High school student Michael Harlan (John Stockwell) is a kid with a fairly narrow focus: he's a car junkie. His girl dumps him because she thinks he spends more time tinkering with cars than with her. To get his science teacher Bob Roberts (Dennis Hopper) off his back, Mike scours a local military junkyard for any piece of junk that he can pass off as a science project. Well, the item that he steals is no ordinary junk: it was discovered back in the 1950s and is apparently an alien device that can create time-space warps. When Mike, his buddy Vince (Fisher Stevens), and Bob start messing around with the thing, an immense amount of havoc ensues as the high school is inundated with characters and animals from the past and a possible future.Debuting director Jonathan R. Betuel, who'd written "The Last Starfighter", does alright with this first feature. It doesn't display *that* much imagination (we get cavemen, mutants, and a dinosaur, but not that much more), but it does have some good energy. Nicely shot in 2.35:1, it gets off to a solid start, and the characters are amusing to watch. Stockwell is likable in his first top billed role (after playing the best friend to car junkie Keith Gordon in "Christine"), and Danielle von Zerneck is appealing as his leading lady. Stevens, and Raphael Sbarge as the nerdy Sherman, are very much playing stereotypes, but they do give the roles 100%. The adult actors are largely wasted - Barry Corbin as Mikes' dad, Ann Wedgeworth as the dads' new wife, Richard Masur (who gets to be broader than usual) as a detective. The true standout performance in "My Science Project" comes from Hopper, who's perfectly cast as the former hippie who's all too happy to relive his protest filled youth. Robert DoQui, Michael Berryman, Pamela Springsteen, and an uncredited Al Leong all have small roles.The music by Peter Bernstein is appropriate, the visual effects are well done overall (especially that dinosaur, the work of Doug Beswicks' team), and there are some funny lines here and there. All in all, the movie is juvenile, silly, and ridiculous, but it does do a respectable job of entertaining its audience. Stevens's line (used as my summary), when asked why he's wearing shades indoors, is truly a howler.Seven out of 10.

A car jock, his comedy sidekick, and a cute science geek have to work together to save the town from the destructive consequences of awakening an alien artifact of immense power. It may not be original, but it is a great idea for a story, and the first half hour or so works brilliantly. Unfortunately the logic and character development suddenly goes out the window at a certain point, becoming just an excuse for genre-jumping action sequences and special effects. Dennis Hopper shines whenever he is on screen: if this had been a movie about the science teacher, it would have been far more watchable. The other characters never really expand beyond their stereotypes.The latter half of the story feels like it is assembled by taking a tour through a bunch of different sound stages on a Hollywood lot, and just hoping it'll all fit together somehow. Putting dinosaurs and laser guns and roman gladiators together may seem like the perfect recipe for excitement, but without a point to it, and without any sense of why or what is happening, there isn't much reason to care about any of it. There is no glue keeping all the assembled pieces together. It has a certain B-grade charm, but not enough to make it a classic.

The first time I see it it was on the VHS decades and I was a teenage looking for excitement. Guess what? I got it with this movie. I love everything of this production. The character, the story and the FX. After watching this movie last night I realize that It have a lot of influence from the Ghostbusters movies.The funny Characters, wonderfully play by the actors and the special effects. I have to say the Fx are incredible, even is 1985. Back in those days, a lot of the lightning, were make manually painted frame by frame and until this day they look awesome. If you like Ghostbusters you going to love this one.

Man I've been watching My Science Project since way back when I was a kid. It was better then but the only thing that has really dated it is the special effects. The story is still good, Fisher Stevens is still funny, and Dennis Hopper is still far out man! I'm not saying that this movie is better than Star Wars or anything but it's a pretty good example of cheesy 80's Sci-Fi. The trick to watching My Science Project or indeed, any movie from the 80's, is to not take it seriously. Turn off the white hot critic's eye and just enjoy this movie for what it is. It's a great movie. Bottom Line: I can't think of many 80's movies in this genre that are this film's equal, except for maybe The Last Starfighter. If you can let me know.