The CIA is developing a secret weapon called the Crossbow. Arrogant popcorn hating Dr. Hathaway (William Atherton) is making the important high energy laser for the program. He recruits high schooler Mitch Taylor (Gabriel Jarret) into his university team. Chris Knight (Val Kilmer) is the irreverent science genius. Kent (Robert Prescott) is the brown-nosing student leader. Jordan (Michelle Meyrink) is the awkward science girl. Lazlo Hollyfeld (Jon Gries) is a mysterious guy who lives in a secret room in the closet. Chris is about to graduate but Hathaway blackmails him unless he fixes his laser.

Val Kilmer is great as the irreverent genius. It's like a really smart John Belushi. I do wish that Gabriel Jarret has more charisma. Michelle Meyrink is one of the great 80s adorable geeky girls. And Robert Prescott is always good as the annoying douche. The cast led by Kilmer is just perfect and fun. This is one of the better director Martha Coolidge movie from the 80s.

Teenage geniuses (Val Kilmer and some other kid) deal with their abilities while developing a laser.

The 1980s seemed to be dominated by John Hughes movies and John Cusack. This film does not have either one, though it does have Jon Gries if you need a little John in your movies. Not sure why you would, but maybe you do.

What makes this film so great is the writing. The jokes are puns and clever twists, sort of the humor you might expect from the Marx Brothers or similar comedians. There are more than a few dirty jokes (the word "penis" comes up a lot),but even those tend to be rather clever.

There was a time and place for movies like this, but even during my younger years I managed to avoid pictures this pointless. The dialog is witty at times, I'll grant that, but it sort of loses it's punch the closer we get to transforming the laser project into a military weapon. Val Kilmer looks so young in this film that I had to look up his stats here on IMDb. This was in fact his very first starring movie role, but a far cry from the performance he delivered as Doc Holliday in "Tombstone". My primary reason in watching this movie was it's presence on IMDb's Top 250 list way back in it's very first year of 1996. I'm finding that the early years of IMDb were influenced pretty heavily by an audience that thought "Up in Smoke", "Dazed and Confused" and "Cheech and Chong's Next Movie" were cinematic masterpieces. With a goal of watching and reviewing all of them, it's going to be a formidable task. If I catch a break, there might even be a good one in there.