Real Genius: The Heartbeat of 80's Fun

When I saw "Real Genius" for the first time, I thought it was so absolutely funny and it encapsulated everything great about the 80's. Chris Knight (Val Kilmer) and Mitch Taylor (Gabriel Jarret) team up to take on an evil professor who wants to build a super laser weapon for the DOD. The movie has a million hilarious one liners handled by Kilmer in his standard straight-faced delivery which makes it so funny.

The movie follows many standard 80's conventions. First, take a bunch of really smart kids each with special skills and put them in an over-privileged college. Second, make them just want to have fun and don't want to worry about their scholastic careers. Third, add in some over the top bad guy that everyone must band together to defeat with some super unrealistic plan. What do you have? A recipe for great 80's fun.

In Real Genius, Kilmer teams up with other smart kids such as Mitch, Ick, and Lazlo. Lazlo is a mad genius who took life too seriously and ended up living in the steam tunnels underneath the dormitory. Ick is another genius who makes chemistry larger than life, making snow in the dorms. To lead them all is Knight (Kilmer) who is a legend at the school and a major pain in the professor's butt and Mitch (Jarret) is his side-kick. The professor is played by William Atherton many know from "Ghostbusters".

In my opinion the quotes in this movie make it great. Here is a sample of one of my favorite quotes:

Mitch - "You know, um, something strange happened to me this morning... "

Knight - "Was it a dream where you see yourself standing in sort of sun-god robes on a pyramid with a thousand naked women screaming and throwing little pickles at you?"

Mitch - "No..."

Knight - "Why am I the only one who has that dream?"

So if you haven't seen "Real Genius" go out there and rent or buy it. It is pretty cheap now and will make you laugh hysterically. Here are some links where you can find it.

Buy "Real Genius" from Amazon
www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000065U1Q/bookstorenow49-20

Buy "Real Genius" from Toys-R-Us
www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp

Buy "Real Genius" from Buy.com
www.buy.com/retail/product.asp

Buy "Real Genius" from Best Buy
www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp

Buy "Real Genius" from Walmart
www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do