{"id":45230,"date":"2024-10-14T03:27:30","date_gmt":"2024-10-14T07:27:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/?p=45230"},"modified":"2024-10-14T03:27:30","modified_gmt":"2024-10-14T07:27:30","slug":"bad-genius-2024","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/2024\/10\/14\/bad-genius-2024\/","title":{"rendered":"Bad Genius (2024)\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Out now from Vertical\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

A group of students at a private level high school decide to use the skills of one their peers to make sure they all pass the SATs. <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Written by J.C. Lee and Julius Onah and directed by Lee, this remake of the 2017 film of the same name (reviewed here<\/a>), this new version is rather close in story with of course adjustments made for the setting move to the US to better match the US educational system, adjusting characters\u2019 backgrounds, and the stakes just a little bit, but overall, this is a very close remake that will be easy to guess for anyone who has seen the original and, to be honest, for anyone who is used to these types of stories when made stateside. The writing here is good, given that most of the heavy lifting here was done with the original\u2019s script, the adaptation works well. The direction works well while keeping most of the atmosphere and mood of the original. This is a remake that doesn\u2019t pretend to be anything else and works decently as it is. Is it original? Not in the least bit. However, it works well so why fix what isn\u2019t broken.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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The cast here is good. The lead here is Lynn, played by Callina Liang who does well with her part and with the added pressure of this being a remake. Her work is good, she gives Lynn personality and maintains the quality of her acting throughout. Playing Lynn\u2019s father, Meng, is Benedict Wong who is always a joy to see in any movie. Here, he plays it dramatic with a sadness to the character that works well for the part and the film, showing that the man can handle just about anything with talent and nuance. Worth mentioning as part of the supporting cast are Jabari Banks as Bank, Taylor Hickson as Grace, Samuel Braun as Pat, and Conor Meadows as Chapin. Most of their characters come off as disagreeable idiots who just want life handed to them which seems like the right take on these characters. Of course, Banks has a very different character, but something about the approach makes his character feel more difficult than he should have been, which may be something in the script or the direction. This leads to the performances being good, but the characters coming off not quite right (or perhaps it\u2019s due to the difference with the original).<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Technically, the film is solid here, it\u2019s well shot, well edited, and well done at every level. It\u2019s all good. It\u2019s so familiar though. All of it feels familiar and that is beyond the fact that it is a remake. The look, the style, it all feels familiar and like we\u2019ve seen it so many times before. It works, but a few style flourishes could have been fun. <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Bad Genius is a good remake of a fantastic film that feels familiar. It\u2019s a decent remake, but it doesn\u2019t take many chances throughout, just sticking to what was done in the original without being a shot-by-shot remake. The acting is good, the story works, the direction works, the tension of the thriller aspect works well and should work better for those who have not seen the original. <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Out now from Vertical\u00a0 A group of students at a private level high school decide to use the skills of one their peers to make sure they all pass the SATs. \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[835,1087],"class_list":["post-45230","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-movie-reviews","tag-remake","tag-thriller"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45230","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45230"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45230\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":45231,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45230\/revisions\/45231"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45230"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45230"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45230"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}