20/31
A group of enterprising high school students 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 where Lynn calculates the cost of a commute to the private school she attended. The footage showed a stack of public transit tickets clearly marked with the logo of SEPTA, 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 Dad 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, the settings, the atmosphere, the characters' ambitions, even the characters' locations on the set. It follows this recipe exactly, deviating only 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 a bit cheesy at times with the sound effects and directorial choices—but it’s an engaging and successful heist film. It was a huge hit in its home country of Thailand and across Southeast Asia. However, what this film accomplished differently is what drew me in so much. The original 2017 film took on the difficult task of writing smart characters and placing them in an otherwise boring, test-drive environment in the film, while also making it incredibly suspenseful. It took four fantastic actors who had little to no prior acting experience and turned them into stars. His production was mind-blowing, incorporating great effects from the soundtrack to the on-screen display of overlaid text used to convey his message. Lynn was *smart*. She emerged as a truly intelligent young woman with exceptional talents who had a loving father to care for; testament to the original writers. Her relationships felt natural, and the cast made sure of that in their acting and chemistry. Her methods and schemes were portrayed in the film in a satisfying and entertaining way. Her relationship with her father was touching and well-acted on both sides. The story had pace and purpose, but most importantly, it was SUSPENSIVE. And he did all of this while filming and producing in a country that is probably not considered a film powerhouse. Bad Genius (2024) has little to nothing of what it tries 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* smart, but we don't think the character is actually a genius. The classroom scenes *feel* like they're trying to convey suspense, but they mostly come off as bullshit. The secondary cast is lacking. It's not suspenseful at all. All we have left of this well-translated film is a good father figure, thanks to the great Benedict Wong, and a good performance by Callina Liang, who tries to bring the bad acting to life. There's no reason to watch this. Watch the original if you haven't seen it yet (or if you just want to rewatch it) and thank me later.
20/31
A group of enterprising high school students 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 where Lynn calculates the cost of a commute to the private school she attended. The footage showed a stack of public transit tickets clearly marked with the logo of SEPTA, 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 Dad 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, the settings, the atmosphere, the characters' ambitions, even the characters' locations on the set. It follows this recipe exactly, deviating only 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 a bit cheesy at times with the sound effects and directorial choices—but it’s an engaging and successful heist film. It was a huge hit in its home country of Thailand and across Southeast Asia. However, what this film accomplished differently is what drew me in so much. The original 2017 film took on the difficult task of writing smart characters and placing them in an otherwise boring, test-drive environment in the film, while also making it incredibly suspenseful. It took four fantastic actors who had little to no prior acting experience and turned them into stars. His production was mind-blowing, incorporating great effects from the soundtrack to the on-screen display of overlaid text used to convey his message. Lynn was *smart*. She emerged as a truly intelligent young woman with exceptional talents who had a loving father to care for; testament to the original writers. Her relationships felt natural, and the cast made sure of that in their acting and chemistry. Her methods and schemes were portrayed in the film in a satisfying and entertaining way. Her relationship with her father was touching and well-acted on both sides. The story had pace and purpose, but most importantly, it was SUSPENSIVE. And he did all of this while filming and producing in a country that is probably not considered a film powerhouse. Bad Genius (2024) has little to nothing of what it tries 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* smart, but we don't think the character is actually a genius. The classroom scenes *feel* like they're trying to convey suspense, but they mostly come off as bullshit. The secondary cast is lacking. It's not suspenseful at all. All we have left of this well-translated film is a good father figure, thanks to the great Benedict Wong, and a good performance by Callina Liang, who tries to bring the bad acting to life. There's no reason to watch this. Watch the original if you haven't seen it yet (or if you just want to rewatch it) and thank me later.