40/50
A group of enterprising high school seniors band together to take down a rigged college admissions system. Remake of the Thai film Bad Genius (2017). Early in the film, there is a scene showing Lynn calculating the cost of commuting to the private school she visited. The film showed a stack of public transit tickets that are clearly marked with a SEPTA logo, which stands for Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority. SEPTA operates in the Philadelphia metropolitan area. Half a minute later, the film identifies the city where Lynn and her father live as Seattle. References Roots (1977). Bad Genius (2024) is a remake of a 2017 Thai film of the same name. It uses the 2017 original as a recipe—down to the dialogue, settings, atmosphere, character ambitions, even the placement of the characters on set. It follows that recipe exactly, only deviating slightly at the end and changing some minor plot elements from the original. Somehow, in doing so, it 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. Bad Genius (2017) is a film that I loved so much that I’ve watched it more times than I’d like to admit; so yes, I’m biased. It has its flaws—it’s sometimes a little cheesy with the sound effects and directorial choices—but it ultimately lands as a successful and engaging heist film. It was a huge hit in its home country of Thailand and across Southeast Asia. However, it was what this film accomplished otherwise that made me so drawn to it. The original 2017 film took on the difficult task of writing smart characters and placing them in an otherwise boring audition atmosphere in the film, while somehow making it incredibly suspenseful. It took four fantastically cast leads who had little to no prior acting experience and turned them into stars. Their production was a knockout, incorporating some excellent effects from their soundtrack to the on-screen text overlay display used to convey their message. Lynn was *smart*. She came across as a genuinely intelligent young woman with exceptional talents who had a loving father she cared about; testament to the original writers. Her relationships felt natural, and the supporting cast made sure of that in their acting and chemistry. Her methods and schemes were displayed via 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 SUSPENSE. And it did all of this while filmed and produced in a country that is probably not considered a film powerhouse. Bad Genius (2024) has little to none of what it is trying to copy. The remake somehow manages to take all the right ingredients – lighting, suspenseful music, same plot points, same characters – and turn it into a sloppy version of what feels like a bad dub of the original. It has no great moments. It has no charm. It has almost zero emotion. Lynn (2024) *acts* intelligently, but we don’t feel like the character is actually a genius. The classroom scenes *feel* like they’re trying to convey suspense, but they’re just silly. The supporting cast is lacking. It’s not suspenseful at all. All we’re left with that’s been translated well is a good father figure, thanks to the great Benedict Wong, and a good performance by Callina Liang, who tries to bring the poor performance to life. There’s no reason to watch this. Watch the original if you haven’t (or if you just want to watch it again) and thank me later.