Bad Genius, an Unnecessary Remake

In the movies, the have’s are always stupid and lazy, whereas the have-not’s are always smart and virtuous. In real life, there are plenty of intelligent wealthy people and creepy working-class morons, but they make poor fodder for class warfare propaganda.  You will not find any such inconvenient characters in this unnecessary remake of a vastly superior Thai film. Two scholarship kids still have one advantage—a knack for taking standardized tests—that they do their best to fraudulently monetize in Bad Genius, directed by J.C. Lee, which is now in theaters and on digital.

Lynn Kang has a real shot at getting into either MIT or Julliard, but she and her father Meng disagree regarding which she should apply to. Regardless, her upper-crust classmate Grace Simon quickly realizes Kang’s brain could help her too. Despite some reservations, Kang develops a method of signaling test answers to Simon’s clique, for a fee, of course. She makes good money until the dumb old adults notice suspicious patterns.

Unfortunately, Kang loses her scholarship, but not her ambition. Needing money for Julliard auditions, Kang agrees to a grand scheme in which she takes the SAT in a crummy, poorly maintained Philly high school, where she will secretly text her memorized answers back to her exploitive “friends” in suburban Seattle—but she can’t do it alone. Of course, the only classmate smart enough to help her is the painfully sensitive Bank Adedamola, the son of African immigrants (so much for all those bogus complaints about standardized tests being culturally biased).

The emphasis on Adedamola’s immigrant identity is an example of how Lee’s adaptation of Nattawut Poonpiriya’s like-titled Bad Genius, a briskly-paced teen caper, evolved into such a downbeat, politicized buzzkill. The original Thai film has a smart and entertainingly conspiratorial vibe. In contrast, Lee and co-screenwriter Julius Onah constantly lecture viewers on inequality, which is a lot less fun.

The Thai cast was also considerably more charismatic than their American counterparts, particularly the original lead, Chutimon Chuengcharoensukying. Callina Liang is not bad, and her name is much easier to spell from memory, but she does not shine the way her predecessor did. To be fair, Jabari Banks is quite good as Adedamola. However, the rest of the ensemble seems demotivated knowing they are playing stock characters.

Perhaps Lee’s Bad Genius plays better if viewers have no prior knowledge of the Thai source material, but you cannot avoid such comparisons when you risk remaking a successful foreign film. If this premise sounds intriguing, instead watch Poonpiriya’s film, which streams on Netflix. Lee’s take is an inferior copy. Not recommended, the new Bad Genius is currently playing in Brooklyn at the Kent Theater.