Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
The Merit of Argument, September 4, 2008
I have to admit to being an emotional person and this to better explain why I liked this movie. The premise of this movie is quite weak: a scientist with an IQ of over 200 builds a bomb and threatens to blow Washington DC to smithereens unless the President brings together all the people he can find with IQs over 200 to an abandoned building in DC to play a game. The game consists of a Q & A with questions all relating to solving the world's problems. If the participants can amass 1,000 points before dawn the next morning, they can walk and DC is safe. At times, the discussion was reminiscent of university lectures I've attended but as the questions progressed to being more moral, the feel of the movie changes.
That said, I can say that it is the argument that really shows the intelligence of "The Genius Club." The second half definitely clinched it for me as the story progresses into the lives of each participant, woven into the Q & A session. The majority of the stories are emotionally charged and ranges from the woman dying of cancer, confronting the President on why he cut back on cancer research spending to the discussion of faith in God and being atheist.
I truly underestimated this movie and I have to say that when I walked out of the theater, I was a pleasantly surprised, sopping mess.
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2.0 out of 5 stars
So much potential, July 30, 2009
This film had so much potential.
Think of the plot: a madman is threatening to blow up a nuclear bomb in Washington D.C. unless a group of brillant men and women can solve his riddles.
They have until sun-up.
Sounds like a nice thriller right?
All night the bag guy asks questions and if the group answers correctly, they win points. They have to earn so many points to stop the bomb.
The first mistake was casting Stephen Baldwin as one of the geniuses.
The second mistake was writing a script that has almost nothing to do with the plot.
Even Tom Sizemore as the villain couldn't save this low-budget fiasco.
So much promise with nowhere to go.
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2.0 out of 5 stars
Where are the geniuses?, March 22, 2009
I didn't know what to expect from "The Genius Club". It seemed to be something of a "love it or hate it" movie, judging from some reviews and its IMDb rating. Knowing it was made by Tim Chey, who made the amateurish rapture movie, "Gone", I feared it might be another badly made evangelistic movie. On the other hand, the premise, some of the world's (or at least the USA's) smartest people gather to find the solution to world problems in a day, sounded intriguing. Unfortunately, the movie doesn't do much with the premise. Not much happens in two hours except for the discussions of the "genius club". The riddles start out easy (why is toner ink so expensive?) and progress into questions of war, famine and the existence of God. Movies based on dialogue can be great, if they're smart and well written, but "The Genius Club" is rather pedestrian, the answes to the riddles often obvious. None of the characters come off as geniuses, nor does the screenwriter. The discussions are more like those of a randomly selected group of reasonably intelligent people. Towards the end there are some character development and some of the actors do a good job (Baldwin is surprisingly good) while some don't. The question of God's existence gives a hint there's Christian money and ideas behind this film, but it's not too preachy. On the other hand, the arguments on both sides are the same old, same old, including the tired old Descartes and C.S Lewis arguments, not exactly the stuff of genius. It certainly doesn't "prove God exists" as the DVD cover would suggest.
So, it it worth watching? It's hard to say. I think "The Genius Club" wants to be, tries to be and thinks it is, smarter than it really is and that if you're interested in philosophy the film offers nothing new. On the other hand, some people loved it, so you may want to give it a chance. I would have given it 2½ stars if I could but since I can't, and three stars seem to much, it gets two stars from me.
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