My Science Project * (1985, John Stockwell, Danielle von Zerneck, Fisher Stevens, Dennis Hopper, Raphael Sbarge, Richard Masur) – Classic Movie Review 13,243

The teen sci-fi comedy film My Science Project stars John Stockwell, Danielle von Zerneck, Fisher Stevens and Dennis Hopper. It is made by Walt Disney’s Touchstone Pictures label, targeted at more adult audiences. 

Writer/ director Jonathan R Beteul’s 1985 American teen science fiction comedy film My Science Project stars John Stockwell, Danielle von Zerneck, Fisher Stevens, Dennis Hopper, Raphael Sbarge, and Richard Masur. It is made by The Walt Disney Company’s Touchstone Pictures label, but was not a hit.

My Science Project is a silly sci-fi adventure about US senior schoolkids who discover an outer space device with the power to create holes in space and time, and so bring dinosaurs, monsters and gladiators into the classroom.

John Stockwell and Danielle von Zerneck star as high school senior Michael Harlan and his bookworm friend Elle Sawyer, who are the duo who enter an army scrapyard to find junk for the boy’s science project and find so much more: a glowing, plasma globe-like piece of scientific equipment.

There are a few funny moments, but smatterings of smut keep the tone low, and the script and direction are strictly ordinary. Fisher Stevens’s performance as the hero’s friend Vince Latello is an irritant, but Dennis Hopper steals the show as the hero’s spaced-out ex-hippie science tutor, Mr Bob Roberts.

Also in the cast are Barry Corbin, Ann Wedgeworth, Candace Silvers, Beau Dremann, Pat Simmons, and Robert Beer.

The film features four original songs: ‘My Science Project’, ‘Hard to Believe’, ‘Hit and Run’ and ‘My Mind’s Made Up’.

Weirdly, it was not a hit, even in a year of similar hit films: Back to the Future, Real Genius, and Weird Science. It peaked at only number 14 on its first US weekend release, and grossed only $4,122,748 in US box office in its two-week run.

It is produced and financed by The Walt Disney Company’s Touchstone Pictures, which featured more mature themes targeted at more adult audiences than typical Walt Disney Pictures films. It was given a 15 certificate in the UK.

My Science Project is directed by Jonathan R Beteul, runs 94 minutes, is made by Touchstone Films and Silver Screen Partners II, is released by Buena Vista Distribution, is written by Jonathan R Beteul, is shot by David M Walsh, is produced by Jonathan T Taplin, is scored by Peter Bernstein, and designed by David N Snyder.

Release date: August 9, 1985.

© Derek Winnert 2024 – Classic Movie Review 13,243

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