Real Genius is a great film in many ways, marred only by the assumption that a military laser is a bad thing to be working on — I always thought that it would be neat to do. But the characters are great, a ton of the plot is great. It’s worth watching! In a lot of ways the later film PCU (also fun) ripped off a ton of the same plot points.
Now, where can one find the review the film deserves? This is definitely not it.
> Real Genius is a great film in many ways, marred only by the assumption that a military laser is a bad thing to be working on
I wouldn't call it "marred" like it was a small detail in an otherwise good movie. It's pretty much the central lesson of the movie. The whole third act was about the ethics of working on weapons, particularly how engineers, if they're not careful, will focus on the "cool technology" aspect and fail to account for the real application(s) of their work. If you really think working on weapons would be neat, I'm not sure what there is left for you to get out of Real Genius.