Une créature de rêve

80s! I'm living in the 80s! If you love 80s teen movies, then Weird Science ought to be in your catalogue. It is one of director John Hughes most memorable, and one of the 80s most original.

Written in two days, this is a teen science fiction film, the story of two teenage loners, Wyatt (the always grimacing Ilan-Mitchell Smith) and Gary (Anthony Michael Hall before he went deadpan) and their weird way of discovering girls. A variation on Frankenstein, the teenagers create a beautiful woman (the super cool Kelly LeBrock) using their computer and some clever hacking skills (of course, it's exaggerated). Their creation is Lisa, the chic English accent woman who brings a little life to the subtle Illinois suburb. As the antithesis of both Wyatt and Gary's personalities, she's going to show these boys a little adventure, get them to loosen up, and for crying out loud, gain some self-esteem.

Because Lisa is a lady with some supernatural power like freezing grandparents in time, erasing the memory of a bad first impression with Gary's parents, turning Wyatt's obnoxious military school brother Chet (Bill Paxton in his funniest, most arrogant role yet) into a giant pus maggot, or even having a gang of mutant bikers storming a house party. And Lisa's greatest gift to the boys: showing them true love by helping them along to meet the two girls they've been after all along, their high school classmates, Deb and Hilly, who are unfortunately hung up on the dweeb bullies, Max (Robert Russler) and Ian (Robert Downey, Jr.). So essentially, it deals with many aspects of teen angst (but more like just teen self-esteem or self-consciousness issues) within one story. Parents, class status (done subtly here as opposed to Some Kind of Wonderful or Pretty in Pink), relationships, etc. It works well, and is done quite humorously.

One of my favorite scenes is when the trio (Lisa, Gary, and Wyatt) go to the night club looking pretty out of place (they're not only the only white people there, but probably the only ones under thirty). Once Anthony Michael Hall's character, Gary, gets drunk and starts with his slang, it's hilarious. Reminds me a little of Adventures in Babysitting when the gang drops in on the club and they're not allowed to leave until they sing. So eventually, they loosen up and have a little fun.

It's a wonderful movie with a classic John Hughes comic touch (says the mutant biker to Gary and Wyatt after they threaten to kill them if they don't leave, "Please don't tell anyone about this. I'd hate to lose my teaching job.). Plus, it's got a great soundtrack, featuring Killing Joke, Lords of the New Church, and Oingo Boingo doing the title song. The music video for it was fantastic, and not only features clips from the movie, but Kelly LeBrock herself in Oingo Boingo's own rendition of creating the woman via technology.

Although not one of John Hughes' best (I think Sixteen Candles is still his greatest), it is certainly one of his most memorable and one that I will love no matter how old I get. So have yourself a lazy Saturday, pop in the movie, and enjoy.

Weird Science was a lot of fun, a perfect light and frothy 1980s movie.

Although, having said that it is quietly subversive and more than a little risqué, it is unlike the other Directorial works of John Hughes.

In a nutshell, whilst two high-school nerds are watching a colourised version of Frankenstein, they hit upon the idea of using a computer program to literally create the perfect woman, who promptly turns their lives upside-down.

In a scene that echoed the earlier WarGames and perhaps foreshadowed AI our nerds tap into non-specific massive computing power via a dial-up modem!?

In any case, that perfect woman turns out to be Kelly LeBrock at the absolute peak of her powers, and not only does she do a bang-up job as Lisa she also seems to be having an absolute ball.

Aside from the year before's The Woman in Red the rest of Kelly's career was rather a non-event, which on this showing seems a shame.

The film also contains very early appearances for Bill Paxton and a pre-Junior Robert Downey.

We also have Vernon Wells relatively fresh from his rather similar role in Mad Max II, who then went on to appear in the following years Commando up against Arnie.

Last of note is Michael Berryman, best known for playing Pluto in the iconic The Hills Have Eyes.

These latter two actors have gone on to have prolific careers racking up more than 100 movie appearances each.

Of the two lead actors, only Anthony Michael Hall's's career amounted to much, his co-star Ilan Mitchell-Smith went on to do very little else.

I mention all this to illustrate just how varied and fickle this business we call show can be.

As Lisa's classic first line goes, and these are words to live by: "so, what would you little maniacs like to do first"?

weird science is another good movie from the master of teen movies john hughes. this movie is maybe the funniest of all teen movies made by john hughes. but it's not the most entertaining. that award goes to the breakfast club. weird science is entertaining. john hughes goes a bit too far toward the end,but it's still unforgettable. weird science in my opinion comes from the greatest decade of all time.the 80's! i give weird science *** out of ****

I first watched this in 1985 on VHS as a 13 year old, so a lot of the sentiment was lost on me then. Having watching it again as a 50 year old after finding it on the BBC iplayer I decided to give it another go. I have to say that it was way more enjoyable now. It really brought back the feeling of being an awkward teenager and the fantasy of being guided through adolescence. There were a few quirks with the story but this can be overlooked by how the sensitivity of being an awkward teenager can be is portrayed. I do think the bones of the story could be updated for a remake that could possibly make more sense but still be a fun movie.

Weird science is a movie that takes you back to a time where more could be shown. It is a movie that really shows how the 80s was in its prime. The characters are litteraly high schoolers and it's perfect. It's about 2 nerdy teens that create a woman aka Lisa (Kelly Lebrock). And that is the plot and all you need to know. It's funny, Ruanchy, sexist, and it's perfect that way.