X
  • 1985
  • PG
  • TriStar Pictures
  • 1 h 48 m
  • 1985
  • PG
  • TriStar Pictures
  • 1 h 48 m

Summary Lazlo Olliefeld in steam tunnels. No purchase necessary, enter as often as you want. Teen geniuses deal with their abilities while developing a high-powered laser for a university project. When their professor intends to make unsavory use of their creation, they get even more creative.

Directed By: Martha Coolidge

Written By: Neal Israel, Pat Proft, PJ Torokvei

  • 1985
  • PG
  • TriStar Pictures
  • 1 h 48 m
  • 1985
  • PG
  • TriStar Pictures
  • 1 h 48 m
Real Genius
Metascore Generally favorable Based on 15 Critic Reviews
71
User Score Generally favorable Based on 9 User Ratings
7.3
My Score
Hover and click to give a rating Saved

Where to Watch

Summary Lazlo Olliefeld in steam tunnels. No purchase necessary, enter as often as you want. Teen geniuses deal with their abilities while developing a high-powered laser for a university project. When their professor intends to make unsavory use of their creation, they get even more creative.

Directed By: Martha Coolidge

Written By: Neal Israel, Pat Proft, PJ Torokvei

Where to Watch

Top Cast

View All
View All Cast & Crew

Critic Reviews

 View All
Metascore
Generally favorable Based on 15 Critic Reviews
71
53% Positive
8 Reviews
47% Mixed
7 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews

  • All Reviews
  • Positive Reviews
  • Mixed Reviews
  • Negative Reviews

Critic Reviews

 View All
Metascore
Generally favorable Based on 15 Critic Reviews
71
53% Positive
8 Reviews
47% Mixed
7 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews

  • All Reviews
  • Positive Reviews
  • Mixed Reviews
  • Negative Reviews
100
Real Genius is great, the freshest, most insouciant Hollywood inspiration since Risky Business. Director Martha Coolidge was handed a fleet cast and a well- oiled screenplay and she plumb took off. The darn thing works so well it fairly sings. [12 Aug 1985]
FULL REVIEW
90
It's a brisk, smart satirical comedy from the writers of "Police Academy" and the director of "Valley Girl," set in a Caltech-like institution for the whiz kids of the sciences. How refreshing it is to see young people depicted as having a capacity for thought as well as emotion.
By Kevin Thomas FULL REVIEW
88
Real Genius contains many pleasures, but one of the best is its conviction that the American campus contains life as we know it.
By Roger Ebert FULL REVIEW
70
What lifts the production above the run-of-the-mill is swift direction by Martha Coolidge, who has a firm grasp over the manic material.
FULL REVIEW
60
The humor is relentlessly cruel, smug, and disconnected from any sense of how human beings might behave in similar situations. But though she's hardly able to dominate the project, director Martha Coolidge does manage to insert some of the sweetly eccentric characterization that distinguished her Valley Girl: one of the heroes, played by Gabe Jarret, is actually believable and sympathetic as a socially insecure adolescent, and a few of the minor figures are brought to life with deft, simple strokes. Though ultimately obnoxious, the film lingers in the mind for a few moments of genuine charm.
By Dave Kehr FULL REVIEW
50
Many of the scenes, already badly written, fail to fulfill their screwball potential. Real Genius should be applauded as a higher class of passage movie. But despite its enthusiastic young cast and its many good intentions, it doesn't quite succeed. I guess there's a leak in the think tank. [9 Aug 1985, p.19]
By Rita Kempley FULL REVIEW
50
While the characters are fairly offbeat and interesting, the film is weighed down by some tediously handled camp intrigue, political skullduggery, and $2 million worth of special effects.
FULL REVIEW

User Reviews

There are no user reviews yet. Be the first to add a review.

Details

 View All
Production Company Delphi III Productions
Release Date Aug 7, 1985
Duration 1 h 48 m
Rating PG
Genres
Tagline Who ELSE can turn lasers into light shows, aircraft into armchairs, and high-tech into hijinks?
View All Details

Awards

Paris Film Festival
• 2 Wins & 2 Nominations
Young Artist Awards
• 2 Nominations

Related Movies

Celine and Julie Go Boating (1974)

100
Universal acclaim

City Lights

99
Universal acclaim

Singin' in the Rain

99
Universal acclaim

Playtime

99
Universal acclaim

The Rules of the Game

99
Universal acclaim

Pinocchio

99
Universal acclaim

Some Like It Hot

98
Universal acclaim

Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb

97
Universal acclaim

American Graffiti

97
Universal acclaim

Ratatouille

96
Universal acclaim

A Hard Day's Night (re-release)

96
Universal acclaim

Modern Times (re-release)

96
Universal acclaim

The Producers

96
Universal acclaim

Toy Story

96
Universal acclaim

The Lady Eve

96
Universal acclaim

Nashville

96
Universal acclaim

The Shop Around the Corner

96
Universal acclaim

The Philadelphia Story

96
Universal acclaim

La Dolce Vita

95
Universal acclaim

The Apartment

94
Universal acclaim

Sideways

94
Universal acclaim

Inside Out

94
Universal acclaim

Related News

Director Roxanne Benjamin Gender-Flips Gaslighting and Parental Tropes in Horror Film 'There's Something Wrong With the Children'

Director Roxanne Benjamin Gender-Flips Gaslighting and Parental Tropes in Horror Film 'There's Something Wrong With the Children'

Danielle Turchiano

'To me, [the film] was more about the idea of family and what it's supposed to look like,' the director tells Metacritic. 'You might have to fight against that continually until you die.'

  • movies
2023 Critics Choice Awards Winners: From 'Better Call Saul' to 'Everything Everywhere All at Once'

2023 Critics Choice Awards Winners: From 'Better Call Saul' to 'Everything Everywhere All at Once'

Danielle Turchiano

Find out who took home trophies at the 28th Annual Critics Choice Awards.

  • movies
With 'The Drop,' Director Sarah Adina Smith Has Made Her Most Personal Movie Yet — And in a Genre She Never Expected to Work In

With 'The Drop,' Director Sarah Adina Smith Has Made Her Most Personal Movie Yet — And in a Genre She Never Expected to Work In

Sam Rosenberg

The comedy was born out of a conversation between Smith and her DP husband Shaheen Seth about the female equivalent of the protagonist's bad action in 'Force Majeure.'

  • movies
2023 DGA Awards Theatrical Nominations: From Steven Spielberg to John Patton Ford

2023 DGA Awards Theatrical Nominations: From Steven Spielberg to John Patton Ford

Danielle Turchiano

Find out who was nominated for theatrical film DGA Awards in 2023.

  • movies
2023 SAG Awards Nominations: 'Everything Everywhere All at Once' and 'Ozark' Score Big, 'The White Lotus' Switches Categories

2023 SAG Awards Nominations: 'Everything Everywhere All at Once' and 'Ozark' Score Big, 'The White Lotus' Switches Categories

Danielle Turchiano

Find out which actors from film and television earned Screen Actors Guild Awards nominations at the 29th annual celebration.

  • movies