31/29
A group of high school seniors from an enterprising school 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 attended. The film showed a stack of public transportation 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 Lynn and my father live in 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—right down to the dialogue, the settings, the atmosphere, the characters’ ambitions, and even the characters’ placement on set. It follows this recipe exactly, only deviating slightly at the end and changing a few small elements of the original plot. 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, it’s what this film accomplished that kept 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-style atmosphere during production; somehow, it’s incredibly suspenseful. It took four fantastic actors who had little to no prior acting experience and made them stars. Its production was mind-blowing, incorporating some great effects, from the soundtrack to the on-screen text overlay used to convey its message. Lynn was *smart*. She came across as a truly intelligent young woman with exceptional talents who had a loving father she cared for; testaments 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 played out on 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 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 poor 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 almost feel silly. The supporting cast is lacking. It’s not suspenseful at all. All we’re left with 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. Watch the original if you haven’t seen it yet (or if you just want to watch it again) and thank me later.
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