Movie Journal: The Manhattan Project

I don’t know about you but I always think of The Manhattan Project in the same vein as Wargames. You know, two movies about some kid in the mid-80s who’s smarter than adults around him and who uses those smarts to blow up the world, or at least Ithaca, New York and the surrounding states.

The movie doesn’t hold up nearly as well as some others from that era, unfortunately. It’s still fun to watch, though mostly at this point simply for the memories it evokes of watching it on VHS countless times while spending summer days at my grandparents’ house. It’s especially bad when you realize that John Lithgow’s character basically causes his own problems when he gives the kid a tour of his lab – where he’s making highly unstable weapon’s grade plutonium – because he wants to sleep with the kid’s mother. Good job on that, big guy.