Review for Weird Science - 30th Anniversary Edition

Introduction

I finally own Weird Science! It’s odd because I usually pounce on the films that I enjoy, eager to add them to my home cinema collection, and Weird Science quickly became a favourite of mine when I watched (and taped) a TV broadcast back in the eighties. But I didn’t buy the video, and the DVD passed me by as well, and it’s only now that I finally have the film on Blu-ray, the Perfect 30th Anniversary Edition. 30 years! I may have left it too late. Still, it is a John Hughes teen movie from the eighties, a genre he pretty much cornered for that decade, and I certainly haven’t been shy about owning various versions of Ferris Bueller and The Breakfast Club, both films that I still love.


Gary and Wyatt, best friends have dreams, dreams of being popular, dreams of scoring with girls, dreams of showering with the school girls’ gymnastics team. Alas, they’re dweebs, with no friends, no confidence, and no existence in school, except for the school bullies Ian and Max, who are happy to momentarily reveal their deficiencies for all to see. But if charisma is lacking, intelligence isn’t and science might just compensate. Wyatt’s parents are out for the weekend and Gary’s sleeping over, and confronted by Wyatt’s birthday present, a cutting edge home computer, he decides that if they can’t get a girl, they’ll simulate one. Only the girl that they create, Lisa, is no mere simulation...

Picture

It turns out that “The Perfect 30th Anniversary Edition” is just something you put on the Blu-ray sleeve when you release a film 30 years after its cinema premiere. It actually means nothing in terms of transfer quality and disc content. I’ve heard complaints, and seen forum posts about Universal’s treatment of their back catalogue on Blu-ray, but I had somehow escaped the worst of it... Until now.


Weird Science looks awful. Yes it’s in high definition, and technically it does look better than a DVD, with stronger colours, and more detail, but that’s only comparatively speaking. There’s digital banding on the opening titles, and in the first scene after the opening credits, with Gary shaving in the bathroom, the poster behind him is a mess of macroblocking. This sets the tone for the transfer, with DNR shredding all the film grain, the image now looking like digital video from the early 2000s. It’s soft, there’s ghosting, waxy skin tones, blacks crushed to incoherence. After almost 30 years of not owning the film, I wasn’t going to wait any longer, but this is one of those Blu-rays that you keep until something better comes along.

Sound

The audio fares better, a DTS-HD MA 5.1 Surround English up-mix that throws a few effects around the soundstage, gives the film a little more ambience and presence, but doesn’t divorce the film too much from its stereo origins. The dialogue is clear throughout, and that cool, eclectic eighties soundtrack, including that Oingo Boingo theme song, all comes across well. You also have the option of seven other languages in DTS 5.1 form, as well as plenty of subtitles.

Extras

Absolutely nothing! Happy Perfect 30th Anniversary!

Conclusion

In the end, I did wait too long to buy Weird Science. I’m not the same person I was when I first saw this film as a teenager, and unlike Ferris Bueller which has in the intervening years become a timeless classic, or The Breakfast Club, which has the strength of writing, the performances, and ever relevant issues, Weird Science fails to measure up to either of these John Hughes movies. Weird Science is about the most constant of teen issues, the base from which all teen angst springs, it’s about sex. It’s about sexual awakening, boys becoming men, the awkward pursuit of girls and all that surrounds it. For the teen movie maker, it’s like shooting fish in a barrel, and every generation has its teen sex movie, whether it’s Porkies, or American Pie. Weird Science isn’t a particularly strong entrant into the genre, but it is memorable, and it is fun.


Most of that is down to Kelly LeBrock as the perfect girl Lisa, who has one of the most memorable screen entrances in my recollection. She’s a devilish personality who will do whatever it takes to reveal the inner hunks lurking in the hearts of our two heroic geeks, no matter the collateral damage that results. Watching Weird Science, you can see where Liz Hurley got her take on the Devil in the Bedazzled remake. What also makes the film better is the supporting cast, with Robert Downey Jr. making an early impact as one of the bullies, Ian, and Bill Paxton as Wyatt’s obnoxious extortionate brother Chet.


Weird Science has its moments, it’s still memorable, and it is very funny, but after all this time it’s become a movie that you laugh at for its cheesiness, rather than laugh at in knowing understanding of its main characters’ issues. It may be the most fundamental of teenage issues, it’s a movie about two rich kids wanting to get laid, and coming up with the most extravagant method of actually doing so. But there’s nothing else to it than that, and it lacks the heart and honesty of a film like American Pie, or even the anarchic and saucy humour of Porkies. This Blu-ray release of the film is abysmal for an HD presentation. It’s just about watchable, on a smaller screen, if you sit far enough away. Normally in a situation like this, I’d suggest holding onto the disc until a better version is released, but even if a better release of Weird Science eventually does come along, I doubt I’d buy it again.