FlashCallahan
Michael and Ellie break into a military junkyard to find a science project for Michael's class, and discover a strange glowing orb which absorbs electricity. When the orb begins to blend past, present, and future, its up to Michael and Ellie to stop the orb and save mankind......Fisher Stevens is a fun screen presence, John Stockwell isn't, that's why I would have rather have had Stevens in the central role, rather than Cletus the slack jawed yokel.And its easy to see why this film vanished without a trace, unlike similar films like BTTF, because that film was consistent fun, whereas this film doesn't get going until the final twenty minutes, when it's admittedly fun.But you have to get through a whole hour of mundane narrative, and predictable stereotypes to get there. We know the girl with the glasses will end up with Stockwell, we know Stevens will be the best thing in the film, and yes, the makers decided to keep Hopper out of the film for the majority of it, and bring him back in his Easy Rider garb.Its a shame, because it is a wonderful concept, but it should have been more family orientated, because it's too immature for its target demographic.
Lynn F
If you've never seen this movie before, give it a try...It's a great 80's high school flick. Add it to your collection with Sixteen Candles, Weird Science, The Breakfast Club, Ferris Buehler and Pretty in Pink. Plus, John Stockwell looks yummy driving his massively sweet red GTO. He was a pretty good actor before he became a pretty good director, too. Vinnie (the guy who played Ben in the Short Circuit movies) has some awesome one liners and Dennis Hopper plays a hysterical former hippie science teacher. Plus, you can laugh at the 80's special effects and realize how good we have it now. Give it a try, it's a good time. If you like this one, also try The Philadelphia Experiment. Another 80's sci-fi flick that has pretty similar special effects.
Pepper Anne
'My Science Project' was a fun idea. John Stockwell is Michael Harlan, a slacker car jock who's got to come up with a real science project if he wants to pass his class. Digging around in some condemned military land, he finds a wierd gadget that causes major van damage. In the course of trying to figure out the extent of power of the little electrifying gizmo, his hippie science teacher, Bob (Dennis Hopper) is sucked into a time warp. But, he doesn't leave before figuring out that the thing that Mike Harlan found opens up all time warps. So, now Harlan and his friend Vince Latello (Fisher Stevens), Ellie Sawyer (Danielle von Zerneck), and a hopeless nerd named Sherman (Raphael Sbarge) have to fix the time dimensions while getting chased by strange guys from the government and dinosaurs and midevil warriors, and everything else. Mike's got a real mess on his hands.It's probably one of the few films I really liked John Stockwell in because he didn't have to try to hard to be Mike Harlan, slacker car jockey who doesn't say much and likes to be left alone. Although, the better character in the movie was his big shot friend, Vince. But that's a typical kind of character for Fisher Stevens, who's always good in comedy.
And yes, as one viewer already mentioned, it follows a long line of 80s science fiction comedy or 80s sci-fi teen movies like 'Real Genius' (teens build a super laser); 'Back to the Future' (teen travels to past, present, and future via a Delorean time machine); Weird Science (teens make a girl on their computer); 'Peggy Sue Got Married' (adult goes back in time to relive being a teen); 'Mac and Me' (teens find friendly alien family), and so forth. I like the idea for 'My Science Project,' but having all of the people and creatures from different time periods land in the present-day lacked a lot of fun that could've been achieved from a movie (perhaps a longer movie) like this. The finale battle scenes against the enemies from different time dimensions all took place in the school. So, the setting was static, and somewhat boring after awhile. Probably, too, because it was done so cheaply. A lot more could've been done if they were allowed to expand the setting by allowing Harlan and his friends to travel through time, too.Nonetheless, if this be your cup of tea, then cheers!
GordonFly
I love 'My Science Project'. I first saw it on HBO one day back in 87 and loved it right away, it's a great sci-fi thriller, with many moments of comedy as well.SPOILER ALERT!!!It concerns a car nut high school student played by John Stockwell (you'd think that after the hell he went through with Christine, he'd stay the heck away from cars), who needs a science project to pass his science class, problem is, he doesn't have one. So one night he, and his new girlfreind are rumaging around in an old military junk yard outside of town hoping to find something suitable to impress his teacher, and find a very odd little machine. It's high tech looking, with a glass globe mounted in the middle that when powered up, emits electricity that resembles one of those plasma globes you'd find at Spencers Gifts in the mall. As he's cleaning it, he decides to hook it up to a power supply, this turns out to be a huge mistake as 'the gizmo', as it's called in the film, turns out to be an engine from a spacecraft and can locally warp time and space, bringing objects and people from other times into our own. It soon goes wildly out of control and eventually the whole school is caught in a warp, and it's up to Stockwell, and his wise cracking freind, played wonderfully by Fisher Stevens, to shut down the gizmo for good.A very underrated film, with impressive visuals that still hold up well (except for the dinosaur), great acting from it's cast, inspired writing, and when watched on a good surround set up, a great audio mix to boot. It means no harm, and is fun.