My Science Project (1985)

The Age of Commercialism

Must See Movie...

Awesome Movie

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

1985's My Science Project is a childhood favorite of mine. Despite some awesome special effects, it's mostly forgotten today.It begins in the 1950's. President Dwight D. Eisenhower is brought to an Arizona Air Force base and shown a crashed UFO. He orders the high-ranking generals, "Get rid of it!" Flashforward to modern times (a.k.a. the 1980's). Mike Harlan is a student at a high school in Carson, Arizona, known as "Motorhead Mike" to his friends because of his love of cars. He has problems. His single father is remarrying to an Avon saleswoman, he's recently had a bad breakup with his bitch girlfriend Crystal, and on top of everything else, he's going to flunk science unless his science project is, as the teacher (played by Dennis Hopper!) puts it, "dino-supreme." Mike is asked out on a date by nerdy girl Ellie Sawyer, and, to spite Crystal, he agrees, but Mike's idea of a date is to drag Ellie along to the nearby decommissioned Air Force base, now used as a junkyard. His brilliant plan is to find some random doo-dad to fix it up and pass it off as his science project. What he finds is a futuristic device which is apparently the engine or power source to the crashed UFO seen previously. It resembles a lightning globe from Spencer's Gifts.After getting the "gizmo, " as Mike's deadbeat best friend Vince Latello calls it, back to school, Mike discovers that the thing gobbles up raw energy like a cop on a donut factory (to steal a line from Ghostbusters 2). Hooking it up to a car battery causes A) the battery to drain and melt (!), and B) a Grecian vase to appear out of thin air. Consulting school nerd Sherman Reardon, Mike and Vince learn that the device is capable of creating a time warp when it has access to power.They show it to the science teacher who rather stupidly hooks it up to an electrical outlet, which results in him being zapped into the future, and, after some further complicated shenanigans, Mike, Ellie and Vince are forced to raid Mike's dad's hardware store for some dynamite, which they use to blow up an electrical tower, stopping the "gizmo" from feeding off Carson's power station. This gets them arrested. Well, Mike and Vince anyway. The cops ignore Ellie for some reason.To prove their story and spring her kinda-sorta boyfriend, Ellie returns to the school to get the machine, where she encounters Sherman the nerd. Intrigued, Sherman repeats the science teacher's mistake and plugs the device back in, only this time, with nothing stopping it (the powerlines have been fixed), it starts sucking up so much energy that soon all of Carson is blacked out. Mike and Vince use the confusion to escape custody and quickly discover their school is now the center for an ever-expanding time warp threatening to consume all of Carson, and eventually the world.Venturing within, our heroes have to find and rescue Ellie and unplug the device and stop the warp before it expands and destroys all of creation. To do so, they'll have to fight their way past a variety of grouchy individuals teleported in from other time periods, including a Roman gladiator, a caveman, Viet Cong soldiers, mutants from the future, and, in my personal favorite sequence, a giant tyrannosaurus rex.So, it's a fairly small-scale film in terms of special effects. The tyrannosaur is the movie's big setpiece, but they went all-out on him. He's gorgeous. He's (apparently) a combination of a back-projected puppet and a full-size animatronic, and he looks very realistic for 1985. In fact I'd go so far as to say that he's the best-looking dinosaur made prior to Jurassic Park.

My Science Project is a great 80s sci-fi movie about a kid in high school who sneaks into an old air force junkyard and stumbles upon an alien device discarded in a 1950s fallout shelter, and tries to turn it in as his science project. When his teacher, played by Dennis Hopper, finds a way to power the device, he zaps himself into another time dimension and from there, all hell breaks loose. Eventually, the kid and his best friend, played by Fisher Stevens, find themselves battling their way through Roman gladiators, the Viet Cong, post-apocalyptic mutants and even a Tyrannosaurus Rex in each room of their High School as they make their way toward the science hall to deactivate the device and save their town.Those who criticize the writing and dialogue miss it's depth as it is as much a movie about trust as it is about time travel.John Stockwell plays a believable high school cool kid who drives a muscle car and hangs out at auto shop. Fisher Stevens plays his hilariously bigoted sidekick buddy Vinnie from Brooklyn. Danielle von Zerneck plays Harlan's (Stockwell) geeky would-be bounce-back girlfriend after his bimbo girlfriend dumps him. Raphael Sbarge plays a hopelessly nerdy librarian that ultimately helps Harlan shut down the device. Dennis Hopper plays an unhinged ex-hippie turned science teacher who gets sent into another dimension but shows up at the end.The special effects are dated but hold well. That T-Rex looked good! Don't get me wrong, it's no Jurassic Park, but it's no Gumby Claymation dinosaur either. If you can overlook the fact that the alien device looks like something you can buy from Spencer's Gifts and some of the cheesiness that comes with an 80s movie, it's a pretty exciting film.If your a sci-fi fan, it's definitely worth a look. It's not just a good idea, it's a good movie as well. I loved it.

Man I've been watching My Science Project since way back when I was a kid. It was better then but the only thing that has really dated it is the special effects. The story is still good, Fisher Stevens is still funny, and Dennis Hopper is still far out man! I'm not saying that this movie is better than Star Wars or anything but it's a pretty good example of cheesy 80's Sci-Fi. The trick to watching My Science Project or indeed, any movie from the 80's, is to not take it seriously. Turn off the white hot critic's eye and just enjoy this movie for what it is. It's a great movie. Bottom Line: I can't think of many 80's movies in this genre that are this film's equal, except for maybe The Last Starfighter. If you can let me know.

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.