Pretty much anything you could ever want to know about the 80s, including our nostalgia for it, is encapsulated in the movie "Real Genius." Way back in 1985 a fresh-faced unknown star named Val Kilmer took on his first role starring as wacky genius Chris Knight. This screwball comedy is far better than it has any right to be, thanks largely to a solid script with some great dialogue. ("Rue the day"? Who talks like that?")

Set at a genius college for geniuses, "Real Genius" follows the tried and true "fish out of water" formula. In this case, Mitch Taylor is the innocent genius dweeb who assigned to be Chris Knight's roommate.

"Real Genius" is also one of the earliest forms of the Geek Power movement. The movie celebrates intelligence and science acumen like few movies before or after. Mitch and Chris are surrounded by super-smart college students who enact super-smart pranks, like setting up a series of lasers to point the route to a college party, treasure hunt-style. Or using liquid nitrogen to create an ice rink in their dorm's hallway.

The indomitable (and almost inescapable in the 1980s) William Atherton plays the evil college dean who not only wants to quash the kids' fun - he also wants to harness their genius brains for evil. This, too, is a thoroughly Reagan-era plot device: Atherton is in with the Defense Department to create a super weapon platform in space which can fry a man on the ground like an ant caught in the beam of a magnifying glass.

In order to achieve this goal and earn that fat Defense Department cash, Atherton decides to exploit his students. This actually may be one of the more "true to real life" elements of any 1980s comedy, since Defense Department money is used to fund many colleges' science programs. A surprising number of physicists are aware of how their research is funded (by the DOD), but seemingly unaware of what that really means (people dying).

But like any 1980s comedy worth its weight in Smurfberry Crunch Cereal, once the main characters realize what's happening, they have to get up on their ideological high horse and Stop The Bad Guys. (This philosophical earnestness is something I miss from the 1980s. Things used to be so clear cut back then; people cared about stuff. Sting wanted us to stop the nukes, and Bono wanted us to help feed Africa. When was the last time Tyler Perry's House Of Embarrassing Fat Suit Outfits fought an important cause? But I digress.)

Along the way, Mitch finds love with Jordan, one of the great female characters in the history of "female characters in movies about geeks." (Or female characters in movies about college students, for that matter.) Jordan is every bit as super-smart as the guys - even smarter than many of them. She's wound pretty tight, socially awkward, and spends her spare time knitting sweaters and building elaborate gadgets.

Will the evil college dean get his come-uppance? Oh, I'd hate to spoil it for you. But I will note that the ending of the movie involves yet another quintessentially early-1980s icon: Jiffy Pop popcorn.