An uptight teenage prodigy enters a top engineering college but feels awkward among the freewheeling students. When a professor aims to turn their laser project into a military weapon, he and his offbeat roommate plot to ruin the plan.
“Real Genius” was the typical comedy I grew up with in the 1980s. It was only Val Kilmer’s second feature film, but he was a shining star, even back then. Kilmer plays Chris Knight, a genius in the “National Physics Club” at Pacific Technical University who is tasked with taking care of new high school student Mitch Taylor (Gabriel Jarret), a young prodigy who excels in the field of laser physics. Chris, Mitch, and a small group of other students serve under Jerry Hathaway (William Atherton), a professor at the university who is working covertly with the CIA on a top-secret project.
Naturally, Mitch, the youngest in the group, feels out of place, but Chris takes him under his wing and shows him the ropes. The group works tirelessly trying to get the project, nicknamed “Crossbow,” operational, but because of its requirement for a laser, their tests keep failing, as it is an exact science. One night, Chris has an epiphany and comes up with an entirely new approach that works perfectly. Hathaway, impressed with the working laser, tells Chris and the rest of the group that they will all graduate with honors. After going out to celebrate, they discover that the laser will be used for political assassinations from outer space and immediately head back to the lab to destroy it, but it has already been taken. Now they must combine their resources and figure out where the laser is so they can destroy it before it’s too late.
“Real Genius” encompasses all of the tropes one expects from a 1980s college comedy, but much of the humor falls flat, especially by today’s standards. Kilmer is the one shining light throughout, bringing his customary charm, appeal, and wit, occasionally allowing moments of empathy, especially towards his younger understudy, Mitch. Director Martha Coolidge researched laser technology and the policies of the CIA in preparation for filming, so while some of the laser science presented is accurate, in the end, the audience doesn’t care; they just want to enjoy themselves, whether the laser weapon is precise scientifically or just plain fiction. Kilmer fared much better in his first big-screen outing, “Top Secret!,” directed by Jim Abrahams, David Zucker, and Jerry Zucker, the creators behind the “Airplane!” films and the TV crime comedy series, “Police Squad!” It’s apparent Kilmer is having fun here; it’s just a pity the rest of the cast, and the film itself, didn’t follow suit.
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