'Baby Geniuses' received a lot of bad press when it was released and after watching it, I can see why. At first, the premise of talking babies sounded interesting, especially after movies like 'Look Who's Talking' and it's sequel. However, here I'll have to say that developing the idea even further into babies who can outwit adults, have powers of telepathy and are martial arts specialists to boot is not only idiotic but also a complete disaster. In fact, throughout the movie, I was thinking, "Please don't tell me I wasted my money in seeing this movie." Needless to say, my prayers were not answered. It's really that bad and this is no exaggeration!

'Baby Geniuses' is directed by Bob Clark (A Christmas Story) and produced by Steven Paul. The screenplay is by Bob Clark and Greg Michael. (If this is the only type of story they can come up with, they had better retire from movie ventures and save us from their next voyage into Moronsville.) It stars Kathleen Turner, Christopher Lloyd, Kim Catrall, Peter MacNicol (Ally MacBeal), Ruby Dee, Dom DeLuise and real-life triplets Leo, Myles and Gerry Fitzpatrick.

In 'Baby Geniuses', babies are actually intelligent, possess knowledge of 'the secrets of the universe' (whatever that means) and are able to talk with each other. The villain here is Dr. Elena Kinder (Kathleen Turner), president of BABYCO, the world's biggest manufacturer of baby products. She suspects that babies have a language of their own and thus sets up a secret laboratory deep underground to unlock the secrets of babytalk with the help of evil scientist Dr. Heep (Christopher Lloyd). (Give me a break, the plot is not even remotely amusing so far and is perhaps only funny in its lack of credibility.)

Sylvester a.k.a. 'Sly', is the most intelligent baby imprisoned in the underground laboratory and one day, he escapes by building a device out of Legos!!!?? ("It can't get any worse than this, right?", I was thinking.) His twin, Witt, from whom he was separated at birth, lives with their parents Dr. Dan Robbins (Peter MacNicol) and Robin (Kim Catrall). Somehow, Dan begins to understand babytalk (Groan!) and guess what, Sly and Witt develops telepathy! (At this point, I was just about ready to sink into deep, deep depression.)

One good thing about 'Baby Geniuses' is the special effects used to make babies talk, act and fight with karate and Tarzan-like moves. At least they make you wonder, 'How did they do that?' at certain moments in the movie. There's a scene where Sly dances to disco music ala John Travolta in 'Saturday Night Fever' that provides a few laughs. Also, the character Dicky or 'Icepick' is hilarious with the different ways he presents himself.

However, the flimsy plot, bad humor, badly done baby dialogue, sarcasm that falls flat, lame visual gags and formulaic ending all combine together to overwhelm whatever saving graces 'Baby Geniuses' have. The acting is hardly anything to shout about and overall, the movie is predictable and tedious to watch. 'Baby Geniuses', in my opinion, provides an entertainment factor of zero and is a complete waste of time and money. If you love watching cute, giggling and playful babies bullying helpless adults, then this is the movie for you. Otherwise, you would do better to see a rerun of 'Home Alone' and avoid the torment I endured in sitting through 'Baby Geniuses'.