This is going to be a somewhat shocking confession: I have not seen any of the films from John Hughes's 1980's teen comedy trilogy, Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club and Weird Science. I don't really have any reasonable explanation for why, I just never got around to watching them.
Weird Science is sort of like every geek's life goal but played out in fantasy form. Study hard in school, get good grades, get a good job, attract a woman who is looking for stability and intelligence, score. That is how the real world works, but unfortunately not how high school works. The geeks and dweebs get picked on by the cool kids and ignored by the girls, while the cool kids run the school. This is obviously hyperbole but still kind of true. It never made sense to me of course, since the nerds are the guys who end up being rich and successful while the cool kids end up in cubicles working for them.
Anyways in Weird Science, best friends Gary and Wyatt decide to skip the whole growing up part to get the girl and just make one themselves, Frankenstein style. The only problem is that after creating Lisa, they're still the same socially awkward geeks. It's all about growing pains and getting over that hump. As most of us get older, we become more mature and sure of ourselves and thankfully the girls that are worthwhile do too. Lisa wants Gary and Wyatt to be comfortable as who they truly are, two wonderful guys any girl would be lucky to have. It is a kind of cliche made for the movies type lesson, but it does have a ring of truth to it.
So the film is pretty cheesy and its target audience is obviously for boys aged 15 and younger but I enjoyed watching it for pure nostalgia, which is strange since I've never seen this movie before and I was never older than seven during the '80's. Yet, I understood the kids' fears and anxieties perfectly well and, let's be honest, who hasn't fantasized about creating their perfect woman? I'm 28 years old and I am still pretty shy and socially awkward so the film still has some relevance to me. Weird Science isn't really a good movie, in fact some parts are actually pretty bad, but its cheesiness actually works for it making a fun and light coming of age story.
Grade: B-
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