Wish fulfilment features strongly in Weird Science – but Gary and Wyatt, two social outcasts who get in over their heads after they create their perfect woman and find themselves the centre of attention, don’t quite have the poise to carry off their plans with the same ease as the smoother-than-smooth Ferris Bueller.
A comic book adaptation that mixes sci-fi with teen comedy and whose goofier side owes a debt to Hughes’ work with National Lampoon, Weird Science can be a difficult title to place neatly in the filmmaker’s oeuvre. It has developed something of a cult following, though, for its pulpy edge, refreshed take on familiar formulas and choice early appearances from the likes of Robert Downey Jr. and Bill Paxton.