The Manhattan Project (1986)

Directed by Marshall Brickman. Starring Christopher Collet, John Lithgow, Cynthia Nixon, Jill Eikenberry, John Mahoney, Gregg Edelman, Richard Jenkins, Abraham Unger, Robert Sean Leonard. [PG-13]

The “yeah right factor” is high in this unexciting thriller, one of the lesser examples of the teen-oriented crop that littered the 1980s (War Games, My Science Project, Back to the Future, etc.). A faintly rebellious high school student (Collet) with an aptitude for science is upset to learn the U.S. government has set up a secret lab just outside his town where plutonium tests are taking place, so he breaks in, steals a container of the stuff, and builds a nuclear weapon(!) with it in order to expose the truth. Change of pace for director Brickman (better known for his writing collaborations with Woody Allen) struggles to ever get out of first gear. The adults—scientist Lithgow and single mom Eikenberry—acquit themselves well enough, but the youngsters look lost; it’s hard to say exactly what motivates the protagonist, either in the script or the performance, but he’s not endearing enough to earn rooting interest while breaking all sorts of laws and (of course) getting off scot-free at the end. It wouldn’t be fair to give the movie the easy label of “a bomb,” but it still might be best to just bury it in a geological repository. Brickman also co-wrote and co-produced.

40/100