Genius (1999) (TV)

User Rating:

6.1/10   

Director:

Rod Daniel

Writers (WGA):

John Rieck (story)
John Rieck (teleplay) ...

Release Date:

21 August 1999 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Family

Plot:

Charlie Boyle finds that even his high IQ can't solve all of his problems when he takes on a double life in order to make friends his own age.

Plot Keywords:

Hockey | One Word Title | Disney Channel Original Movie

Awards:

2 nominations

Cast

Trevor Morgan	...	Charlie Boyle aka Chaz Anthony
Emmy Rossum	...	Claire Addison
Charles Fleischer	...	Dr. Krickstein
Yannick Bisson	...	Mike MacGregor
Peter Keleghan	...	Dean Wallace
Philip Granger	...	Coach Addison
Jonathan Whittaker	...	Dad Boyle
Patrick Thomas	...	Odie
Matthew Koller	...	Deion
Chuck Campbell	...	Hugo Peplo
Eli Ham	...	Omar Sullivan
Darryl Pring	...	Bear Berczinski
Sandi Ross	...	Teacher
Adam Blake	...	Street Hockey Kid #1
Michael Colton	...	Street Hockey Kid #2

Runtime:

Greece:82 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Certification:

USA:TV-G

Company:

DiC Enterprises

Quotes:

Odie: I've gotta go pay the water bill.

A pathetic and insultingly childish fantasy set in reality

This film has been made dozens of times in other forms. This "Disney Original" idea is a complete laugh - if this is considered original, then I'm Abraham Lincoln. And I can't be Abraham Lincoln because I believe he is dead.

Trevor Morgan (you may remember him as the annoying kid from "Jurassic Park III") plays a complete nerd and mathematical genius who basically lives underneath a school ice hockey stadium. It is there that he constructs magical potions using science and math.

However he realizes he's not exactly catching any ladies, so he adopts the persona of "Chaz" (his real name is Charlie) to woo the ladies - enrolling in school again and becoming a "bad boy" who talks back to teachers and looks "cool." News flash: Kids stopped wearing Fonzie-style leather jackets to school in the 1960s. If anything, it's retro. It doesn't make you look cool. You don't gain instant respect by showing up at school with a leather jacket, a comb and a smirk and talking back to teachers. Today, in the age of gangsta rappas and emo, you would be laughed at and ridiculed. "Chaz" would become an instant outcast and his plan would backfire.

But in "Genius" all the kids are friendly white suburbanite offspring and they love The Chaz. They fall victim to his evil ploy to get some girly-action and even the bad boys at school respect him.

It would be kind of funny if it weren't so sad to actually think some Disney TV executive greenlit this and thought the concept of a 12-year-old high school graduate living in an underground lab who adapts a new persona of a leather-jacket wearing freak would be successful.