Amazing Stories (TV Series) Miscalculation (1986) User Reviews

'Addicted to Love'

[sonnyschlaegel · 7/10 · 25 April 2007]

Phil is a college student who is desperately looking for a girl-friend. The formulae in 'The College Man's Guide to Picking up Women' don't work, and even his Don-Johnson-Miami-Vice-style clothes don't help. But by coincidence he finds another formula, a chemical one: during a lesson, he accidentally spills two different chemicals on a magazine cover. The chemicals mix and produce an amazing effect: the dog on the magazine cover comes alive. Phil takes the chemicals home and spills some of it on another magazine cover - one that shows a beautiful woman. The woman comes alive, but she's abnormally tall. It's probably because he has applied a little too much of the chemicals, but - luckily - the woman vanishes after a short time, and Phil still has some of the chemicals left for further attempts...

I liked this episode. I liked the actors, and the story is funny in my opinion. It also has some horror elements: Phil's attempts at getting women out of pictures and into his life go wrong, so the women who appear aren't dream girls but nightmares. The ending has some funny little twists that I liked.

I think this story has some similarities to 'The Main Attraction' (#1.2). The main character in that episode is also a young student, in both stories there's an unpopular girl who's infatuated with the main character, and both stories are comedies. So I think if you liked 'The Main Attraction' you'll probably like this episode, too.

Will a potion lead to love or twist to a gory like end!

[blanbrn · 8/10 · 2 June 2022]

"Miscalculation" an "Amazing Stories" episode from season 2 that first aired on Sep. 29, 1986 was clearly and for sure one of the better ones that was well written and the story twist at the end with a shock of something you didn't see coming. Phil(Jon Cryer well before his star "Two and a Half Men" days) is a nerdy college student who lives a lonely dorm life eating pizza and he has no luck with women only things change somewhat when in chemistry lab class a potion is spilled onto a fashion magazine it's like all of a sudden a model comes to life! These experiments are tried time after time on his pinup mags and it's like the size is just not right! Only when things seem to match just right with paper and potion, timing and position is out of place as the episode ends twisted like and a new spill may bring a gory transformation. Overall good well done memorable episode of the series.

Great Story

[gary_jabo · 9/10 · 30 November 2006]

Excellent story told on video. Presented in the true spirit of Amazing stories, that is, the story has many twists and presents true fiction just outside the bounds of reality. I enjoyed this episode a lot. The story starts out slow and believable but turns to fiction rapidly. The viewer is left thinking what will happen next. Directors did a wonderful job of staging this episode with live action characters even though the subject material is not completely believable. This episode is one of my favorites but not necessarily the best of the Amazing Stories series. I was a big fan of the series when it first came out. I was particularly attracted to the opening sequence filled with computer graphics. That graphics was groundbreaking animation for its day and holds my interest today. Spielberg and his staff are at their best in presenting this series.

So Predictable and So Ridiculous

[Hitchcoc · 5/10 · 25 May 2014]

John Cryer who gained stardom on "Two and a Half Men" is a teenager who is fixated on women. He is an absolute putz who uses a book to give him advice on meeting women. Of course, it's a failure. He shoots so high that he has no hope. Then one day in chemistry class, he spills a couple chemicals on dog book and the dog comes to life. What follows are a series of "miscalculations" where he pours the stuff on fashion models' pictures. Unfortunately, he has no idea what he is doing and the girls come out deformed or giant or missing their skin. There is byplay with a pizza guy, and, of course, the really attractive girl who lives in the same apartment building. I really tired of it and didn't find the thing all that funny. It also set things up for a totally predictable conclusion.

Like a bad episode of "Weird Science" combined with "The Wizard of Oz".

[planktonrules · 2/10 · 23 June 2015]

In this episode, Jon Cryer plays a complete creep. His dorm room is covered in pinup pictures and he's forever making obnoxious remarks to women to try to pick them up--with predictable results. However, this nasty little creep accidentally creates a formula which causes living creatures from photos to come to life. At first, he does this with a dog and later he manages to bring sexy ladies to life--and inexplicably they want him. Unfortunately for him, it never quite works out correctly and they soon melt--much like the Wicked Witch in "The Wizard of Oz".

This episode appears to be a bad knockoff of "Weird Science"--which is a bad film. So, ripping off crap is a sure sign of what the quality is of this show. All in all, a rather unappealing episode filled with bad acting, poor direction and a dopey script. It's as if the show was created by a group of 7th grade boys...horny 7th grade boys.