Baby Geniuses (1999)
-
2% of critics liked it
(44 reviews) -
32% of users liked it
(81,627 ratings)
Dr. Elena Kinder (Kathleen Turner) is the highly visible chief executive of BABYCO, the world's largest manufacturer of baby products. The company funds orphanages across the world and just opened an indoor theme park for children adjacent to its corporate headquarters in Los Angeles.… More Dr. Elena Kinder (Kathleen Turner) is the highly visible chief executive of BABYCO, the world's largest manufacturer of baby products. The company funds orphanages across the world and just opened an indoor theme park for children adjacent to its corporate headquarters in Los Angeles. Unbeknownst to the public, Kinder, with the help of Dr. Heep (Christopher Lloyd), has been conducting a vast research program devoted to decrypting in secret labs deep beneath BABYCO's corporate campus the language that babies speak. It's said that Tibetans believe all babies are born with complete knowledge of the universe and the ability to speak to each other in an ancient language. However, once infants turn two years old, they lose this knowledge as they bond more closely with adults. To study this theory, Dr. Kinder has culled the smartest babies from her orphanages to be raised in a special development program in her private lab. As a test of developmental progress, she has separated a pair of twins, Sly and Witt. While Sly is raised within the lab, Witt has been adopted by Kinder's niece, Robin Bobbins (Kim Cattrall) and her husband Dan (Peter MacNicol), who run an old-fashioned day care and child research center. Sly manages to escape the center and finds his way to a shopping mall during Christmas. While eluding Kinder's henchmen, Sly stumbles across Witt; Witt is promptly mistaken for Sly and taken away, while Sly goes to the day care center with his new mother. The two boys, who develop an empathic link, must find each other and free the children from the research center before Dr. Kinder can smuggle them out of the country. ~ Ron Wells, Rovi
- Directed By
- Bob Clark (III)
- Genres
- Drama, Kids & Family, Comedy
- In Theaters
- Mar 12, 1999 Wide
- Studio
- TriStar Pictures
Critic Reviews
-
Lael Loewenstein, Variety
A thoroughly misguided, unfunny film.
-
Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader
The hokey dialogue and witless physical gags keep everything painful and hectoring.
-
Jeff Millar, Houston Chronicle
If the remainder of this century will bring a lamer film than Baby Geniuses, may I please be in Estonia when it comes.
-
Liam Lacey, Globe and Mail
The movie is about as endearing as unanesthetized gum surgery.
-
Peter Stack, San Francisco Chronicle
The film has a freak-show quality.
See more critic ratings and reviews on Rotten Tomatoes
Fresh (60% or more critics rated the movie positively)
Rotten (59% or fewer critics rated the movie positively)
Cast
-
Kathleen Turner
as ELena Kinder
-
Christopher Lloyd
as Heep
-
Kim Cattrall
as Robin
-
Peter MacNicol
as Dan
-
Dom DeLuise
as Lenny
-
Ruby Dee
as Margo
-
Kyle Howard
as Dickie
-
Leo Fitzgerald
as Sly, Whit
-
Myles Fitzgerald
as Sly, Whit
-
Gerry Fitzgerald
as Sly, Whit
-
Joshua Ryan Evans
as Baby Dance Double

