Mythbusters tried to replicate the popcorn scene, but couldn't get the house-destroying, window-breaking effect. It was discovered that once popped popcorn completely fills a space, it actually prevents any remaining kernels from popping.
I was working at Coffee Bean in 2008 in Hollywood. Jon Gries walked in and ordered a soy latte. Every employee was freaking out because it was ''Uncle Rico''. He was so sweet. I screamed at my coworkers, ''you know, he was Lazlo to me long before Uncle Rico! And he was the Wolfman who had Nards!''. He laughed hard and then he reenacted multiple Real Genius and Monster Squad scenes. It was a dream come true.
It’s always awesome when actors are thrilled when you recognize them from less famous works. I attended a comic-con once with a friend who wanted to meet Wil Wheaton. (Wil only came up to my shoulder! Surprised the he** out of me. Always thought he was taller, anyways) my friend got upset when Wil started paying all his attention to me. Everyone had been talking to him and asking about ST:TNG and Big Bang Theory. I was standing to the side and looking over the pictures he had for autographs. I mentioned that I was surprised there was no photo of him and “Fargo” from the show Eureka. Wil’s face absolutely lit up and he totally paid all his attention on me. No one had even mentioned that show to him all weekend. It was a fun interaction.
As somebody who writes jokes for a living, my bar has always been “I was thinking of the immortal words of Socrates, who said ‘I drank what?’ It is such a perfectly written and delivered deadpan line.
"I kust saw something really strange--" "Was it a dream? Where you're standing on top of a pyramid in sort of sun-god robes, and thousands of beautiful naked women are bowing, and throwing little pickles at you?" "No." "Why am I the only one who has that dream?"
@@jean-paulaudette9246 "This? This is ice. This is what happens to water when it gets too cold. This? This is Kent. This is what happens to people when they get too sexually frustrated."
"His whole head becomes a speaker..." ... " 'Bout time somebody put it to good use..." And let's not forget: "Can you hammer a 6" Spike thru a board with your penis?" "No...." "A girl has to have her standards..."
Bodie: He said he didn't feel like it. And I said, "You'd better!" And he said, "Or what?" And I said, "Or you're gonna be in trouble." And he said, "Jam it." Professor Hathaway : That's a wonderful story, Bodie. I noticed you've stopped stuttering. Bodie : I've been giving myself shock treatments. Professor Hathaway : Up the voltage.
Ah, the 80s. When being a nerd was (somewhat) normalized in movies. My favorite Val Kilmer-ism from this film has to be his response to Hathaway telling him he wanted to see more of him in the lab. "I'll gain weight." Priceless. More people need to react to this movie.
Val Kilmer is so funny in Real Genius. He's endlessly charming and his face is so expressive. Also, between Real Genius and Monster Squad, I will forever be a fan of Jon Gries. Every time Lazlo pops up he makes me smile. "Wanna borrow my pajamas?" 🤣🤣🤣
Ever notice Mitch was in Apollo 13? He's in mission control and now that you know, you'll pick him out. He's one of the younger ones. He grew out of the awkward phase lol.
True story: In 1985 when I was 10, my buddy's dad took us to see The Goonies at the Lincoln Theater in Belleville, IL, but the film was sold out. So rather than go home, we got tickets for Real Genius instead. It has since been one of my favorite movies of all time, and I still quote it to this day. "I drank what?"
Edit: His face when she suggested popcorn vengeance! : ) LOVE this movie. The comedy is outstanding and it's hard to imagine anyone being as good at being a "former nerd" persona than Val Kilmer. At home in the lab and hitting in beauticians (well, trainees). It wouldn't be surprising if he improv'd much it feels so natural. The soundtrack also hits me in my soul. I would start a cover band just to play updated versions of songs just like these. Kent is the perfect turd andHathaway a great villain.
Caltech's prank war with MIT is the stuff of legend. I spent a summer in Pasadena, and was regaled with one tale in particular from the previous fall. A group of Caltech students traveled across the country and posed as MIT tour guides during an open house for prospective students. They set up a table and gave away free MIT t-shirts, each inside the sort of plastic sleeve factory-made shirts come in. Only when gift recipients got home and opened the plastic did they learn the back of the shirt read "...Because not everyone can go to Caltech." They were still selling the shirts in the Pasadena gift shop when I was there.
I have seen this many, many times and never saw Tom Hanks before. "The film's final sequence was filmed in Canyon Country, CA, where filmmakers constructed a house and filled it with 190,000 pounds of popcorn kernels, according to the 5 Feb 1985 HR. Oversized hot air pumps were used to pop the corn, which literally raised the roof off the house."
4:48 After doing a little bit of research, I am fairly certain that is NOT Tom Hanks. I have not found any credible source to confirm it is him. IMDB and Wikipedia do not list it (and yes those can be edited by the public, but they are generally accurate). By this point, Hanks had starred in Splash and Bachelor Party, so it is doubtful that he would have had that cameo without seeing clear confirmation of it.
@@CraigKostelecky Unless this was shot after those, but before they were released, or he knew someone involved in the film. Stranger cameos have happened.
I was a movie theater usher when this came out, and I'd be amused at what I saw on the screen during my walkthrough of the theater. (We still had to enforce the newly enacted law that there was no smoking in theaters anymore.) I decided I needed to sit down and watch it in its entirety instead of watching it piecemeal. So there's young Rob, sitting in an afternoon showing, with the theater maybe at 25% capacity, and Chris says, “I was thinking of the immortal words of Socrates when he said... 'I drank what?'” I was the only person to laugh. It's kinda sad, but at the same time, it's kinda neat to recall that ONE time I was the smartest person in the room. 😊
“I was thinking of the immortal words of Socrates when he said, I drank what?” This is up there with The Holy Grail, Sixteen Candles and Revenge of the Nerds as one my most quotable movies. Just pure 80’s gold!
So glad you guys are watching this! This was one of my favorite movies to rent as a tween, and it actually had a major impact on my outlook on life. It makes being smart look “cool”, but also suggests that focusing solely on academics causes you to miss out on life. That’s part of how Lazlo ended up in the steam tunnel, and Chris states he used to be just like Mitch until he met Lazlo and saw what his fate could be if he didn’t loosen up, and he’s also determined not to let Mitch suffer the same fate. Ergo: being smart is great, but don’t take life too seriously and remember to have fun. In all these years I had no idea Tom Hanks was in this. But there is another familiar face; the student who exclaims “They’re beauticians??” played Chozen in Karate Kid 2 and later in the Cobra Kai series.
The dude who has a breakdown, screams at everyone, runs away and gets his chair stolen is my favourite gag in the entire movie... and it's not in here... **le sigh**
That is literally every mid-terms and Finals. There's always a guarantee of three freakouts, ten comas, fifteen full-on meltdowns, and two to four psychotic breaks. The numbers vary along with severity depending on how close to the deadline it is. Mine was after 68 hours of straight no sleep, fueled by nothing but adrenaline, caffeine, and determination, I cracked on test day. I literally heard something snap, ran out of the library, went down to a costume shop and bought a gorilla suit. I don't know what my thought process was but i felt like I would fail as myself but not if i was someone else. So i went to Finals wearing a Gorilla suit. And the class was so far gone, no one batted an eye. I even gave the prof a banana.
True story: As a shy math nerd, when I went to college I adopted an entire "slacker nerd" persona that was 100% modeled on Val Kilmer in this movie. All my professors had a love/hate relationship with me as a result.
one of my favourite 80's school/college comedy movies. Val Kilmer should really have done more Comedy Movies, because he's been great in every Comedy movie he's been in.
Jordan Cochran (the Phoebe Cates/Selma Blair lookalike) is portrayed by current teacher Michelle Meyrink, who appeared as Judy in Revenge of the Nerds, Marcia (a friend of Cherry's) in The Outsiders / Suzi Brent in Valley Girl (also featuring Deborah Foreman, who portrayed Susan Decker) prior to Real Genius. Following her last 4 roles after Real Genius, she practiced Zen Buddhism, married John Dumbrille and started her own Vancouver acting school Actorium.
I was 11 when this came out, and boy did I have a mega crush on Michelle for years after I saw this. I just thought she was the most adorable, beautiful and funny (and obviously smart) woman I had ever seen. I never kept up on her career much after this movie but I did catch up on her at some point, knowing she quit acting and was a teacher and had started her own acting school. Kudos to her :)
I had a huge crush on her when this movie came out. Well, I saw it first when it came out on VHS when video cassettes were young. I was probably around 13 at the time.
Not only is this my favorite 80s movie of all time, but it introduced me to my favorite song of all time in Tears for Fears - Everybody wants to Rule the World.
Wargames was about three years earlier. My choice for the unofficial trilogy would be My Science Project, which came out around this time. Stars John Stockwell and Fisher Stevens.
Nah, pretty sure you can watch them in any order. I think My Science Project goes better with Weird Science. Not sure what the third would be, maybe Tammy and the T-Rex had it been made a decade earlier.@@captmurdock
Fun Fact: one of the kids in the pool at the party was a young Dean Devlin. he went on to team up with Roland Emmerich for films like Stargate, Independence Day, and Godzilla. Also, Mythbusters actually tested the popcorn thing, sadly they found that even large amounts of it just didn't have enough power to break building structures. This movie is where I first heard the song Everybody Wants to Rule The World. I fell in love with it immediately. still love that and this film to this day. and if I ever won the lottery, i would still go to work, but would show up in bunny slippers.
That’s Stacy Peralta at the beginning in the space shuttle. Former pro skate boarder, co-founder of Powell Peralta skate boards, and leader of the Bones Brigade. He launched the careers of Tony Hawk, Rodney Mullen, Steve Caballero, Mike McGill, etc.
"Is it the dream where you're standing on pyramid in sun-god robes with 1000's of naked women screaming and throwing little pickles at you?" "No." "Why am I the only person who has that dream?"
I have owned this movie in every format . VHS, DVD , Blu Ray & 4K . Had the pleasure of meeting Deborah Foreman 18 months ago . Glad you got to see this !
Rented out his room? He got off easy. Sophomore year, I flew home for Thanksgiving. Parents picked me up at the airport, then blew past the exit that would take us home. To our old home. They moved while I was at college, and didn't tell me.
Yes! Finally someone reacts to this wonderful movie. As a nerd in high school in the early to mid '80s this movie always felt like it was made for me. Such a fun movie, such great dialogue, so many fun characters. And Michelle Meyrink was a nerd goddess back then. Another great nerdy movie I'd love to see you watch is Young Einstein. It's one of my favorites, but it's very odd. I think you'll either really dig it or be mystified why anyone would watch it. Another fun college movie you might check out is PCU with Jeremy Piven.
I saw this movie in 2000 on Cinemax when i was 15. Never heard of it before. Loved it! Called my older brother to tell him about this hidden gem I'd discovered. He said ,'' Yeah. No shit. Everyone loves it. Kilmer at his funniest.''
William Atherton plays the same character in every movie he's in. If you've seen 80's movies, you've seen William Atherton. He did such a good job playing Walter Peck in Ghostbusters that he was harassed on the street, and challenged to fights in bars after.
This, War Games & "The Manhattan Project" with John Lithgow are all parts of what I consider the too-precocious kids endanger the world trilogy. Have you guys watched The Manhattan Project yet? It may not quite be on the level of War Games or Real Genius, but it a similar theme and still a lot of fun. Thanks for watching this. It holds up better than MANY 1970s/80s "teen comedies"
They sure knew how to make movies back in the 80s. I mean just something as simply having that dog come back at the right moment at the end of movie was filmmaking "genius".
I was the same college age of these guys in 85 when this came out, yeah it was accurate. The pranks are also fairly accurate to intense college pranks of the time period. In example: the police car that was placed on top of a building on the Harvard Campus, the flash card incident at the rose bowl and others.
Watching this movie today reminds us about how tragic Val Kilmer's current medical condition is where he can't hardly talk anymore due to having throat cancer. The best scene of Top.Gun: Maverick was when Tom Cruise and Val Kilmer's characters meet and Val struggles to say to say a couple of lines.
Karate Kid connections: Gabe Jarrett who plays Mitch was in a cameo in Karate Kid 3 and Yuji Okumoto who plays Fenton also plays Chozen in Karate Kid 2. Writer/director/producer Dean Devlin (Universal Soldier, Stargate, Independence Day) is in the movie as Milton and Skateboarder Stacy Peralta plays the Astronaut at the beginning of the movie.
#recommendation I recommend the movie *Night of The Comet* from 1984. Only one or two people have reacted to it that I know of. It's stupid fun and off the wall horror/comedy.
Michelle Meyrink - she’s in the Outsiders and Valley Girl, with Deborah Foreman, the cute blond. Both are must see classics. The guy in the closet is Uncle Rico from Napoleon Dynamite!
Probably my favorits of the 80s "teen comedies". It was also the year before I went to college, so it gave me a bit of a distorted view of what college might be like.
“ I had a dream last night…” “OH! Was it the one where you’re standing on top of a great pyramid in long flowing, godlike robes and thousands of naked women are screaming, worshiping and serving little pickles at you?” “Uh…no?” “Strange, why am I the only one that has that dream?” That was my go to quote for years any time anyone said anything about “having a dream“. I don’t think anyone got the joke. Also, WILLIAM ATHERTON! being his snarky best for a whole movie! A movie that’s not Ghostbusters or Die Hard!
I've watched this movie at least 5 or 6 times. For some reason when it comes on tv i usually end up watching it. I want to recommend the comedy In & Out (1997) with Kevin Kline, Tom Selleck, directed by Frank Oz
The Bar scene was filmed in "Barney's Beanery" Well known for it's incredibly huge beer menu as well as the "World's Second Best Chili". Loved to go there when I lived out there in the early 90's. Was there on a date and she nearly freaked out when 3 of the Members of Metallica sat behind our booth. I told her yeah, and? the place was always being frequented by some good band or other. Like I said. They had the worlds second best chili.
Very few movies make me miss growing up in the 1980s like this one. Iconic (I wound up going to college and studying high power lasers too!) Thanks for reacting, I figured you'd love it. Absolutely slapping soundtrack, too.
15:55 Even today, some people have that "He's 15 and he got a hot woman? Lucky guy!" attitude, but I would hope that, even back in the '80s, people would think "waiting" since he was 12 to have sex with him, was gross and wrong. I wish they had made Jordan like 17, if she had to be older. At least they both would have been minors with only a two year gap. The actress who played Jordan, Michelle Meyrink, was in The Outsiders, Revenge of the Nerds, Valley Girl, and Nice Girls Don't Explode. I think there are a couple of other movies, but she started acting at 18 and quit when she was 26, saying that it wasn't she wanted out of life. Ironically, she eventually opened an acting school.
This is one of those movies that I love SO MUCH I only allow myself to watch it every few years! This plus Top Secret gave me a lifelong crush on Val Kilmer. Fat, skinny, young, old, don't care--love me some Val Kilmer. I was lucky enough to marry a guy who (still) looks like a cross between Jim Morrison and Val Kilmer--thanks to another Val Kilmer movie, y'all get to see exactly what that looks like, too! Since I watched him for the first time on a crappy VHS tape, with crappy VHS resolution, after seeing him for the first time and reading the post-movie credits to find out who he was, I thought his name was Yal Kulmer. I remember proudly telling my female friends at school, who were debating whether Don Johnson or Tom Selleck or Kirk Cameron was cuter, that Yal Kulmer was way cuter than any of them.
I was in my early teens when this movie came out and loved it. A lot of great movies came out around that time. I had a crush on Jordan when I first saw this movie.
Cal arts is within 10 blocks of my house. So is Pixar. My kids used to eat lunch at cal arts, as they had an awesome cafeteria, and would allow Oakland tech and far west academy students with off campus privileges to lunch there. They eventually closed the campus to highschool students after a few fights broke out on their grounds...
This came out in the summer of Science movies, This one, My Science Project and Weird Science, for many years Weird Science was my fave but in long run this one is. I have seen this film so many times..it is one of my comfort films.Should have talked about Lazlo (Jon Gries) so many great 80's parts, , Monster Squad, Running Scared,Fright Night 2 and then of course Uncle Rico in Napoleon Dynamite.
Despite the change of house, the street and landscape features remain the same, although now much more developed. To accomplish the feat of making a house get pulled apart by popcorn, the filmmakers had their work cut out for them and it was no easy task. They first had to find a suitable location where a specially-rigged house with hydraulics could be built. The location was in a suburb just north of Los Angeles in Canyon Country which, at that time in the 80’s, was a subdivision under new construction with several open places they could choose to build. Building the house was the easy part, destroying it with popcorn was where the true challenge came into play. The filmmakers required almost 200 tons of popcorn in order to adequately fill the house and simulate the structure-busting effect. Getting that amount of popcorn was beset with problems and according to actor Gabe Jarret, the first company hired out to pop the popcorn burned down due to overuse of the popping machines. Later batches of the popcorn were treated with fire retardant to avoid combustion and had to be covered on set so that birds seeking a snack wouldn’t be poisoned. The laser as it hits the house and eventually fills it with popcorn in a jiffy. In an interview with director, Martha Coolidge, she went on to explain the difficulties they encountered. “… our Special FX guy became an expert on popcorn (which, by the way, weighs 2 pounds per cubic foot). In order to build the exploding house, he had to design all kinds of hydraulic systems to move the popcorn inside. To get that much popcorn, we had to make half of it as we couldn’t buy that much popcorn from commercial companies in that short a period of time. We popped 40 tons ourselves on the lot for 6 weeks with huge poppers outside so the whole lot smelled like popcorn. We bought another 100 tons with a six week advanced order. When we shot on location, we stored the popcorn in 38 40-foot tractor-trailer trucks parked up the road. It took more than a day to clean up the site to do take two, so we had to go shoot other scenes in between. It was also amazing to watch. I’ll never forget tons of popcorn gushing out of that house.” From: beyondthemarquee.com/37493
The way the prof was acting around those contractors, I wouldn't be surprised there was already a lot sabotaged that had yet to surface before the popcorn. A lot of things could go wrong in a lot of different places.
Glad you finally got around to this! One of my all-time favorite movies when I was a little kid - it was on cable all the time :) Val Kilmer is fantastic as usual. I loved the whole laser setup thing, and how can you not love that popcorn ending!
I remember this movie came out around the time of Weird Science and My Science Project but after Revenge of the Nerds. With real nerds like Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, et al were having their moment.
Parts of the movie are based on real incidents from CalTech (the car prank, for example) - MIT's infamous baby brother in California. The opening credits are a montage of famous inventions that were used for less than pleasant things by the military-industrial complex (thus the song in the credits, "You took advantage of me"). It's basically a love letter to silly nerds. Also, Not-Phoebe Cates' character is a very good (and kind) depiction of someone with ADHD and some form of autism - the portrayal is very much intentional. Also, screaming student? Dean Devlin. As in Independence Day, etc.
@@johnnyboy7144 He probably got laid a few times off those two minutes.... easy wing man job, "Ladies my boy here was in Karate Kid 3 for two frikken minutes.!"
right before this film- the guy who plays Kent was in a Tom Hanks film- 'Bachelor Party'- maybe they're friends and he was hanging out on set and did a cameo.
Haven't even seen your reaction to this yet, and you're getting a thumbs up from me for this. This movie is fantastic. More folks should see it. So I appreciate your efforts in that department, regardless of what you actually think. That being said -- it's time to watch your reaction. Thanks again!
Mythbusters tried to replicate the popcorn scene, but couldn't get the house-destroying, window-breaking effect. It was discovered that once popped popcorn completely fills a space, it actually prevents any remaining kernels from popping.
When Matthew said at the beginning "I hate popcorn" I grinned so hard. This is one of the best 80's movies that ever 80'd.
I was working at Coffee Bean in 2008 in Hollywood. Jon Gries walked in and ordered a soy latte. Every employee was freaking out because it was ''Uncle Rico''. He was so sweet. I screamed at my coworkers, ''you know, he was Lazlo to me long before Uncle Rico! And he was the Wolfman who had Nards!''. He laughed hard and then he reenacted multiple Real Genius and Monster Squad scenes. It was a dream come true.
He introduced to me as Shawn from 'Martin' in '92 then I saw 'Real Genius' afterwards.
It’s always awesome when actors are thrilled when you recognize them from less famous works.
I attended a comic-con once with a friend who wanted to meet Wil Wheaton. (Wil only came up to my shoulder! Surprised the he** out of me. Always thought he was taller, anyways) my friend got upset when Wil started paying all his attention to me. Everyone had been talking to him and asking about ST:TNG and Big Bang Theory. I was standing to the side and looking over the pictures he had for autographs. I mentioned that I was surprised there was no photo of him and “Fargo” from the show Eureka. Wil’s face absolutely lit up and he totally paid all his attention on me. No one had even mentioned that show to him all weekend. It was a fun interaction.
The best part is he gets his RV at the end of the movie (even though it's obviously a different model)
As somebody who writes jokes for a living, my bar has always been “I was thinking of the immortal words of Socrates, who said ‘I drank what?’
It is such a perfectly written and delivered deadpan line.
14:13 POPCORN: Matt's face, was for all of us 80s kids who saw this growing up
That look went through the lens, right to us.
In the pantheon of most quotable movies of all time, this is in my all-time Top 5. "Do you still run?" "When chased."
"I kust saw something really strange--"
"Was it a dream? Where you're standing on top of a pyramid in sort of sun-god robes, and thousands of beautiful naked women are bowing, and throwing little pickles at you?"
"No."
"Why am I the only one who has that dream?"
@@jean-paulaudette9246 "This? This is ice. This is what happens to water when it gets too cold. This? This is Kent. This is what happens to people when they get too sexually frustrated."
"His whole head becomes a speaker..." ... " 'Bout time somebody put it to good use..."
And let's not forget: "Can you hammer a 6" Spike thru a board with your penis?" "No...." "A girl has to have her standards..."
I drank what??
Bodie: He said he didn't feel like it. And I said, "You'd better!" And he said, "Or what?" And I said, "Or you're gonna be in trouble." And he said, "Jam it."
Professor Hathaway : That's a wonderful story, Bodie. I noticed you've stopped stuttering.
Bodie : I've been giving myself shock treatments.
Professor Hathaway : Up the voltage.
Ah, the 80s. When being a nerd was (somewhat) normalized in movies.
My favorite Val Kilmer-ism from this film has to be his response to Hathaway telling him he wanted to see more of him in the lab. "I'll gain weight." Priceless.
More people need to react to this movie.
This is definitely one of my all time favorite classic movies! Along with Top Secret! ❤
Val Kilmer is so funny in Real Genius. He's endlessly charming and his face is so expressive.
Also, between Real Genius and Monster Squad, I will forever be a fan of Jon Gries. Every time Lazlo pops up he makes me smile. "Wanna borrow my pajamas?" 🤣🤣🤣
About Jon Gries... Did you ever watch The Prentender? After this I then saw him in that series and was like, he was in "Real Genius!"
Jon Gries is a favorite for sure. I like him in everything, even as kinda creepy Uncle Rico. What a great character actor.
so weird that they then cast him as the stoic batman and the straight-laced iceman. his straight delivery of funny comebacks were completely lost.
Imagine that this is the Val's film directly before "Top Gun". Straight from this to Iceman.
Ever notice Mitch was in Apollo 13? He's in mission control and now that you know, you'll pick him out. He's one of the younger ones. He grew out of the awkward phase lol.
I remember him in Karate Kid part 3, as some bar patron that Daniel-san nearly kills, in a brawl.
He was also in Karate kid III (gets his nose broken by Daniel in the club
He was also in 'Poseidon' as one of the crew on the bridge of the ship.
And then he grew his hair and became the star of Sex In The City.
True story: In 1985 when I was 10, my buddy's dad took us to see The Goonies at the Lincoln Theater in Belleville, IL, but the film was sold out. So rather than go home, we got tickets for Real Genius instead. It has since been one of my favorite movies of all time, and I still quote it to this day.
"I drank what?"
"Cyndi Bopper" takes on a whole new meaning it you've heard her song "She Bop".
Edit: His face when she suggested popcorn vengeance!
: )
LOVE this movie. The comedy is outstanding and it's hard to imagine anyone being as good at being a "former nerd" persona than Val Kilmer. At home in the lab and hitting in beauticians (well, trainees). It wouldn't be surprising if he improv'd much it feels so natural.
The soundtrack also hits me in my soul. I would start a cover band just to play updated versions of songs just like these.
Kent is the perfect turd andHathaway a great villain.
Caltech's prank war with MIT is the stuff of legend. I spent a summer in Pasadena, and was regaled with one tale in particular from the previous fall. A group of Caltech students traveled across the country and posed as MIT tour guides during an open house for prospective students. They set up a table and gave away free MIT t-shirts, each inside the sort of plastic sleeve factory-made shirts come in. Only when gift recipients got home and opened the plastic did they learn the back of the shirt read "...Because not everyone can go to Caltech." They were still selling the shirts in the Pasadena gift shop when I was there.
I have seen this many, many times and never saw Tom Hanks before.
"The film's final sequence was filmed in Canyon Country, CA, where filmmakers constructed a house and filled it with 190,000 pounds of popcorn kernels, according to the 5 Feb 1985 HR. Oversized hot air pumps were used to pop the corn, which literally raised the roof off the house."
@@prescottlange Yes it is.
@prescottlange I looked it up. Apparently it is.
4:48 After doing a little bit of research, I am fairly certain that is NOT Tom Hanks. I have not found any credible source to confirm it is him. IMDB and Wikipedia do not list it (and yes those can be edited by the public, but they are generally accurate). By this point, Hanks had starred in Splash and Bachelor Party, so it is doubtful that he would have had that cameo without seeing clear confirmation of it.
@@CraigKostelecky Unless this was shot after those, but before they were released, or he knew someone involved in the film. Stranger cameos have happened.
Val Kilmer has superb comedic timing. There's this, there's "Top Secret", and later on "Kiss Kiss Bang Bang".
I was a movie theater usher when this came out, and I'd be amused at what I saw on the screen during my walkthrough of the theater. (We still had to enforce the newly enacted law that there was no smoking in theaters anymore.) I decided I needed to sit down and watch it in its entirety instead of watching it piecemeal. So there's young Rob, sitting in an afternoon showing, with the theater maybe at 25% capacity, and Chris says, “I was thinking of the immortal words of Socrates when he said... 'I drank what?'” I was the only person to laugh. It's kinda sad, but at the same time, it's kinda neat to recall that ONE time I was the smartest person in the room. 😊
It’s a great line🤣
"Tell me, what's Einstein *really* like?"
"Dead."
“I was thinking of the immortal words of Socrates when he said, I drank what?” This is up there with The Holy Grail, Sixteen Candles and Revenge of the Nerds as one my most quotable movies. Just pure 80’s gold!
So glad you guys are watching this! This was one of my favorite movies to rent as a tween, and it actually had a major impact on my outlook on life. It makes being smart look “cool”, but also suggests that focusing solely on academics causes you to miss out on life. That’s part of how Lazlo ended up in the steam tunnel, and Chris states he used to be just like Mitch until he met Lazlo and saw what his fate could be if he didn’t loosen up, and he’s also determined not to let Mitch suffer the same fate. Ergo: being smart is great, but don’t take life too seriously and remember to have fun.
In all these years I had no idea Tom Hanks was in this. But there is another familiar face; the student who exclaims “They’re beauticians??” played Chozen in Karate Kid 2 and later in the Cobra Kai series.
I love this movie. There are so many great lines in it. This and Better Off Dead are my 2 favorite 80s comedies.
The dude who has a breakdown, screams at everyone, runs away and gets his chair stolen is my favourite gag in the entire movie... and it's not in here...
**le sigh**
Yup, just your average cram session before mid-terms and Finals someone would always lose it, lol
And I love that everyone ignores him... yeah, there goes another one... lol
That is literally every mid-terms and Finals. There's always a guarantee of three freakouts, ten comas, fifteen full-on meltdowns, and two to four psychotic breaks. The numbers vary along with severity depending on how close to the deadline it is.
Mine was after 68 hours of straight no sleep, fueled by nothing but adrenaline, caffeine, and determination, I cracked on test day. I literally heard something snap, ran out of the library, went down to a costume shop and bought a gorilla suit. I don't know what my thought process was but i felt like I would fail as myself but not if i was someone else. So i went to Finals wearing a Gorilla suit. And the class was so far gone, no one batted an eye. I even gave the prof a banana.
True story: As a shy math nerd, when I went to college I adopted an entire "slacker nerd" persona that was 100% modeled on Val Kilmer in this movie. All my professors had a love/hate relationship with me as a result.
I would have been your best friend.😂
“I was reflecting upon the immortal words of Socrates who said, ‘I drank what?’”
My absolute most favorite quote ever!
one of my favourite 80's school/college comedy movies.
Val Kilmer should really have done more Comedy Movies, because he's been great in every Comedy movie he's been in.
Jordan Cochran (the Phoebe Cates/Selma Blair lookalike) is portrayed by current teacher Michelle Meyrink, who appeared as Judy in Revenge of the Nerds, Marcia (a friend of Cherry's) in The Outsiders / Suzi Brent in Valley Girl (also featuring Deborah Foreman, who portrayed Susan Decker) prior to Real Genius.
Following her last 4 roles after Real Genius, she practiced Zen Buddhism, married John Dumbrille and started her own Vancouver acting school Actorium.
“Nice Girls Don’t Explode” is another underrated movie with her as the lead.
@@ryanclark6402 You beat me to it! With Wallace Shawn and Julie Harris.
She was also on Family Ties briefly.
I was 11 when this came out, and boy did I have a mega crush on Michelle for years after I saw this. I just thought she was the most adorable, beautiful and funny (and obviously smart) woman I had ever seen. I never kept up on her career much after this movie but I did catch up on her at some point, knowing she quit acting and was a teacher and had started her own acting school. Kudos to her :)
I had a huge crush on her when this movie came out. Well, I saw it first when it came out on VHS when video cassettes were young. I was probably around 13 at the time.
Not only is this my favorite 80s movie of all time, but it introduced me to my favorite song of all time in Tears for Fears - Everybody wants to Rule the World.
Now you just need The Manhattan Project ('86) to complete the unofficial trilogy with Real Genius and Wargames. Fill that sticker book!
Wargames was about three years earlier. My choice for the unofficial trilogy would be My Science Project, which came out around this time. Stars John Stockwell and Fisher Stevens.
Nah, pretty sure you can watch them in any order. I think My Science Project goes better with Weird Science. Not sure what the third would be, maybe Tammy and the T-Rex had it been made a decade earlier.@@captmurdock
Just Summ Real Genius? ITS A MORAL IMPERATIVE!
Fun Fact: one of the kids in the pool at the party was a young Dean Devlin. he went on to team up with Roland Emmerich for films like Stargate, Independence Day, and Godzilla.
Also, Mythbusters actually tested the popcorn thing, sadly they found that even large amounts of it just didn't have enough power to break building structures.
This movie is where I first heard the song Everybody Wants to Rule The World. I fell in love with it immediately. still love that and this film to this day. and if I ever won the lottery, i would still go to work, but would show up in bunny slippers.
That’s Stacy Peralta at the beginning in the space shuttle. Former pro skate boarder, co-founder of Powell Peralta skate boards, and leader of the Bones Brigade. He launched the careers of Tony Hawk, Rodney Mullen, Steve Caballero, Mike McGill, etc.
"Is it the dream where you're standing on pyramid in sun-god robes with 1000's of naked women screaming and throwing little pickles at you?"
"No."
"Why am I the only person who has that dream?"
Is that liquid nitrogen?
This movie is just a quotable goldmine!
I have owned this movie in every format . VHS, DVD , Blu Ray & 4K . Had the pleasure of meeting Deborah Foreman 18 months ago . Glad you got to see this !
2160p*
One of my comfort movies. Whenever I hear an 80s-style song with good synth, I always immediately think of this movie. 😂🤷🏾♀
Rented out his room? He got off easy.
Sophomore year, I flew home for Thanksgiving. Parents picked me up at the airport, then blew past the exit that would take us home. To our old home. They moved while I was at college, and didn't tell me.
Surprise! Well, it could have been worse. At least, they _did_ break the news to you, eventually.
He got off real easy, he didnt have to help, lol.
My parents moved when I was stuck doing 30 days in jail🤣
Out of the nerdy trilogy of Revenge of the Nerds/Weird Science/Real Genius, this is by far my favorite and the one that's aged the best.
How much you wanna bet that Lazlo could throw a football over them mountains?
That sounds like some high _steaks_ betting.
You beat me here you real genius you!
The laser-popcorn thing was famously tested on Mythbusters.
FINALLY, someone reacted to this! This movie doesn't get ANY love, and it's hilarious!
Yes! Finally someone reacts to this wonderful movie. As a nerd in high school in the early to mid '80s this movie always felt like it was made for me. Such a fun movie, such great dialogue, so many fun characters. And Michelle Meyrink was a nerd goddess back then.
Another great nerdy movie I'd love to see you watch is Young Einstein. It's one of my favorites, but it's very odd. I think you'll either really dig it or be mystified why anyone would watch it.
Another fun college movie you might check out is PCU with Jeremy Piven.
I saw this movie in 2000 on Cinemax when i was 15. Never heard of it before. Loved it! Called my older brother to tell him about this hidden gem I'd discovered. He said ,'' Yeah. No shit. Everyone loves it. Kilmer at his funniest.''
Can't wait for this reaction. Classic 80's comedy that's only gotten better over the years.
William Atherton plays the same character in every movie he's in. If you've seen 80's movies, you've seen William Atherton.
He did such a good job playing Walter Peck in Ghostbusters that he was harassed on the street, and challenged to fights in bars after.
This, War Games & "The Manhattan Project" with John Lithgow are all parts of what I consider the too-precocious kids endanger the world trilogy. Have you guys watched The Manhattan Project yet? It may not quite be on the level of War Games or Real Genius, but it a similar theme and still a lot of fun.
Thanks for watching this. It holds up better than MANY 1970s/80s "teen comedies"
They sure knew how to make movies back in the 80s. I mean just something as simply having that dog come back at the right moment at the end of movie was filmmaking "genius".
I was the same college age of these guys in 85 when this came out, yeah it was accurate. The pranks are also fairly accurate to intense college pranks of the time period. In example: the police car that was placed on top of a building on the Harvard Campus, the flash card incident at the rose bowl and others.
My favorite scene was always the description of the dream with the throwing tiny little pickles at me and "why is it only me who has that dream?"
I imagine the dog hung around not only because it pissed off Hathaway but because the workers probably gave it love when they did the work
Gave it love? Odd choice of words.
Watching this movie today reminds us about how tragic Val Kilmer's current medical condition is where he can't hardly talk anymore due to having throat cancer. The best scene of Top.Gun: Maverick was when Tom Cruise and Val Kilmer's characters meet and Val struggles to say to say a couple of lines.
William Atherton was also in the movie Biodome, with Pauli Shore. I recommend that one for you, Emily! You'll like that one, I think.
14:18 - the look he gave the camera...
Karate Kid connections: Gabe Jarrett who plays Mitch was in a cameo in Karate Kid 3 and Yuji Okumoto who plays Fenton also plays Chozen in Karate Kid 2.
Writer/director/producer Dean Devlin (Universal Soldier, Stargate, Independence Day) is in the movie as Milton and Skateboarder Stacy Peralta plays the Astronaut at the beginning of the movie.
Her husband straight up pulled a Deadpool in that look at the camera when she mentioned the popcorn. I greatly enjoyed that.
Tom Hanks at 4:50
#recommendation I recommend the movie *Night of The Comet* from 1984. Only one or two people have reacted to it that I know of. It's stupid fun and off the wall horror/comedy.
Yes! So few reactors do this movie!
Michelle Meyrink - she’s in the Outsiders and Valley Girl, with Deborah Foreman, the cute blond. Both are must see classics. The guy in the closet is Uncle Rico from Napoleon Dynamite!
Probably my favorits of the 80s "teen comedies". It was also the year before I went to college, so it gave me a bit of a distorted view of what college might be like.
24:51
Trauma. Even 80's movie villains came complete with childhood trauma. 🤣
“Mythbusters” disproved the popcorn scene.
“ I had a dream last night…”
“OH! Was it the one where you’re standing on top of a great pyramid in long flowing, godlike robes and thousands of naked women are screaming, worshiping and serving little pickles at you?”
“Uh…no?”
“Strange, why am I the only one that has that dream?”
That was my go to quote for years any time anyone said anything about “having a dream“. I don’t think anyone got the joke.
Also, WILLIAM ATHERTON! being his snarky best for a whole movie! A movie that’s not Ghostbusters or Die Hard!
LOL - No guys, that (4:57) was NOT Tom Hanks. 😂
I aint gonna lie, when I was a teen I basically modeled my personality based on Chris Knight.
I've watched this movie at least 5 or 6 times. For some reason when it comes on tv i usually end up watching it. I want to recommend the comedy In & Out (1997) with Kevin Kline, Tom Selleck, directed by Frank Oz
This is the real superbowl
That's crazy. I've seen this movie probably a dozen times but this was the first time I noticed Tom Hanks right when she did.
Same! I was surprised!
@@prescottlange way to ruin our fun
@@prescottlangeactually, It is. He went uncredited in this cameo.
@@prescottlange schizo much?
The Bar scene was filmed in "Barney's Beanery" Well known for it's incredibly huge beer menu as well as the "World's Second Best Chili". Loved to go there when I lived out there in the early 90's.
Was there on a date and she nearly freaked out when 3 of the Members of Metallica sat behind our booth. I told her yeah, and? the place was always being frequented by some good band or other. Like I said. They had the worlds second best chili.
I didn’t recognize him at first but the long haired guy was also Uncle Rico from Napoleon Dynamite 😂
Very few movies make me miss growing up in the 1980s like this one. Iconic (I wound up going to college and studying high power lasers too!) Thanks for reacting, I figured you'd love it. Absolutely slapping soundtrack, too.
15:55 Even today, some people have that "He's 15 and he got a hot woman? Lucky guy!" attitude, but I would hope that, even back in the '80s, people would think "waiting" since he was 12 to have sex with him, was gross and wrong. I wish they had made Jordan like 17, if she had to be older. At least they both would have been minors with only a two year gap.
The actress who played Jordan, Michelle Meyrink, was in The Outsiders, Revenge of the Nerds, Valley Girl, and Nice Girls Don't Explode. I think there are a couple of other movies, but she started acting at 18 and quit when she was 26, saying that it wasn't she wanted out of life. Ironically, she eventually opened an acting school.
This is one of those movies that I love SO MUCH I only allow myself to watch it every few years! This plus Top Secret gave me a lifelong crush on Val Kilmer. Fat, skinny, young, old, don't care--love me some Val Kilmer. I was lucky enough to marry a guy who (still) looks like a cross between Jim Morrison and Val Kilmer--thanks to another Val Kilmer movie, y'all get to see exactly what that looks like, too!
Since I watched him for the first time on a crappy VHS tape, with crappy VHS resolution, after seeing him for the first time and reading the post-movie credits to find out who he was, I thought his name was Yal Kulmer. I remember proudly telling my female friends at school, who were debating whether Don Johnson or Tom Selleck or Kirk Cameron was cuter, that Yal Kulmer was way cuter than any of them.
I was in my early teens when this movie came out and loved it. A lot of great movies came out around that time. I had a crush on Jordan when I first saw this movie.
Cal arts is within 10 blocks of my house. So is Pixar. My kids used to eat lunch at cal arts, as they had an awesome cafeteria, and would allow Oakland tech and far west academy students with off campus privileges to lunch there. They eventually closed the campus to highschool students after a few fights broke out on their grounds...
20:15 - "...just repeat to yourself 'It's just a show, I should really just relax'..."
This came out in the summer of Science movies, This one, My Science Project and Weird Science, for many years Weird Science was my fave but in long run this one is. I have seen this film so many times..it is one of my comfort films.Should have talked about Lazlo (Jon Gries) so many great 80's parts, , Monster Squad, Running Scared,Fright Night 2 and then of course Uncle Rico in Napoleon Dynamite.
Also recommend his leading role in Jackpot. The Hustler but with karaoke.
Despite the change of house, the street and landscape features remain the same, although now much more developed.
To accomplish the feat of making a house get pulled apart by popcorn, the filmmakers had their work cut out for them and it was no easy task. They first had to find a suitable location where a specially-rigged house with hydraulics could be built. The location was in a suburb just north of Los Angeles in Canyon Country which, at that time in the 80’s, was a subdivision under new construction with several open places they could choose to build. Building the house was the easy part, destroying it with popcorn was where the true challenge came into play.
The filmmakers required almost 200 tons of popcorn in order to adequately fill the house and simulate the structure-busting effect. Getting that amount of popcorn was beset with problems and according to actor Gabe Jarret, the first company hired out to pop the popcorn burned down due to overuse of the popping machines. Later batches of the popcorn were treated with fire retardant to avoid combustion and had to be covered on set so that birds seeking a snack wouldn’t be poisoned.
The laser as it hits the house and eventually fills it with popcorn in a jiffy.
In an interview with director, Martha Coolidge, she went on to explain the difficulties they encountered. “… our Special FX guy became an expert on popcorn (which, by the way, weighs 2 pounds per cubic foot). In order to build the exploding house, he had to design all kinds of hydraulic systems to move the popcorn inside. To get that much popcorn, we had to make half of it as we couldn’t buy that much popcorn from commercial companies in that short a period of time. We popped 40 tons ourselves on the lot for 6 weeks with huge poppers outside so the whole lot smelled like popcorn. We bought another 100 tons with a six week advanced order. When we shot on location, we stored the popcorn in 38 40-foot tractor-trailer trucks parked up the road. It took more than a day to clean up the site to do take two, so we had to go shoot other scenes in between. It was also amazing to watch. I’ll never forget tons of popcorn gushing out of that house.”
From: beyondthemarquee.com/37493
That look from Matt when she mentioned popcorn, that was great.
The way the prof was acting around those contractors, I wouldn't be surprised there was already a lot sabotaged that had yet to surface before the popcorn. A lot of things could go wrong in a lot of different places.
"get yourself a jet from pepsi baby" made me cackle, I love Emily's reactions
I think Ryan Reynolds based his whole persona off of Vals performance
Especially in his performance in Van Wilder. Which is another one they should watch if they haven't seen it yet.
Yup. He's the wish version of Val. Not sure how his 15 minutes aren't over yet.
Glad you finally got around to this! One of my all-time favorite movies when I was a little kid - it was on cable all the time :) Val Kilmer is fantastic as usual. I loved the whole laser setup thing, and how can you not love that popcorn ending!
So much broken glass in that popcorn... "Mommy why did all the popcorn turn red?"
I watched this obsessively in the 80s, it was one of the best comedies of the decade. And the soundtrack was stellar.
I remember this movie came out around the time of Weird Science and My Science Project but after Revenge of the Nerds. With real nerds like Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, et al were having their moment.
Parts of the movie are based on real incidents from CalTech (the car prank, for example) - MIT's infamous baby brother in California. The opening credits are a montage of famous inventions that were used for less than pleasant things by the military-industrial complex (thus the song in the credits, "You took advantage of me"). It's basically a love letter to silly nerds. Also, Not-Phoebe Cates' character is a very good (and kind) depiction of someone with ADHD and some form of autism - the portrayal is very much intentional. Also, screaming student? Dean Devlin. As in Independence Day, etc.
Mitch makes a cameo in Karate Kid 3, he’s the kid in the club that gets his nose broken by Daniel 😂😂😂
Cool, I totally thought he was a one hit wonder. Never watched KK3, after my sister said it sucked, and she likes Master of Disguise.
@@samh.8965 he is a one hit wonder lol he was in KK3 for maybe 2 minutes lol
@@johnnyboy7144 He probably got laid a few times off those two minutes.... easy wing man job, "Ladies my boy here was in Karate Kid 3 for two frikken minutes.!"
@@samh.8965 😂
I can't even tell you how many times I've seen this movie since it first turned up on cable in the 80s and I never noticed that Tom Hanks appearance!
Where?
After "laser beans" Pippin said "That's it, I'm out".
right before this film- the guy who plays Kent was in a Tom Hanks film- 'Bachelor Party'- maybe they're friends and he was hanging out on set and did a cameo.
Actually, the film's producer, Brian Grazer, worked on Hanks' big hit film, "Splash" the previous year.
Giving this video a thumbs-up just for "laser beans" alone
Lazlo also being Uncle Rico in Napoleon Dynamite made my brain explode popcorn!!! 🤣🤣
19:34 love this part
Finally somebody reacted to this movie! I love it.
It makes me sooo happy that you guys watched this!!!
That look at the camera at 14:18 was enough to crack me up all by itself.
It’s movies like this that really make me miss the 80’s..
ABSOLUTELY ONE OF THE BEST MOVIES FROM THE 80's. So many great jokes and one-liners - Thanks for the review.
I love it!!!! Val Kilmer is amazing.
Haven't even seen your reaction to this yet, and you're getting a thumbs up from me for this.
This movie is fantastic. More folks should see it. So I appreciate your efforts in that department, regardless of what you actually think.
That being said -- it's time to watch your reaction. Thanks again!
I saw this when I was about 8 years old. When I was in school, they had the whole "What do you want to be when you grow up?"
My answer: Val Kilmer