Bad Genius 2024 WEB-DL.10Bit JFF

30/39

A group of high school seniors from an enterprising school team up to dismantle a rigged college admissions system. A remake of the Thai film Bad Genius (2017). The film opens with a scene where Lin calculates the cost of commuting to the private school she attended. The film shows a stack of public transportation tickets clearly marked with the SEPTA logo, which stands for the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority. SEPTA operates in the Philadelphia metropolitan area. Half a minute later, the film identifies the city Lin and her father live in as Seattle.. References Roots (1977). Bad Genius (2024) is a 2017 remake of the Thai film of the same name. It follows the 2017 original as a recipe—down to the dialogue, sets, atmosphere, characters’ ambitions, and even the characters’ placement on set. This one follows that recipe exactly, with just a slight deviation towards the end and a few minor changes to 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 care to admit. So yes, I’m biased. It has its flaws—it’s a bit of a sloppy sound effect and direction at times—but it’s still a solid and engaging heist film. It was a huge hit in its home country of Thailand and across Southeast Asia. But it’s what this film did differently that really appealed to me. The original 2017 film took on the difficult task of writing smart characters and setting them in a testing environment that would otherwise be boring in a film. It’s somehow incredibly suspenseful. It took four fantastically cast leads with little to no previous acting experience and made them stars. It was done through the roof, with some great effects from the soundtrack to the on-screen text overlay used to get the message across. Lina was *smart*. She was a genuinely smart young woman with great talent who had a loving father she cared for; testament to the original writers. Her relationships felt natural, and the supporting cast delivered on that with their acting and chemistry. Her methods and schemes were showcased in the film in a satisfying and enjoyable way. Her relationship with her father was emotional and worked well on both ends. The story had pace and purpose, but most importantly, it had OVERVIEW. And all of this was filmed and produced in a country that is perhaps not considered a cinematic powerhouse (Bad Genius, 2024). The remake somehow manages to take all the right ingredients – the lighting, the suspenseful music, the same plot points, the same characters – and turn it into a sloppy rendition of what feels like a bad original. It has no grand moments. It has no charm. It has almost zero emotion. Lin (2024) *acts* smart, but we don’t think the character is really a genius. The classroom scenes *feel* like they’re trying to convey tension, but they mostly feel silly. The supporting cast is lacking. It doesn’t build tension in the slightest. All we get is a good father figure, courtesy of the excellent Benedict Wong, and good acting from Kallin Liang, who tries to revive a bad performance. There’s no reason to watch it. Watch the original if you haven’t already (or just want to watch it again), and thank me later.

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