Young Einstein (1988)

Albert Einstein: Dad, I want to be a physicist.

Mr. Einstein: What do they grow, son?

Albert Einstein: They don't grow anything.

Mr. Einstein: Well what's the use of them then?

In 1988, a then little-known Australian man who had his name changed to Yahoo Serious came to short-lived fame globally due to the release of a film he wrote, directed, and starred in. That film was Young Einstein and it remains my favorite film to this day. 

Young Einstein is an imagined myth of the life of Albert Einstein, but, in this tale, Einstein is a young Tasmanian apple farmer's son who discovers the theory of relativity while figuring out how to split a "Tasmanian beer atom" (to put bubbles into beer, ya know) and who falls in love with Marie Curie (in the end saving Curie and many others from gruesome deaths due to a massive atomic bomb, which Einstein has to defuse by playing roll-and-rock music). Okay, I know that sounds like a bit much. Maybe you'd dig the trailer for the film. Check it out:

Okay, so it's an older film now and the trailer doesn't really do it justice. The film is definitely visually stunning for the time when it was produced. The overall story isn't going to drive anyone to tears or impact your life greatly (unless you see it as a child and think that Albert Einstein was really a Tasmanian who split beer atoms - as has been the case for some people). However, the wittiness of the film and the awesome 80s rock score will certainly keep any of us who are past our tweens amused. You should definitely check out Young Einstein. It won't be the worst 1.5 hours of your life. Maybe drink while you watch it, though.

I personally love Young Einstein. It's the first film that I fully remember seeing. I was 5 years old when it came out. My parents took me to the theater to see it. I went home that night and tried to build a guitar (which didn't pan out, but later my mom helped me build a shoebox guitar which actually worked a bit). Young Einstein impacted me as a young person as it helped me to wonder about how we can re-imagine the lives of great scientists and inventors while having some fun along the way. It helped me to formulate my earliest stories. I still watch it at least once a year. Surely due to the nostalgia, but also because it's a really fun movie.
I'll close with this, the dedication to the real Albert Einstein that is offered at the very end of the film, just before the credits roll:

Young Einstein is dedicated to a genius, a rebel, a pacifist, an eccentric with a clowning sense of humour who once remarked about his own theories:

"...I never thought that others would take 

them so much more seriously than I did." 

Albert Einstein 1879-1955