Real Genius

A 1985 film about two very smart kids that do uninteresting stuff. The only reason I watched this film was, honestly, because nothing else was on TV and I felt like watching a film at the moment. Damn, it was hard for me to finish it! From time to time I would switch to MTV and see if some good music was on.

It all starts with Mitch Taylor (Gabriel Jarret), a 15 year old boy genius. His teacher wants to put him to work on his secret project, where he has other geniuses working, like Chris Knight (Val Kilmer), who Mitch calls a 'legend'. The thing is, professor Hathaway (William Atherton) has to get his project completed within a certain deadline, but his students aren't all working too hard. Chris likes to party and have fun, he's almost graduating and he doesn't care for the professor's project; he has some influence in Mitch's behaviour too.

Some of the students are jealous, and they try to humilliate the young Mitch. There are some other characters of less importance, like a girl who Mitch gets involved with, and a guy who keeps getting into Mitch and Chris' closet. Lazlo, the closet guy, at one point explains the guys who he quit working on those kind of projects, and that makes Chris and Mitch think about what they're working on. After a while, they'll come up with their own plan, the kind of plan that works only in movies.

This is supossed to be a comedy, but as one it fails to serve it's purpose. I admit the story could be interesting in the eyes of some young teenagers, but I personally didn't find it to be very good, nor entertaining. It was just fun watching Val Kilmer before he was famous, that's exactly why I wanted to shut it off after a few minutes. Not my kind of film, definitely.

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