posted
Good movie and good performances by John Lithgow and a pre-Sex in the City Cynthia Nixon......
Posts: 3845 | From: Norf Karolina | Registered: Dec 2004 | Site Updates: 0
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posted
Haven't seen this one...I'll have to check it out.
Posts: 2148 | From: Nova Scotia, Canada | Registered: Aug 2007 | Site Updates: 0
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aTomiK
.... has green eyes as well....
Member # 6575
posted
That's a shock aTomiK....you HAVE the DVD. Posts: 3614 | From: Caught Somewhere in Time.... | Registered: May 2008 | Site Updates: 101
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aTomiK
.... has green eyes as well....
Member # 6575
posted
Sort of a 'poor mans' Wargames, but still a really good movie!
Posts: 1278 | From: Denmark,Europe | Registered: Dec 2007 | Site Updates: 3
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Valley Dated Julie From 'Valley Girl' (allegedly!)
Member # 1322
posted
Ronnie, "The Manhattan Project" is a mixture of "War Games" and "Real Genius" in my opinion. You know, smart kid does something he shouldn't, then risks his and his girlfriend's life to save the world. Lithgow is excellent, but for some folks getting to see a young Cynthia Nixon will be kinda cool.
The cast is loaded with recognizable faces including "Dead Poet Society's" Robert Sean Leonard. But here's something for fun......see if you can spot 80's pop icon Debbie Gibson in the background of one of the scenes.
Posts: 7845 | From: Smiling and glancing in awe in the back of a limo | Registered: Mar 2003 | Site Updates: 22
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pettyfan
Livin' next door to the Klopeks
Member # 2260
posted
Gosh, it's been forever since I've seen this one. I remember it being good though.
Posts: 2902 | From: Home Sweet Home | Registered: Jan 2004 | Site Updates: 0
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quote:"The Manhattan Project" is a mixture of "War Games" and "Real Genius" in my opinion
... and nowhere near as good as either. Not great as a thriller and not great as a comedy. I never quite understood how the two main characters didn't get radiation sickness. Having said that, it is a moderately entertaining 80's B-movie. Odd that it was written/Directed by frequent Woody Allen co-writer 'Marshall Brickman'.
Posts: 3383 | From: England | Registered: May 2003 | Site Updates: 21
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posted
i can't seem to find a copy in the local vid stores around here..darn!
thanks valley. i hope to see it soon, debbie gibson is really in a background scene???? interesting!
Posts: 4807 | Registered: Oct 2002 | Site Updates: 39
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posted
This is a good movie. I think you'll like it!
Amazon has it for around $7.00...
Posts: 2729 | From: Kansas City, MO "At the Enchantment Under the Sea Dance" | Registered: Apr 2007 | Site Updates: 9
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posted
I read someone's review of the film that talked about what a selfish jerk the main character is and how he's essentially just a sneering snob who callously risks people's lives just to make a silly point. If you think about it, he's right. Paul is kind of a ****.
Posts: 835 | From: Hawaii | Registered: Aug 2008 | Site Updates: 0
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aTomiK
.... has green eyes as well....
Member # 6575
posted
Just watched Manhattan Project and it was a decent flick.
Cynthia Nixon & John Lithgow were awesome and journey´s right, that Christopher Collet´s Paul character really was a selfish jerk.
I like science stuff in movies and the 80s feeling was kind of perfect here.
Posts: 7054 | From: Finland | Registered: Feb 2008 | Site Updates: 7
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I re-watched The Manhattan Project (1986) the other day..
Put WarGames (1983), My Science Project (1985), and Real Genius (1985) in a blender, and out comes The Manhattan Project !
Well, sort of.. but it lacks the quality of WarGames, the fantasy element of My Science Project, and the comedy of Real Genius. Yet it is not without a fair dose of typical 80s charm, especially in the scenes set at a high-school early on in the movie.
One crucial aspect of the story puzzles me though : Why is someone who's willing to risk his own life in his attempt to expose a government facility for building nuclear weapons, so eager to build one of his own ?? That doesn't make sense, right ?
Perhaps not an 80s classic, but still decent enough to entartain for 110 minutes or so.
Released on VHS here in Holland in the first quarter of 1988 under its alternate title Deady Game.
Posts: 2176 | From: The Netherlands | Registered: Jun 2011 | Site Updates: 0
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posted
While I certainly enjoyed The Manhattan Project back in 1986, I'm pretty sure that it hasn't aged well. WarGames and Real Genius still hold up well. I've never really been a fan of My Science Project. It's okay, but nothing special. Weird Science, released at about the same time, is funnier.
Posts: 2008 | From: Dixieland | Registered: Oct 2008 | Site Updates: 0
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posted
I've never seen The Manhattan Project but have wanted to for quite some time now,I do agree that both Wargames and Real Genius still hold up really well despite the rapid advances in technology and how primitive Broderick's computer set up now looks https://youtu.be/KXzNo0vR_dU .
God knows how many times I watched Wargames during my youth but it must have been seriously getting up there,such a great movie and director John Badham was seriously on a roll that year (83) what with that and also the extremely entertaining Blue Thunder.
Posts: 3243 | From: canterbury united kingdom | Registered: Mar 2011 | Site Updates: 0
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quote:While I certainly enjoyed The Manhattan Project back in 1986, I'm pretty sure that it hasn't aged well. WarGames and Real Genius still hold up well. I've never really been a fan of My Science Project. It's okay, but nothing special. Weird Science, released at about the same time, is funnier.
I always thought My Science Project was a missed opportunity. Could have been really good with a decent rewrite. It didn't know what it wanted to be. Weird Science was much more of a slapstick comedy - with, of course, the Hughes touch.
quote:God knows how many times I watched Wargames during my youth but it must have been seriously getting up there,such a great movie and director John Badham was seriously on a roll that year (83) what with that and also the extremely entertaining Blue Thunder.
Wargames is one of those movies that was very slightly under the top tier movies of the time (Jedi, Gremlins, Ghostbusters, etc). Loved it then and still love it now, but because the tech has aged it seems more dated and gets marginalised a little more.
Badham doesn't get nearly enough play as far as I'm concerned. He made a lot of really entertaining movies:
Saturday Night Fever (1977) Dracula (1979) Blue Thunder (1983) WarGames (1983) Short Circuit (1986) Stakeout (1987) Bird on a Wire (1990) The Hard Way (1991)
Posts: 3383 | From: England | Registered: May 2003 | Site Updates: 21
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posted
I don't know what happened with John Badham. He was clearly a good director who had a hot streak including those two terrific 1983 films (It is so rare for a director to have two great films in the same year. Coppola did it with The Conversation and The Godfather, Part II. DePalma had Obsession and Carrie.) The time 1993-97 seemed to have done him in. His Midas touch of box-office hits ran out, and he had critical and financial disappointment after disappointment like Point of No Return, Nick of Time, and Drop Zone. Then I remember that he did Incognito which the studio didn't release, and then it was off to direct for TV. That's a real shame. He had a great eye for action scenes. (John Landis's career ran out of steam right about the same time. Now he directs for TV too.)
Posts: 2008 | From: Dixieland | Registered: Oct 2008 | Site Updates: 0
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posted
'Bird on a Wire' was given mediocre reviews as I recall, but was a big hit. 'Hard Way' had better reviews, but somehow didn't make the money it should as it was a really fun movie. 'Nick of Time' was pretty good, and I recall 'Drop Zone' getting a lot of hype. Maybe it was his own choice? TV offers more flexibility in some ways. It does seem odd though.
Posts: 3383 | From: England | Registered: May 2003 | Site Updates: 21
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