Duk is a character who leaves me conflicted. Gedde Wantanabe is freakin' hilarious, and "Auto-mo-BIIIIIIIIIIIIIIILE?!" gets me every time. But on the other hand, the gong and references to "The Chinaman" do leave me cold.

I finally decided that Duk is portrayed as he is perceived by his white, upper-middle-class suburban host family. There's enough suburban parody in the film that this could work. It's cheap justification, I know, but the family is so ignorant that it's exactly how I'd expect them to treat a foreign student whose first language is not English and whose culture is completely different from that of the 1980s American suburbs.

Edited at 2009-08-07 03:56 pm (UTC)

(Reply) (Parent) (Thread)

"Weird Science" is an abomination, if only because it gets confused with the MUCH better "Real Genius".

(Reply) (Thread)

I actually jumped into here ready to defend "Weird Science", and then realized that the movie I was defending in my head was actually "Real Genius".

Man, I'm really sad science turned out not to be quite like that depicted in Real Genius. Even if I did get to play with a laser that caught me on fire.

(Reply) (Parent) (Thread)

It may just be me, but I'd happily take "Weird Science" over "Planes, Trains, and Automobiles". Every so often it shows up on Deep Cable at some ungodly hour and it makes me really happy in a nostalgia sort of way. Terrible movie, yes, but at thirteen or so, all that mattered was Kelly LeBrock. :)

(Reply) (Parent) (Thread)

I was Not Allowed to see Weird Science in the theater or rent it when first it came out on video. Considering my parents usually let us rent anything below an R rating, this was significant. This meant WOW, THIS FILM MUST BE REALLY SMUTTY EVEN IF IT'S PG-13. And when I finally got my chance to see this forbidden fruit, it completely (and unsurprisingly) did not live up to my heightened expectations. Was still funny, but my 12-year-old imagination definitely was thinking it'd be far worse.

Even with Chet as the talking... thing. Yeah.

(Reply) (Parent) (Thread)

I would be so down for it if anyone had plans to get together and watch Ferris Beuller. That was one of my favorite movies when I was growing up.

(Reply) (Thread)

"When Cameron was in Egypt land..."

(Reply) (Parent) (Thread)

Curly. Sue. (That said, I have an embarrassing soft spot for the admittedly mediocre She's Having a Baby, so I can't really judge.)

(Reply) (Thread)

I enjoyed Baby's Day Out more than I expected to. (Free campus movie when I was in college...) This is not to say it's a good movie, but...it wasn't bad.

(Reply) (Thread)

I *loved* Baby's Day Out when I was a kid. I don't know if it would hold up if I tried watching it today.

(Reply) (Thread)

Awww, I love Weird Science. "She's in to malakas, Dino." Classic.

(Reply) (Thread)

I love Weird Science too. Plus it has Robert Downey Jr. before the drugs took hold.

(Reply) (Parent) (Thread)