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| Val Kilmer in REAL GENIUS Year: 1985 Rating: **** |
In two consecutive years, William Atherton played a smug antagonist against underdog scientific protagonists... in GHOSTBUSTERS he wanted to shut down the titular agency and in REAL GENIUS he's a television science-broadcaster using his high-tech university's two most brilliant students to create a laser that the military ultimately wants to...
Well whatever's going on in the cold-war subplot doesn't make much sense, so the third-act revenge-scheme against Atherton is basically when GENIUS loses the audience (like the TRADING PLACES Wall Street sting)...
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| Val Kilmer in REAL GENIUS |
But what really works is the ANIMAL HOUSE nature of the group of students, led by a similar hybrid of handsome, quick-witted, smart-alleck Tim Matheson and zany partier John Belushi enveloped into soon-to-be TOP GUN superstar/heartthrob Val Kilmer...
What's ironic is, in real life, Kilmer studied at Julliard, excelled in important stage plays and was all about the ultra-serious acting method... winding up (after an anti-drinking Afterschool Special) starring in the wacky WW2-parody TOP SECRET followed by REAL GENIUS, providing him a looser/funnier role where his glib and offbeat comedic timing was put to perfect use...
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| Gabriel Jarret in REAL GENIUS |
Which is the most effective in more subtle ways, with physical gestures/expressions backing the lighting-paced quips banking off rival (and also effectively caustic) Atherton, the only character unscathed by Kilmer/Knight's antics...
Meanwhile, his most frequent victim is the young new student brought in as a science-partner protege, and is technically the central character in brilliant 15-year-old Mitch Taylor, played with sublime vulnerability by Gabriel Jarret, who has Tom Hulce's ANIMAL HOUSE-style virginal innocence (romanced by REVENGE OF THE NERDS geek's dream-girl Michelle Meyrink)...
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| Val Kilmer in REAL GENIUS |
Some of the best scenes has the flustered kid slowly getting used to Kilmer's devil-may-care attitude... eventually becoming a genuine-team sharing terrific chemistry against the preppy odds in this cult campus comedy...
That, directed by punk-rock guru Martha Coolidge with a soundtrack of techy new wave songs, is far more effective targeting/involving fellow students (like scene-stealing senior weenie Robert Prescott) than what's ultimately yet another Anti-Regan Era political message.
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| From REAL GENIUS |
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| Robert Prescott in REAL GENIUS |
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Gabriel Jarret in REAL GENIUS
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| Gabriel Jarret in REAL GENIUS |
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| William Atherton in REAL GENIUS |
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Robert Prescott in REAL GENIUS with William Atherton
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| Val Kilmer in REAL GENIUS |
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| Val Kilmer and Robert Prescott in REAL GENIUS |
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| Jon Gries in in REAL GENIUS |
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| Deborah Foreman in REAL GENIUS |
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| Robert Prescott in REAL GENIUS |
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| Gabriel Jarret in REAL GENIUS |
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| Gabriel Jarret and Michelle Meyrink in REAL GENIUS |
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| Tina Pisanelli (I actually kissed this girl in the 1980's) from REAL GENIUS |
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| Val Kilmer and Harry Johnson in REAL GENIUS |
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| Val Kilmer and Gabriel Jarret in REAL GENIUS |
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| Jon Gries in REAL GENIUS |
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| Val Kilmer and Gabriel Jarret in REAL GENIUS |
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| Val Kilmer and Gabriel Jarret in REAL GENIUS |
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| William Atherton in REAL GENIUS |
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| Robert Prescott and William Atherton in REAL GENIUS |
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| Lynda Wiesmeier and Val Kilmer in REAL GENIUS |
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| Val Kilmer in REAL GENIUS |
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