Absurd film. This is exactly what you get when Hollywood tries to go scientific-in this case nuclear physics.A young lad, a prankster with a brain, together with his girlfriend steal plutonium from the lab. His mother has become friendly with scientist John Lithgow.With the nuclear material, our young lad has made a small bomb. The FBI and other federal agents are after our young hero. They point rifles to his chest.The best part of this ridiculous film was how the dynamic duo were able to pull off their caper.Then of course, we must have the deactivating of the bomb, and how that's done before the deadline and mom and the girlfriend rushing up to our hero at film's end. Let's go beyond this and pursue how this recalcitrant should have been tried for stealing this material and placing the northeast in such jeopardy.The film is a miserable one. It made me think of my miserable chemistry teacher and how she tortured me. The film tortured me as well.

Here's a textbook example of all the post-'ET' rip-offs pitting bright teenagers against bad grown-ups, in this case packaged like an updated manual of mid-1980s commercial movie-making clichés. It's all here: the playful young smart-aleck prodigy (with attractive single mother and sexually active girlfriend); the wicked agents of federal bureaucracy; the solitary, sympathetic adult (as usual, a scientist); lots of distracting high-tech hardware; and a topical message. In more talented hands all these familiar ingredients might at least have been assembled with some style, but the comedy (?) plot (about the whiz-kid and his home built nuclear device) includes more lapses in logic, more contrived cleverness, and more implausible plot twists than even a teenage fantasy of this sort can support. Rule of thumb: never trust a movie that assumes its audience is less intelligent than the characters on screen.

i gotta say,i loved this movie.it's very well crafted.the atmosphere of the film is fantastic.i loved the way the film is lit.the characters are well constructed and believable,as well as being sympathetic.the acting is first rate.the music score couldn't have been better.the suspense is built to just the right point and isn't over done.the movie is almost two hours long but it moves comparatively quick for a movie of that length.i'm actually surprised there wasn't a sequel or that there hasn't been a remake.i think a remake(especially set in in present times)has the potential to be an interesting movie if done right with the right director/producer/cast.anyway,for me,The Manhattan Project is a 9/10

I was subjected to this utter nonsense at a friend's house. I won't go into why. At first I thought it "wasn't bad." But as the "plot" continued, I thought someone must have spiked the punch and I was high on LSD. This is one of the silliest movies ever made. There are so many stupid ideas one has to wonder if it was designed to make fun of movies as a whole. The "brilliant" kid wants to build a bomb to expose the lab for making plutonium? Hey, pick up the phone and make a call. He thinks that he can't get into any trouble because "I'm only a kid." Who told him that? For a bright boy, he doesn't seem like it. He breaks into the lab and steals plutonium... that ought to be worth 20 to life right there. He's Edward Teller in disguise and builds an A bomb with his Mattel Do it yourself kit. Yeah... sure. Best of all, he handles the plutonium with his mom's dish washing rubber gloves?!!! He'd be dead in no time. He takes his bomb to the big fair to show off? To show off what? That he's a complete nincompoop? Even the other nerds know better than that. If I hadn't been waiting for another friend in order to leave, I would have exited this complete nonsense as soon as he started playing cutesy with the plutonium strapped to the back of his toy car. This was really, really bad. 1 star for Lithgow desperately seeking a plot. 1 Star for Nixon trying ever so hard not to break out in uproarious laughter while Collet tries to explain why he wants to make a bomb.