Writer/Director Bob Clark is an odd little
fellow.
He gives us the adorable, endearing and
wonderfully spirited "A Christmas Story."
Then,
He gives us the shallow, funny and downright
raunchy "Porky's"(and all its sequels).
Then, out of nowhere he takes a film with a
Universal Truth as its core and somehow turns it
into a film with some of the most
cringe-inducing scenes involving adorable babies
ever produced on-screen.
"Baby Geniuses" is an awful film wrapped around
a cute, even potentially wonderful idea.
Clark's script is a dumbed down version of the
talking baby idea centered upon the idea that
babies are brilliant at birth and communicate in
a secret language. It's a brilliant idea and one
filled with comic potential. Yet, this potential
is never brought to life because,
disappointingly, Clark's script keeps the babies
as babies yet puts them in adult situations. It
would be sort of like taking an adult with the
IQ of 12 and placing them in the Harvard library
then filming their responses to the world and
the world's responses to them. It wouldn't be
funny or entertaining (unless you have a
twisted, abusive mind). It would be sad, almost
pathetic.
The cast here is clearly lost in the material
including Kathleen Turner as the one who
believes in this secret language, Christopher
Lloyd as the scientist who discovers it and the
likes of Kim Cattrall, Peter MacNicol and Dom
Deluise.
I am always hesitant to use the word "retarded."
It is a harsh, judgmental word and seldom used
appropriately. Yet, "Baby Geniuses" takes an
Buddhist spiritual truth (that babies are
actually wise until they learn to speak) and
tragically retards it for comic impact.
Unfortunately, by dumbing down the message the
film itself gets dumbed down and the lesson gets
lot. Even more tragically, this potential comic
goldmine gets lost and we are left with
stereotypical, cliche'd humor that is neither
funny nor insightful.
The only thing more retarded than "Baby
Geniuses" is the fact that some studio executive
sat in a room and greenlighted its sequel, an
even more pathetic exercise in film-making.
"Baby Geniuses" makes me want to run out and get
a vasectomy.
©
Written by Richard
Propes
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How We Rated This Film
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TC Candler -
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Jacob Hall
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TC Candler's Comment
N/A
Jacob
Hall's Comment
N/A
