12/10
A group of enterprising high school seniors team up to take down a rigged college admissions system. A remake of the Thai film Bad Genius (2017). There’s a scene early in the film where Lynn is calculating the cost of commuting to the private school she’s visiting. The film features a stack of public transportation tickets clearly marked with the SEPTA logo, which stands for Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority. SEPTA runs in the metropolitan area of Philadelphia. Half a minute later in the film, Lynn and her father identify the city as Seattle. References Roots (1977). Bad Genius (2024) is a remake of the 2017 Thai film of the same name. It uses the original 2017 as its recipe – right down to the dialogue, the sets, the atmosphere, the character ambitions, and even the character placement within the set. It follows that recipe exactly, except it gets a little carried away near the end and changes a few small elements of the original plot. It somehow becomes a bland, lazy, and forced experience. To understand why, we need to talk a little about the original 2017 film and what made it so special. So yes, I’m biased. It has its faults – the sound effects and directing are a bit cheesy at times – but it’s a successful and engaging heist film. It was a huge hit in its home country of Thailand and across Southeast Asia. But what this film did achieve was what drew me to it. The original 2017 film took on the difficult task of writing smart characters and putting them through tests that would otherwise be boring to film. It’s somehow incredibly exciting. It took four fantastically cast leads with little to no previous acting experience and they became stars. The production was through the roof and included some great effects from the soundtrack to the text overlay used to get the message across. Lynn *was* smart. She seemed like a genuinely smart, exceptionally talented young woman with a loving father who she cared for; testament to the original writers. Her relationships felt natural, and the supporting cast ensured that with their acting and chemistry. Her methods and schemes were presented through film in a satisfying and enjoyable way. Her relationship with her father was emotional and well-acted on both sides. The story had pace and purpose, but most importantly, it HAD A LOT. And all of this was filmed and produced in a country that probably wouldn’t be considered a cinematic powerhouse (2024). The remake somehow manages to take all the right ingredients—lighting, suspenseful music, identical plot points, identical characters—and turn them into a sloppy remake of the poor dub of the original. It has no great moments. It has no charm. It has almost zero emotion. Lynn (2024) *acts smart*, but we don’t feel like the character is truly a genius. The classroom scenes feel like they’re trying to convey tension, but mostly come across as silly. The supporting cast is lacking. Not the least bit exciting. All that’s left is a good father figure, thanks to the great Benedict Wong, and a good performance by Callina Liang, who tries to bring life to the poor performance. Watch the original if you haven’t already (or if you just want to watch it again), and thank me later.