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This movie was done so amazingly, it's beyond words. It's a roller coaster ride with many nerve wreaking peaks not knowing if it'll end safely. Cheating as we all know is wrong and comes with consequences and I think it's fair to say that everyone has probably cheated once in their life, whether big or small, but this movie takes cheating to a whole new level. It outsmarts cheating and only a genius could come up with such plan, hence why its called Bad Genius. This movie also exemplifies the definition of buying your friends. Pat and Grace are both wealthy but that doesn't mean their lives are perfect too, they have expectations to live up to which is what leads them to bad decisions. None of them truly cared about Lynn, they were selfish, they bought her with money knowing she's in need of it. Lynn's misfortune was meeting Grace and Pat, she would've had a bigger future without them. However, as the saying goes, cheating is a choice not a mistake. Lynn is a grown woman who knows what's right and what's not, she chose to help her fellow classmates in exchange for money while knowing the consequences if she got caught. On the other hand, Bank was heavily ruined by everyone else due to their selfishness. Bank is a smart righteous person who doesn't tolerate cheating or injustice. But his whole life falls down because of others and soon the Bank we knew was no longer there. He changed because he was used and cheated by them so why not cheat them back for more money. This movie deserves so much more attention and appreciation. It includes the perfect amount of thrill and suspense to keep the audience excited. It did an incredible job portraying the fear, anxiety, and thrill of test taking. Was this review helpful to you?
Very relatable because you would definitely have been a student before! Plus you would know how some students score well all the time while others are just not cut out for studying. This movie portrayed the difficulties faced by both group of students well.
The most interesting part was the different ways these students cheated. Very novel yet nothing too outrageous. I would say that this is the main selling point of this movie.
I love how there's minimal romance in this! Sometimes you just got to get away from all the cheesy love stories.
Acting & Cast
All the main actors played their roles well. You could sense their desperation as students. If I wanted to be picky, I would say that Non who played Bank was a teeny bit awkward at certain angry scenes but other than that, everyone acted well. The casting was also good. The smarter students looked nerdy enough, the playful and rich kids certainly fit their roles.
Overall, I would recommend this movie to others. While it is a youthful movie, I believe it will appeal to adults as well!
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Thrilling take on an teenage cheating syndicate!
This was such a refreshing movie to watch. I really liked the dramatisation of the clever escapades of a bunch of teenage students. School stories are a thing of past for me and it's really difficult to connect to them now but this movie made answering multi-choice questions as thrilling and exciting as robbing a bank in 'Money Heist'!Summary in one sentence - A smart high-school girl takes advantage of her brain to make money by selling answers.
Lynn was brilliant as the high-school genius-turned-hustler and her accomplices or enablers Grace & Pat were equally good. I felt for Bank's loss of naivety/innocence as he realises intelligence can get you only so far. It sucks how close to home this story hits. Even though being smart in Asia is not equivalent to being a nerd in the western world, money & connections unfortunately, speak everywhere in the world!
Overall:
Bad Genius is a great pun and a totally apt title for this excellent and entertaining film. I highly recommend this for all who are fans of the school/teen and coming-of-age genre. An 8.5/10 for me!
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This review may contain spoilers
Wow, I just can’t describe this movie in words. It’s incredibly amazing, and it’s just super nervewracking in a way that could make you sit up from your bed just to know what’s coming next.The acting WOWED me so much, and of course the story was also as incredible! Loved every second of it! The moral was quite nice too, tho. Of course, money is important, but what’s more important is honesty. You can’t live with all this peace you want if you’re just living in all these lies. Remember, honesty above all lies.
*SPOILER* Lynn decides to tell her father, then make a recorded testimony about the STIC cheating controversy. She decides to stop from all this cheating, and focuses on her dream to be a teacher like her father.
I don’t think I would ever rewatch this movie again from this beginning. It’s like very uncomfortable with all those nervewracking scenes. Like those scenes were very very realistic, it makes you feel like you’re inside the movie.
Overall, a 9/10 ⭐️
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The creativity for this movie is so on point! People need to show more appreciation for how thrilling this simple film about exam turn out to be. There's no killing or harming, yet this film succeed to get you on the edge of your seat. (Thanks to the superb acting, cinematography and the intense music.) I think the selling point about Bad Genius is that we all once were in their shoes---or you might once cheated at some points of your life. The movie explain well with the character development to the point where I respect her decision to cheat. You read that right, watch the movie and see for yourself!
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Excellent heist film and coming of age story
This is the one and only Thai film I’ve ever watched, but if it's any representative of its nation's cinema, I definitely need to see more!It's a high-stakes heist-film and coming of age story all in one, with adrenaline-pumping Mission Impossible vibes combined with all the pangs of adolescent drama. IT’S SO GOOD. The cast is fabulous and the dialogue is so slick it feels like you’re watching an Aaron Sorkin or Adam McKay movie. Be prepared to be fully sucked in and sitting on the edge of your seat for the entire runtime.
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I've been paying attention to the camera works lately, and I really liked their job here~ I think they did a great job conveying the tension, the fear and the thrill in this. tbh I am a slightly nervous shy person, so sometimes I get this heavy feeling in my heart before doing something like taking an exam (thankfully I'm done with that~) or presenting something in front of the crowd, so there's this feeling that everything is heavy? and things don't work out and you drop your phone or even trip. and I really liked how they handled that.
on the other hand they had the little small lies that seem so easy to tell, like when lyn's dad asked why she left to Sydney. but usually in dramas they just freeze and they get caught and it's over.
Aokbab Chutimon Chuengcharoensukying is so pretty! and I really loved her acting, tbh she carried the whole burden of this and made it work~ I love love love love a smart female lead! and I loved the ending too~ I also loved her voice ;)
Non Chanon Santinatornkul is cute as well and he did a great job, tbh his character was the saddest(?) and I really liked that touch.
overall I've not seen anything like this in asian drama/movie world and I was really entertained by this, and I'm so glad I'm trying new things~
I never rewatch stuff though I might try more of ACC's work, and the music was nicely timed and added well to the situations~
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FINAL-ly got around to watching this haha. Now this is a fantastic EXAM-ple of nail-biting intense "heists" as the students try to cheat their way through the exams! I was very impressed with the way this story played out, both in content and in structure, sometimes hiding information in the best way possible.
It's hard not to spoil anything, but it was fun to see the different ways they came up with to cheat and how they reacted when their plans went awry.
If anything detracts from this story, it's that it took me a little bit to get into the film, and that sometimes they overplayed a situation that I didn't feel had to be quite THAT stressful.
Otherwise, I'd say watch this over any old bank heist movie any day. It's like student mission impossible, complete with 3d characters.
Acting/Cast (9.5/10):
A brilliant feature film debut for the lead actress playing Lynn! She and all the lead cast portrayed their parts very well. I have to not give a perfect 10 only for the foreign actors when they were in Australia, lol.
Music (9.0/10):
The music in this was very well done to suit all the scenes. Music is also a fairly integral part of the story, and the way they integrated what was happening in the story into the score was very well done. Such as the character playing four notes on the piano and then the score starts a nails-biting theme based around the ending piano note. Well done.
Rewatch Value (8.0/10):
I get bored easily when I watch something I've already seen, but this is one of those films I wouldn't mind seeing again in the nearby future.
Overall (9.0/10):
A very well done film that will keep you on the edge of your seat for at least the second half. Also, when you think it's just going to be a fun action movie, it hits you from the side with character drama and the characters having to decide what they believe is right and how far they are willing to go to get ahead.
A very good action movie with breathing characters. Recommended.
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I wish I had seen it sooner...
I've had this in my "to-watch" list for years now, and I never got around to watching it for some reason. I'm glad I finally got around to it because it turned out to be a very fun movie. Lynn is a very charming character, and you can't help but root for her even when she's throwing aside her morals. It was interesting to see her and Bank's characters completely switch by the end. I honestly found myself comparing this movie to Parasite because of the similar production, somewhat similar storyline with the scheming, and suspense from what would happen to the characters if they were caught. It's a very well-made film and always had me interested. Overall, it's a very satisfying watch.Was this review helpful to you?
The best kind of stressful
First Thai movie ever! This was so intense and I swear no movie has ever made me root so hard for academic dishonesty. The best part of this movie is undoubtedly the cinematography and sound; it might feel over-the-top for some, but for me, it really felt like the movie bought into its own story and that made me buy into it as well.Bad Genius was so much stress, but I became so invested in it and was really rooting for all the characters. The way the movie talks about class inequality and moral ambiguity is also just so subtly and artistically weaved into the movie.
Enjoyed this so much — a story about cheating on standardized exams may not seem like much, but there's a lot to love.
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Ending sucked
The movie was entertaining and the acting wasn't bad. The ending could've been better but I hated that Lin threw everyone under the bus. She snitched on everyone and betrayed her friends because apparently "its the right thing to do" which in my opinion is pretty stupid of a reason to betray your best friends. I could see why she did what she did but still i would've just tooken the money and go to a school out of the country.Was this review helpful to you?
This movie kept me on the edge that what comes next from this genius brain. Many people would deny and think this to be just another cheating movie, but believe me, it happens. I have seen this happening and my god students have a whole lot of tricks up their sleeve that one cannot think.
The movie is entertaining because it didn’t beat around the bush, it kept its focus on the BAD GENIUS, cheating ways. Lynn played by Aokbab is flawless, her actions were amazing. When she walked into the subway station, she gave a brilliant performance.
By the end, I felt like Grace and Bank were a bad influence. Because there is a saying in my country “ people behavior change, similar to the people they associate with”. Also, she was not correct either, but a good friend won't let you fall in a pit of misconduct and suffering.
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