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STUDIO: Warner Home Video
MSRP: $14.97 RATED: PG
RUNNING TIME: 91 Minutes
SPECIAL FEATURES: Theatrical trailer

Many random things came to be during the 1980’s. Some of these things were good, others were bad. Very bad. A slew of cult films (C.H.U.D. anyone?) were also born out of this time and, depending on the audience, have maintained their longevity on the VHS format. During the past couple of months, many films from the 80’s have been making an appearance (or sometimes a reappearance) on DVD. Young Einstein is one of those films to get the special treatment. Onward!



For the men...

The Flick

Yahoo Serious is Young Einstein. Seriously, he is.

In a severely skewed view of history, Albert Einstein (Yahoo Serious) develops his famous theories in very unusual ways from his apple orchard home set in the middle of Australia. (Oh yes, this is yet another feature of the movie that is slightly skewed; the location.) Take for example Einstein’s Theory of Relativity (or E equals MC squared). This theory comes about when Einstein attempts to develop a process to get more bubbles into beer amid the added support from his father. (Trust me; there is nothing wrong with your eyes.) Albert’s family says he’s always been an exceptional mind, always inventing things to improve on his family’s well being. They push him to leave home for better things and this is where the film really begins to take off. This is a bad thing and a good thing all at the same time.


Your eyes do not deceive you. Trust me.

After developing this new “bubble” process, Einstein heads for Sydney, Australia to patent his theory. It’s a long and grueling journey across the outback, shown in a montage that includes some of the most beautiful scenic wide shots I’ve ever seen. After some time, Albert hops on a passenger train and he meets Marie Curie (Odile Le Clezio), the famous radioactivity scientist that discovered the element radium. Curie is just about the most “normal” character throughout the film, but she does have some moments. Marie’s friend Preston Preston (John Howard) is not a fan of Einstein’s and sets out to embarrass and steal the naïve Albert’s theories.

Reaching Sydney, Einstein sets out for the patent office where he meets resistance and thrown out because he has no evidence showing how his theory works. So what does Albert do next? He moves into a brothel, which he commonly mistakes as a hotel. This is a perfect example of Einstein’s dumbfounded by goodhearted nature projected through Yahoo Serious’ “underdog” acting.


It was then that Marie stood in front of the gates to the CHUD message boards.

>Marie believes in Albert’s causes and helps him out by forcing Preston to give him a job at his office. Here Albert is forced to perform odd desk work and his uniqueness is the cause of “low moral” at the office. A love story between Albert and Marie is later thrown into the mix and is the element that slowly kills the spirit of the film. Jealous, Preston steals Albert’s theory and has him thrown into an insane asylum. The asylum is just about as normal as the rest of the film and they really push the madness inside the asylum in order to water down the craziness within this alternative vision of world history.

There are quite a number of surreal sequences throughout the film and the style of the storytelling is what keeps the entire movie interesting to watch. One never really knows what is going to happen next and figuring out the twist in the actual history is a good distraction. The humor comes in portions and isn’t spread out as much as it could be. Many of the jokes/gags are hit and miss and some are hurt simply by being outdated in their nature.


...and for the ladies.

Blaming the love story is a quick out in order to defend the spiraling generic ending within the last third of the film. I don’t know why I would defend it, but I’m finding it hard to bash anything that can pull off neutralizing a nuclear reaction with an electric violin. It’s so obscene that it’s entertaining.

There isn’t much more I can say about this film and I’m still trying to determine weather Young Einstein is irreplaceable in its uniqueness or if it’s just plain pointless. I want to go with the first, but for now I think I’m going to have to go with the latter. The entire musical sequence at the end of Young Einstein isn’t necessary and is a highly disappointing endnote to the film.

6.0 out of 10


John Ashcroft: The Early Years

The Look

The quality of the transfer surprised me by looking as good as it does here, especially at the beginning of the film. The vast scope of landscape shown throughout each traveling sequence is something I didn’t expect from a low budget picture like this. A little grain is apparent throughout the transfer, but this is a lot more than I expected.

8.5 out of 10


To his horror, Preston realized the Episode III trailer would be better than the actual movie itself.

The Noise

The audio is fine, but isn’t anything spectacular. The music soundtrack is one of the better parts of the picture and it really helps showcase the quirkiness of the entire story.

7.0 out of 10


Pure ASS

The Goodies

Included is the theatrical trailer and that’s about it. The trailer pushes that the film is out of Australia and the quality of the transfer is very poor. They should have resurrected Yahoo Serious in order to do a director’s commentary since he seems to have been out of the business for a decade now.

3.0 out of 10


This was the inspiration behind this film?

The Artwork

It could be worse, but it could be better. I really can’t say much else about it. The packaging is either going to catch your eye or it’s going to scream “generic 80’s film” to you. It’s certainly a unique picture, but the artwork doesn’t push that fact.

5.0 out of 10

Overall: 6.0 out of 10