'80s Fun: My Science Project

Mine were never that great and always made at the last minute.  Thankfully, this Film is better.  This is My Science Project, a 1985 Film usually overshadowed by stuff like Wargames or Back to the Future.  Should it be though?  While it is an '80s Film that deals with advanced technology and time-travel (sort of), it's quite different.  There's really not much even to compare- other than the time it was released.  It does its own thing, which is good.  The Plot involves some teens, alien technology and wacky hijinks.  No Iranians.  No potential incest.  None of that.  Instead, we get some weird, weird stuff.  It is the second Film I watched this Week involving a Time-Space Warp- no joke!  To find out more about this possibly-underappreciated Film, read on...

Long long ago (even before 1985), we found Alien Technology and hid it away to study.

In 1985, our Hero is a would-be Mechanic and needs to get a good grade on his Science Project or Dennis Hopper will fail him.

Don't make him go all Blue Velvet on you!

All he wants to do is be a Mechanic.  What can he do?

Of course, get help from that smart girl (who also likes him a lot).

They go to a Junkyard to find some stuff, but literally fall into a great discovery- an alien orb!

They hook it up to a battery and show it off as their Science Project.

This is a make-up, since the Orb somehow sent them forward 2 hours in time when they first activated it!

Things don't go well, leading to the Teacher being zapped away and the only solution to saving Town being to blow up the Power Lines!

Back at School, a vengeful Nerd reactivates the Device, creating all sorts of chaos.

Amongst them, we get the guys fighting the Vietcong, a Cavemen and future Thugs.  Yes, that is clearly Michael Berryman there.

In a weird connection to later Back to the Future (the Ride), they battle a T-Rex.  

In the end, they manage to save all of reality and put the orb away.

As long as nobody else randomly-finds it, we're good.  The End.

A fun little adventure that only the 1980s seemed to bring us.  It is easy to see why people think of stuff like Wargames and Back to the Future in regards to this Film- at least on the surface.  Just describing the Plot, you might think that they are very alike.  Thankfully, the Film itself is more than just that.  The Orb gives them a pretty open-ended chance to do some fun stuff.  The 3rd Act especially made the most of it, giving them that Set Piece in the School.  The Effects are generally quite good here and the 'seams' only show a few times.  Almost more importantly, they are just creatively.  The Cro-Magnon, for instance, is a nice change from just doing the more common form of Caveman.  We also get '80s regular Al Leong playing a Vietcong and the aforementioned Michael Berryman.  The Plot works pretty well and the humor holds up too.  It's not going to blow you away like Future did, but it's a solid, fun adventure Film with some nice twists.  The most dated part about it though- Phone Booths.

Next time, another Film that I've put off too long.  Will it be '60s Class or '80s Trash?  Stay tuned...