'Weird Science' - Movie Review

John Hughes was responsible for a lot of teen comedies in the 1980s - including the very famous "The Breakfast Club" and a favourite of mine, "Some Kind of Wonderful." I found "Weird Science" - which he also directed and wrote - on Netflix, and realized I hadn't watched it. I knew it was going to be even more cheesy than Hughes' other output, but I was bored ...

Gary (Anthony Michael Hall) and Wyatt (Ilan Mitchell-Smith) are bullied, geeky teens in high school (this is a 1980s John Hughes movie, this is how they play). Using a personal computer and an immense amount of borrowed computing power, they create a woman called Lisa (Kelly LeBrock - an American actress whose British accent is genuine) who is imbued with both physical perfection (in the height of Eighties style!), genius, and magical abilities.

The two young men soon find they're more interested in a couple young women from their school than their creation. Why is never convincingly explained. She in her turn causes chaos in their lives - to force them to be better people. Their conversion is fast and unconvincing. The most amusing appearance is Vernon Wells as a nasty biker - he was the guy who played Wez in Road Warrior (which came out four years before this).

The movie is kind of (in)famous - for its name, for the title song by Oingo Boingo, and for creating a "perfect" woman - bizarrely embodying the objectification of women. It's mildly interesting as a relic, but it's not funny ...