Okay, fellow travelers of the magnetic tape, let's rewind to a time when science fairs felt like they held the potential for anything – even ripping a hole in the space-time continuum. Picture this: 1985. The cinematic landscape was buzzing with teen adventures, and nestled amongst the bigger names was a quirky, ambitious, and endearingly chaotic slice of sci-fi hijinks called My Science Project. If your local video store had a well-stocked sci-fi shelf, chances are this one caught your eye with its promise of high school antics meeting otherworldly weirdness.
The premise itself feels like pure, distilled 80s concentrate. Our hero, Michael Harlan (John Stockwell, who many would soon recognize from Top Gun the following year, but already known from Carpenter's Christine), is a cool-but-academically-challenged gearhead facing summer school unless he can pull off a killer science project. His solution? Scavenging a glowing, mysterious device from a military scrapyard. Naturally, hooking this gizmo up to a car battery unleashes temporal vortexes, historical figures materialize in the school hallways, and general pandemonium ensues. It’s the kind of plot that could only have been dreamt up – and greenlit – in the glorious, anything-goes decade of big hair and even bigger concepts.
### From Starfighter to Time Warps
It's fascinating to note that My Science Project was the directorial debut of Jonathan R. Betuel, the very same writer who gifted us the beloved arcade-meets-space-opera classic The Last Starfighter just a year earlier. You can sense a similar spirit of youthful adventure and imaginative "what if" scenarios bubbling beneath the surface here. Betuel clearly had a knack for tapping into that teenage wish-fulfillment, swapping alien recruiters for alien technology this time around. While Starfighter soared, My Science Project unfortunately didn't quite connect with audiences or critics in the same way, pulling in just over $4 million at the box office against a reported budget likely north of $10 million. It quietly faded from theaters, destined for a second life on home video.
### Meet the Crew (and the Wild Card)
Leading the charge alongside Stockwell’s effortlessly cool Mike is Danielle von Zerneck as the smart, slightly nerdy Ellie Sawyer, providing the necessary brains (and romantic interest) to Mike's impulsive actions. Their dynamic feels pretty standard for the era, but they have a comfortable chemistry. The real scene-stealer, however, is often Fisher Stevens as Mike’s wisecracking, perpetually anxious best friend, Vinnie Rizzo. Stevens, who would soon delight audiences as Ben in Short Circuit (1986), brings a manic energy that perfectly complements the escalating absurdity. His frantic reactions are often the funniest parts of the film.
And then there’s Dennis Hopper. Yes, that Dennis Hopper. In a truly inspired piece of casting, the legendary actor pops up as Bob Roberts, Mike’s hip (and slightly burnt-out) science teacher, sporting groovy threads and delivering lines with that unmistakable Hopper intensity. It’s a relatively small role, but he injects a welcome dose of eccentric energy, grounding the film slightly before it completely flies off the rails into temporal chaos. Seeing Hopper stroll through scenes involving Neanderthals and mutant monsters is one of those delightful 80s movie oddities.
### Glorious Gizmos and Practical Pandemonium
Let's talk about that central device – the glowing orb thingy. It’s a fantastic piece of 80s movie prop design, pulsating with mysterious energy and looking convincingly salvaged yet otherworldly. The real fun kicks in when it starts malfunctioning. The film throws everything at the screen: dinosaurs stomping through classrooms, Roman gladiators squaring off in the gym, Vietnam-era soldiers appearing in the hallways. The practical effects used to bring these temporal anomalies to life are, viewed today, undeniably dated. You can see the seams, the charming limitations of the era's technology. But honestly? That’s part of the appeal for VHS Heaven regulars. There's an undeniable charm to the tangible, slightly clunky way these effects were achieved before CGI became ubiquitous. You remember seeing that Tyrannosaurus head poke through the doorway and thinking, "Whoa!" even if it looked a little rubbery.
The climax, essentially turning the high school into a multi-dimensional warzone, is ambitious, if a little messy. It feels like Betuel threw every cool idea he had onto the screen, budget be damned. While the narrative logic gets a bit fuzzy (okay, very fuzzy), the sheer spectacle of it all carries a certain B-movie energy that’s hard to dislike if you’re in the right mood. The soundtrack, a mix of Peter Bernstein's score and quintessential 80s rock and pop tunes, further cements its place in the era.
### A Fondly Remembered Experiment
My Science Project isn't a masterpiece by any stretch. Critics at the time were largely unkind (it currently sits at a chilly 15% on Rotten Tomatoes and a 5.5 on IMDb), and its storytelling can feel disjointed. Yet, it holds a certain nostalgic charm, particularly for those of us who discovered it during countless trips to the video rental store. It represents that specific brand of 80s teen sci-fi where hormonal anxieties and homework pressures could plausibly collide with earth-shattering (or time-shattering) events. It didn’t redefine the genre like Back to the Future or capture the zeitgeist like WarGames, but it offered a fun, slightly goofy adventure with memorable moments and a fantastic central concept. It was the kind of movie you rented on a Friday night, maybe alongside a bigger hit, and found yourself surprisingly entertained by its sheer, unpretentious weirdness.
Rating: 6/10
This score reflects the film's undeniable shortcomings in plot coherence and polish, but gives credit for its fun premise, energetic performances (especially Stevens and Hopper), ambitious practical effects (charming in their datedness), and pure, unadulterated 80s B-movie spirit. It’s messy, it’s silly, but it’s also got a genuine sense of adventure that resonates with the VHS era.
So, while it might not have earned an 'A+' back in '85, My Science Project remains a fondly remembered experiment from the decade of delightful cinematic weirdness – a perfect specimen for a nostalgic night in with the VCR humming.