Coolidge has gotten onto something here, and the pity is that the story she's stuck with never gets her any deeper into it.

The humor is relentlessly cruel, smug, and disconnected from any sense of how human beings might behave in similar situations.

What lifts the production above the run-of-the-mill is swift direction by Martha Coolidge, who has a firm grasp over the manic material.

The mid-’80s were big on teen-oriented sci-coms (scientific comedies), so you may have overlooked this gem with a great early performance by Val Kilmer.