Date of Release: August 9,1985
Written And Directed by: Jonathan R. Betuel, writer of the '84 sci-fi classic The Last Starfighter and supervising producer of the TV series Freddy's Nightmares.
Starring:
John Stockwell as Michael, the pretty boy gear-head. Although his well know acting credits are limited to ‘80s supporting roles like Spider in Losin’ It (1983) and Dennis in Christine (1983), but his most recognizable role is probably the extremely stressed out fighter pilot Cougar who surrenders his wings in Top Gun (1986). Lately he’s gone behind the camera to direct films like Blue Crush (2002) and SEAL Team Six: The Raid on Osama Bin Laden (2012).
Danielle von Zerneck as Ellie, the girl that thinks she’s dating Michael.When not fawning over a gear head Danielle also portrays Ritchie Valens’ girlfriend in La Bamba (1987).
Fisher Stevens as Vince, his role includes the guido sidekick who spouts non-stop one liners and a some what comedic narrator, cause apparently this story is a bit complicated for the average film goer. Mr. Stevens is mostly known for being the other comedic stereotype in both Short Circuit films (’86and ’88) and recently as a producer for the 2009 documentary The Cove.
And - Dennis Hopper as former hippie turned high school science teacher Dr. Roberts. Mr. Hopper simply channels the photojournalist he played in Apocalypse Now and spazzes out for most of his scenes. I enjoyed him better when he was a reserved terrorist holding passengers on a bus hostage while Neo took some time out of his busy simulated fighting schedule to stop him.
MyScience Project is a Sci-fi/high school comedy story set around a group of high school students who come in contact with a alien orb or sphere that serves as either a portal or worm hole/vortex to other time-dimensions. When opened,through the powers of an electric surge, it extracts people or things from these other time-dimensions and dispatches them throughout a high school campus to wander the halls and cause havoc.
We begin our story with a little trip back in time to a secret military air base where President Eisenhower is made aware of an alien life form that had crash-landed on earth. When asked what should be done, his response is simply "Get rid of it."
Cut to present day (1985):
Ourhero, Michael is a gear head. He's obsessed with muscle cars and throughout themovie, as if it was a nervous tick, he'll remind everyone in his presence hereally wants to get back to working on his car. What drives the plot forward is Michael's need to get a passing grade in science class, and since he's spent all of his waking hours romancing his dreams of being a grease monkey he's forced to find "something" to turn in as his senior project in order to graduate. (That old gag.)
Recently Michael has been shadowed by the very needy school journalist named Ellie, who has her own deadline, to write a piece on Michael! As if anyone at that school would fucking read that shit! In order to get her story Ellie tags along with Michael as he breaks in and sifts through an airplane bone yard to, again, find"something" to turn in for his project. Kind of reminds me of the comedian Brian Regan's bit "Cup of Dirt". Check it out and you'll get what I mean.
Anyways Michael falls through the roof of a bunker and finds the alien orb that we were told about in the beginning of the film. By the way this alien orb looks like one of those plasma balls that you could find at Spencer's Gifts.I guess the bone yard doubles as the military's "get rid of it"pile.
After plugging in the alien orb to a wall socket while in shop class, Michael and his gear head sidekick Vince witness the first of many crazy things this orb can do when it comes in contact with electricity. This event opens portholes to several dimensions and later we are treated to our heroes having to face off with characters from history, right in their very own high school! I know, this movie is totally out of control!
Okay so the story is complete cheese. You can tell that this is one of those situations when two films or maybe a few films that share similarities in story content are in production at the same time, and that they tend to borrow from one another. Then when they are released, while you're watching them at the cinema your subconscious automatically critiques and compares them. Later on when you develop blogs like this one you can share these random thoughts with whoever will spend their toilet time skimming through this amateur film critic fecal matter. (Just a bit of self-deprecation).
Like the previous years sci-fi bummer Runaway, My Science Project was released just after a handful of other similar themed films that faired far better both financially and with audiences.
John Hughes kept his championship run afloat with a slightly goofy take on The Bride of Frankenstein meets virgin geeks in Weird Science (released 2 August 1985). By the way, I personally think that the scenes with pre-Aliens Corporal "Bill Paxton" Hicks are hands down the funniest parts of this movie. That guy plays a royal DICK way too well.
Not more then 5 days after Weird Science swept the cinemas, another film, nay,tribute to all geeks, weirdoes, dweebs, bookworms, eggheads, Popular Mechanics collectors and chemistry kit creeps got to live out a fantasy through the likes of Val Kilmer in the science comedy classic Real Genius. I wonder how many other kids out there saw this film and were inspired for maybe just a moment to hit the books hard and hope to one day be enrolled in a private tech school just like in the movie. Then immediately after the credits rolled those same kids would run to the fridge,grab a soda, catch a glimpse of a bright sunny day out the window and quickly abandon pursuing a career at NASA and instead practicing the art of grabbing 3 seconds of air time on the half pipe.
Some other notable sci-fi films from that year include:
Brazil
Cocoon
Enemy Mine
Lifeforce
D.A.R.Y.L.
The Quiet Earth
Morons from Outer Space
Explorers
Mad Max: Beyond Thunder Dome
The big daddy of the year and possibly/arguably one of the best films to come out of the '80s was the other time travel film from 1985 - Back to the Future. Its hard to compete with a behemoth like this one but if you're a producer looking to make a few extra bucks from the run-off of repeat viewers that Back to the Future had then why not insert some similarities into your own bare bones script. Both films protagonists are"slackers" who are far more interested in their passion projects(cars/music) then they are in school. They also have a sorcerer and apprentice relationship with a middle aged man in the field of science. There's the device that, when charged with copious amounts of electricity will open a portal that allows people or things to travel through time.
Then there is the ever-present doom scenario where if the "thing" is not turned off, or the "situation" is not corrected, then everything our protagonist has known could be affected by the theory of the grandfather paradox.
There are plenty of other similarities between the two and no doubt the producers of both films were aware of this at the time. And although only one had gone on to be a cultural phenomenon, the jury's still out on who's a better sounding bar band:Huey Lewis and the News or The Tubes...
VHZ Final Review: **Drunken late night fodder
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