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  • Is it age appropriate?

    About our ratings

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    Not age appropriate for kids under 13, age appropriate for kids over 15; suggested age 14.
  • Is it any good?

    3.0
  • Common Sense says

    Guilty-pleasure '80s horny-geek sci-fi sex comedy.

Themes in this movie include:   dating/crushes, family relationships, gender issues, growing up, revenge

Why We Rated This iffy for Ages 14–15

What to watch out for

  • Messages:

    The whole weekend of carousing, rule-breaking, illicit drinking, and (possibly) underage sex is supposedly engineered by Lisa as a character-building exercise to help mature the two friendless, nerdy teens, and there is lip-service given to the moral that you don't need hot automobiles, trophy babes, and apocalyptic parties to be cool guys who can get dates. Funny, though, there would not have been much of a movie without those ingredients. Pointing a big gun at some marauders and speeding/shaking off pursuers in a dangerous police car-chase are upheld as positive growth.
  • Role models :

    As was customary in John Hughes' films, parents/grownups are portrayed as idiots, compared to the clever and smart-alecky kids (though a bullying older brother is also presented as one of the most vile characters imaginable). Stereotypes of initially menacing urban blacks in a blues-type saloon. While the synthetic Lisa continually states her slavelike obedience to the two boys who created her, she's also the strongest and smartest of any character onscreen (rather more so than the "real" females too).
  • Violence:

    A loaded gun is brandished more than once, chiefly against a quartet of punk-mutant villains who commit acts of mayhem and vandalism. Reckless driving, including a car chase (against police) that races to beat pursuers to a train crossing. "Wedgies" and other teen-torture bullying.
  • Sex:

    Full-profile nudity in a girl losing all her clothes in a whirlwind. Toplessness on a computer screen (a wire-frame schematic, of ever-growing female breasts) and porn-magazine layouts. Euphemistic talk of masturbation. Sex is a preoccupation with the male heroes, beginning with their leering stares at a "gymnastics class" of shapely schoolgirls. After conjuring the obedient fantasy-figure Lisa, the nerds are so nervous that they can't perform sexually, keeping clothes on and hands at sides while showering with her. It's unclear whether the guys have actually had intercourse with two (mortal) girlfriends -- or just cuddled with them in bed overnight (though the intended audience will probably assume they "scored").
  • Language:

    "S--t" is used repeatedly, plus "asshole," "bitch," "dickweed," and a few others.
  • Consumerism:

    A plethora of product labels, including beer, magazines such as Playboy, and major retail chains, the status-symbol Porsche and Ferrari automobiles (plus a pink Cadillac), and the board game Life.
 

What Parents Need to Know

About Weird Science

Parents need to know that this popular '80s comedy -- an early recipient of the new PG-13 rating -- has frequent adolescent sex, booze, and boob and drug jokes. Two main characters are lust-driven and manage to create a beautiful artificial woman as a sex-fantasy plaything -- but they are unsuccessful in their timid efforts to get something started with her and end up treating the bombshell more like a big sister. There are scenes of underage drinking (as a bonding exercise with threatening black males), much swearing (usually the s-word), and cavalier behavior with cars and a gun. Nudity includes a girl who loses all her clothes (in profile) in a windstorm, and a schematic of bare breasts on a PC monitor. Recreational drugs are briefly mentioned.

Did this review help you decide?

Families Can Talk About

  • Families can talk about the tone of the comedy. How does this relate to John Hughes' more sensitive dramas of teen angst and empowerment, such as The Breakfast Club and 16 Candles?
  • Compare-contrast Weird Science with the underrated S1m0ne, a later and realistic comedy about a man facing unexpected travails when he evokes a "perfect" woman via software. How do kids feel about making idealized "avatars" on social-networking sites and interactive online games?
  • How does this movie compare to modern-day teen sex comedies? Are the jokes here still funny? If the movie was remade, how would it be different now?

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Most Recent Reviews

  1. Teen Reviewer Age 14
    Lives in Michigan
    I rate this title on for age 14 and give it 4.0
    My concerns are:
    • Inappropriate sexual content
    • Inappropriate language

    A great movie that has every teen boy's fantasies!

    This is a very good movie for teen BOYS i can not stress than enough, if you are a girl you will not find one thing about this movie to like. It dose have some issues though: 1. some violence, guns are brandished and an a couple cases shot (no one is hurt), a scary looking biker gang attack teens at a party. 2. lots of sexual refrences and breif nudity. 3. language includes: S--t, d--k, h--l, d--n and b--ch. So overall this is a fun movie for teen boys!

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