In a word: annoying!For the first 45 minutes or so I kept asking myself, "Why? What does he get out of this?" A stupid science experiment and a "story" for the girl he likes. Thing is - neither of those things happen! The girl, sensibly, ends up saying "Uh, this is a bad idea." And he never even gets to do the science experiment thing, or whatever that was. Stupid movie. Another case of some douche being annoying in a typical 80s kind of way.John Lithgow is in it, he was OK. A young, cute, heterosexual Cynthia Nixon is in it. The dad from Frasier is in it, I don't even know his name or care what it is. A movie for an afternoon nap. Hopefully you fall asleep quickly so you don't have to see too much of it.4/10

Not quite understanding the bad reviews here. Going in it's easy to see immediately that this movie was going to be flippant and a bit of a fairy tale. How can anyone take it seriously? Instead, just sit back and enjoy the ride.This movie is basically a series of unlikely events strung together. Can they happen, sure but probably in another dimension. But still, I found this film a guilty pleasure. It's best to just put your mind on hold for a bit and just have fun.On a side note, I really miss the 80's version of John Lithgow. He is such a great actor and back then he was at his prime.

This movie probably belongs on a lot of lists, but this belongs in the category of being a comedy, the same way that baseball should be extended to eighteen innings to better compete with golf. One list that this movie would be on would be "If it weren't for another movie, this one wouldn't have gotten made". The movie that opened the door for this one is "WarGames" which this movie has one theme in common, "How close to Armageddon are we, really?". While I did have problems with some of the movie's minor points as to how the bomb came to be built, the choice by the editors to edit out some of the more dated comments that occurred after the science fair was a good move, especially in the post-9/11 world, given the Science Fair was held in New York City.

This film is entertaining enough, in fact it is quite exciting. However, in a real-life scenario, the end result would not and could not have had such a clichéd "Hollywood ending", so in that respect it sort of resembles a "fractured fairytale". The storyline is credible enough with a bit of imagination stretching, the acting is tolerable, only the irony is laid on a bit too thick. I found the attitude of the principal character to be much too cynical, unrealistic and extremely condescending, even for the likes of some precocious, science-savvy prodigy. Getting back to the entertainment value, the plot progresses expectedly only it thickens toward the direction of the surrealistic, though the basic concept is actually pretty frightening. However, the movie is watchable with its impressive cast; a young Cynthia Nixon, John Lithgow, Chris Collet et al. I have mixed feelings about this film, I did enjoy watching it, but when I began to rationalize it began to appear quite nonsensical. So, if you intend on watching it, simply keep your powers of logic and common sense subdued and it will remain an enjoyable experience.