Mi proyecto científico

I noticed a few bad reviews. One person said it was the Citizen Kane of bad movies. Seriously? This is hardly the worst movie, but I guess that might all depend on how life was affecting that person at that time. I mean their girlfriend or boyfriend might have left them and this movie might have been playing on the television as all that went down. SO I can understand that it may have been guilt by association. If this is a bad movie then I know what a guilty pleasure is now. I thought it had a nice charm to it overall. It was a decent plot. The leads all had personality. I thought the cute romance had some chemistry. Matter of fact, although its not the Breakfast Club of teen interpretation, I knew all these kids in high school. There was a Fisher Stevens character and I knew a Harlan type as well. It has a humor that is winning to it, especially the Fisher Stevens character. Of course it always comes down to a matter of taste. But when I saw this movie went down as one of the worst movies I had to champion it. To me whoever made it seemed to have a bit of love in their heart for it. Its a personal favorite for that reason. I must have seen this movie three times in the theatre. Granted its not the Godfather, or Close Encounters, or 2001 caliber. But the movie is well made with great special effects for the time. Its on youtube free. GIve it a chance if you don't have high expectations, or even if you do. With so much respect, the person who said this was the Citizen Kane of bad movies needs to see more movies. Gotta say, loved it. This movie has a small following. I hate to see myself as a follower, but just watched it recently and it holds up great. I hated the 80s. It may be nostalgia, but this is a fond memory from that time. Sure its mindless. But it sure is fun.

Starring the late great Dennis Hopper and underrated talent Fisher Stevens this is an odd little 80's sci-fi comedy that I'd never heard of. I can only assume this is because it didn't do all too well.

It tells the story of a car nut who finds a mysterious device while searching for something to use for his science project. The device distorts time and space building to an epic climax featuring dinosaurs, laser firing space men and everything in between.

On paper this should have been outstanding but for whatever reason it fell flat.

The sci-fi side looks pretty terrible and does not even remotely meet its potential while the comedy element is so lacking it's hard to believe they even call it that. In fact the only comedy comes from Fisher Stevens who is one of the movies saving graces.

Those into 80's cheese might appreciate this but don't go expecting Weird Science (1985) because it isn't even close.

The Good:

Solid script

Fisher Stevens

The Bad:

Doesn't flow very well

Isn't funny

Things I Learnt From This Movie:

You can wear sunglasses during mug shots

I just saw this on DVD for the first time in probably about 15 years. I used to love it when I was about 7 years old. I was amazed how many lines I remembered. Though often I didn't remember them from this movie. I just remembered them as lines my 2 brothers and I worked into our vernacular growing up. Especially the timeless "Make my semesta!!!" Besides all the great one liners, there were guns, explosions, gladiators, monster's from the future and past, a TREX, dynamite, and lot's of cool electricity effects. Everything a 7 year old boy would love. So I highly recommend it for a boy child. But for everyone else, only if you are bored or really like seeing cheesy 80's flicks.

'My Science Project' was a fun idea. John Stockwell is Michael Harlan, a slacker car jock who's got to come up with a real science project if he wants to pass his class. Digging around in some condemned military land, he finds a wierd gadget that causes major van damage. In the course of trying to figure out the extent of power of the little electrifying gizmo, his hippie science teacher, Bob (Dennis Hopper) is sucked into a time warp. But, he doesn't leave before figuring out that the thing that Mike Harlan found opens up all time warps. So, now Harlan and his friend Vince Latello (Fisher Stevens), Ellie Sawyer (Danielle von Zerneck), and a hopeless nerd named Sherman (Raphael Sbarge) have to fix the time dimensions while getting chased by strange guys from the government and dinosaurs and midevil warriors, and everything else. Mike's got a real mess on his hands.

It's probably one of the few films I really liked John Stockwell in because he didn't have to try to hard to be Mike Harlan, slacker car jockey who doesn't say much and likes to be left alone. Although, the better character in the movie was his big shot friend, Vince. But that's a typical kind of character for Fisher Stevens, who's always good in comedy.

And yes, as one viewer already mentioned, it follows a long line of 80s science fiction comedy or 80s sci-fi teen movies like 'Real Genius' (teens build a super laser); 'Back to the Future' (teen travels to past, present, and future via a Delorean time machine); Weird Science (teens make a girl on their computer); 'Peggy Sue Got Married' (adult goes back in time to relive being a teen); 'Mac and Me' (teens find friendly alien family), and so forth.

I like the idea for 'My Science Project,' but having all of the people and creatures from different time periods land in the present-day lacked a lot of fun that could've been achieved from a movie (perhaps a longer movie) like this. The finale battle scenes against the enemies from different time dimensions all took place in the school. So, the setting was static, and somewhat boring after awhile. Probably, too, because it was done so cheaply. A lot more could've been done if they were allowed to expand the setting by allowing Harlan and his friends to travel through time, too.

Nonetheless, if this be your cup of tea, then cheers!

Sadly, My Science Project was a very big risk that seems to transcend it's teen film genre. While people will cite better time-travel themed movies like Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure and Back o the Future, this one will certainly stand on its own due to the Twilight Zone quality of it. Great visuals, great idea, and the story didn't try to insult it's audience by making the story painfully obvious.

I especially liked Mike's character, a kind of good guy that was a diamond stuck in the pond scum. Unfortunately, his entire performance was stepped on by Fisher Steven's over the top performance. Dennis Hopper made a perfect cameo performance that really fit his bi-polar acting style.

While this film won't be considered one of the elite teen films of the 1980s like The Breakfast Club, Bill and Ted, River's Edge, Say Anything, Sixteen Candles and Ferris Bueller's Day Off, but it will fit comfortably with the silver medalists of that area, much like Can't Buy Me love, The Wraith and Three O'Clock High. A great film for teen movie aficionados.