5/5 Real Genius
  by Charlotte Brummett (Bellville, Texas)
This movie is and has been a great movie ever since it first came out. And when I found it on Amazon.com I just had to get it. We watch it quite often. It has made a nice addition to our movie collection.

5/5 80's classic
  by Max Edwards (Nashville, Tennessee United States)
Here is another classic college movie from the 80's. My only complaint is that my copy is in stereo and not surround.

5/5 Underrated; a goofball comedy with "smarts"
  by Randy E. Halford (Boise, ID)
It's been years since I watched this endearingly goofy little 80's comedy about a group of misfit whiz-kids whose Professor dupes them into creating a deadly military weapon for his profit. Like "Top Secret", this is a sorely underrated film--and coincidentally, a young Val Kilmer stars in both. He plays one of the main characters, Chris Knight, a brilliant student who never takes his work too seriously & has a crazy fashion sense (including wearing fuzzy slippers & novelty antennae). Kilmer clearly has a field day here, playing a "loose cannon" who seems strongly connected with the brilliant but undisciplined/quip-filled Hawkeye Pierce of "Mash". Gabe Jarrett (who somehow dropped off the radar after this film) is equally good (and more of a straight man to Kilmer's character) as Mitch, the new whiz-kid assigned on the project. It is then Kilmer's job to introduce a little fun to the straight-laced 15-year old...before he "melts down" like former resident Lazlo (who pops mysteriously in/out of a closet).
There's a wide assortment of eccentric characters (naturally): Nerdy whiner Kent (who's sort of a comic rival here in the "Frank Burns" mold); the already mentioned former genius/recluse Lazlo; Mitch's object of affection, a girl who never sleeps & who jumps around & speed-talks like a waitress at Starbucks. Of course, lest we forget William Atherton, the "all-purpose villain of the 80's" at his snivelling best here.
Director Martha Coolidge showed real finesse with handling her story. She had enough common sense not to take things too seriously & keep it loose, while at the same time, didn't allow the story to bog down into a "big-bad-military-using-weapons-of-mass-destruction" morality play. There is a genuine sense of fun here.
This is an enjoyable comedy, and surprisingly, it hasn't really dated at all.

4/5 The rise of Kilmer
  by Ron in Western Maryland (Hagerstown, Maryland USA)
I've always liked this film. The script was good. Lotsa comedy. Really good performances from Val Kilmer, William Atherton, Jon Gries and others. Of course the soundtrack . . . who could forget Everybody Wants To Rule The World? I guess it seems tame by today's yardstick, but there was a certain chemistry that came across in the film that makes me want to go back every now and again to see how everyone is doing . . . I guess reliving the movie and enjoying the comedy again as if for the first time. I know the film isn't considered a great film, but you can't beat plain old fun . . .

5/5 Great smart comedy
  by 80's fan (Illinois)
This is a must for any Val Kilmer fan! I purchased this on VHS in the mid-80's then finally gave in to the inevitable and got the DVD.

This is a smart little comedy that shows how a kid genius can grow into a cynical but still extremely smart student that learns how to work the system in a prestigious technical institute to the chagrin of his fellow classmates and disappointment of his snobby professor. William Atherton nails his role as the professor with a God complex as does the actor who plays ultra-preppy suck-up student Kent.

Although the technical references in this movie may be a bit dated now for those hi-tech geeks out there, the movie holds up very well for what it was intended to be and the message it makes. It is also fun to see how "smart people" act when they have some free time in between classes and studying as well as what happens to one particular former burned out student (Lazlo) who became a little insane with his obsessive knowledge and lives below the school in the steam tunnels plotting his revenge on society.

Kilmer's deadpan comedy and antics alone are worth watching.