series of technical illustrations tracing the history of weaponry from the Stone Age to the Atomic one, and backed by Ella Fitzgerald doing "You Took Advantage of Me." This and the CIA war-room sequence after it give the movie a genuine satirical edge, to be blunted before the end (but not before the classroom vignette of a tape recorder on the front desk lecturing to an assembly of other tape recorders).

Incredibly entertaining and dated 1980s Sciencey teen buddy film. I happen to love this sort of shit.

One of the great, underrated Eighties movies. Twenty-three years after its release, Real Genius continues to be able to entertain and maintain its unique sense of genius comedy that has yet to go out of style nor be copied or surpassed. Val Kilmer in one of his first movie performances demonstrates a relaxed and expanded talent to deliver on a funny and unique script. The still visually and humorous movie climax retains its own place in movie history.

A guilty pleasure. Val Kilmer is just so damn brilliant when he wants to be.

Silly Fun...not well acted at all..just silly fun

A cult classic and one of Kilmer's best. Witty, funny and smart. Everyone needs to see this movie.

at the time it came out, I would've rated this film a 90, but not being a teenager anymore, its lost some of its appeal and is a bit cheesey.

Utterly silly, but I love it.

watchable

In spite of all of the dated material in this movie, it is one of my all time favorites. I still laugh at the jokes, and I notice new things I'd never noticed before every time I watch this movie. It may be sick to admit this, but this movie motivated me to go to college.

I think Val Kilmer is a pretty cool guy. eh pops the corn and doesn't afraid of anything.

Not interesting.

Val Kilmer is classic here. A great companion piece to "Weird Science."

Barely entertaining. Val Kilmer's antics are mostly annoying and of the "LOL I'M SO WACKY" variety, and the rest of it is tired college movie cliches.