Eighteen
years ago, writer-director Bob Clark helped re-define the teen-sex comedy genre
with Porky's. He then made a holiday film that has become a perennial favorite,
the wonderful A Christmas Story. With From The Hip, Clark has also proven that
he can be very effective with higher-brow comedy. However, I'd hoped his worst
work was behind him with Loose Cannons--not so!
Following
a screening of Varsity Blues I said to myself, Films don't get any worse than
this. Then I had the misfortune of viewing She's All That --I thought I'd hit
rock bottom. Last week, I learned the meaning of masochism by sitting through
a dismal film you'll read about later in this column. Enter the ruthlessly bad
Baby Geniuses, a ridiculous rip-off of Look Who's Talking and Rugrats.
The
geniuses in question are extremely intellectual toddlers who seem to be able to
do the impossible. (It's too bad that the makers of this tedious film seem to
have no intellect whatsoever.) Clark has made a film that sluggishly moves from
one scene to the next without an ounce of humor. The film stars Kathleen Turner
and Christopher Lloyd. Why they wanted any part of this project is beyond me;
neither one is given anything interesting to do.
It
could be argued that Baby Geniuses is a film for children. I don't think that's
giving children nearly enough credit. Kids are smarter than this and I honestly
think they'd be bored to death by this humorless and infantile would-be comedy.
