Amazon.com video review:
An underrated little picture, Real Genius offers a rare
college comedy that doesn't rely on gross-out humor--and a look at Val
Kilmer before he turned into a star. A high school whiz kid (Gabriel
Jarret) arrives at a brainy college, where the crème de la
crème of the science students are marshaled under an ambitious
professor (expert villain William Atherton). Unbeknownst to them, the
kids are working on a weapons system that the prof plans on selling to
the government. The star student, and chief rabble-rouser, is played
by Kilmer, in good early form as a cocky genius who hasn't lost touch
with his goofy side. The director is Martha Coolidge, whose Valley Girl was
one of the brightest (and most unexpected) of '80s comedies; she
keeps the movie perking along and never worries about dumbing down a
film that just happens to be about smart people. --Robert
Horton
