1985 was a big year for science fiction action comedies. Back To The Future, Real Genius, and of course, Weird Science all came out and were pretty big hits. Today’s subject also came out in 1985 and didn’t do very well at all. Let’s talk about My Science Project. The crime here is that it is a hell of a lot more fun than all of those above. Or, that’s like my opinion man. Since I always have an objectively correct opinion, my opinion is the one that matters.
The movie starts with a UFO crashing and President Eisenhower ordering the Air Force to hide the wreckage away in a warehouse and seal it up. The “Top Men” do just that and it’s quickly forgotten about.
Jump to 1985 and we are following muscle car enthusiast Mike Harlan. He is about to fail his senior year science class which, of course, he needs to graduate. The class Femcel and super-nerd Ellie Sawyer annoy Mike into taking her on a date that night. Mike decides to break into the local airplane graveyard to try to find something to use as his science project. While snooping around, he falls into a lower subsection and stumbles across the power source for the alien spaceship. Having no idea what it is, he takes it to school the next day.
He and his car buddy plug it into a power source while in shop class. Next thing they know, a few hours slip by and some ancient artifacts appear in the room. Later, they take it to show their science teacher. He is played by Dennis Hopper as an antiwar, hippie protestor callback to his character in Easy Rider.
They plug it up and Hopper is sucked into a time vortex. The engine keeps sucking in more power causing the time warp to grow before the kids stop it by blowing up the powerlines.
Ellie goes to the school to retrieve the alien power source to prove to the cops that Harlan blew the power lines for a good reason. She makes it there in time to see super-nerd Sherman hook it back up. This sucks the entire building into the time warp and Ellie with it.
Mike, his pal, and Sherman then venture into the time warp to try to find Ellie and turn off the gadget. We get some really great stuff as they navigate dangerous periods from the past and future. It’s a real blast. We get to see Harlan shoot a T-Rex in the chest with an M203 grenade launcher and I am here to tell you, they pulled it off really well for the budget.
The movie is an absolute blast. The small, smooth brains over at Rotten Tomatoes gave My Science Project an 11 percent rating. What the hell do those snobs and shills know? Who are you going to trust on this one, Uncle T, or some mouth-breathing slob on Rotten Tomatoes who probably thinks Terrence Malick is a genius? Come, have some fun!
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