Bio-Dome (1996) MGM/Comedy RT: 95 minutes Rated PG-13 (crude language, sex-related material, some drug content) Director: Jason Bloom Screenplay: Kip Koenig and Scott Marcano Music: Andrew Gross Cinematography: Phedon Papamichael Jr. Release date: January 12, 1996 (US) Cast: Pauly Shore, Stephen Baldwin, William Atherton, Joey Adams, Teresa Hill, Denise Dowse, Kylie Minogue, Kevin West, Dara Tomanovich, Henry Gibson, Rose McGowan, Taylor Negron, Patricia Hearst, Jeremy Jordan, Trevor St. John, Channon Roe, Roger Clinton, Tenacious D. Box Office: $13.4M (US)
Rating: ***
If I admit to liking the Pauly Shore-Stephen Baldwin comedy Bio-Dome, will my membership to the Film Critic’s Society be terminated? In my mind, I know I shouldn’t like this salute to stupidity. It’s moronic in every conceivable way. Bud and Doyle, the two slackers played respectively by Shore and Baldwin, make Beavis and Butthead look like honor students. They do things in Bio-Dome that no self-respecting human being should ever be asked to do- e.g. chewing each other’s toenails (eww, gross!). Nobody, not even the scientists manning the eponymous research facility, appears to have an IQ that exceeds the double-digits which also happens to be the very audience this dopey movie is aimed at. Every fiber of my intelligent being tells me I shouldn’t like Bio-Dome, but my busted gut tells me a different story. I think it’s a riot.
Part of the reason perhaps is the circumstances under which I saw it for the first time. The East Coast got slammed by a major snowstorm that weekend. It didn’t take long for cabin fever to set in. Desperate for entertainment, I laughed in the face of the harsh weather conditions (three feet of snow!) and took a bus to the now-closed 69th Street Theater to catch a couple of new releases. The first was the spoof Don’t Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood. After that, I saw Bio-Dome. For four hours (give or take), I laughed and giggled myself silly. Neither picture is great, but they provided a temporary cure for my winter blues.
At the time of this writing, the country is in lockdown mode due to COVID-19. I’ve been rewatching a lot of older movies. For whatever reason (crisis-induced insanity maybe?), I’ve been making my way through the Pauly Shore oeuvre. Having watched Jury Duty and Encino Man, I decided to make Bio-Dome my next stop. I wasn’t sure how I’d react to it this time but I kept an open mind. I guess maturity brings about awareness because this time it really hit me how big an idiot Shore is in this movie. His co-star Baldwin isn’t much brighter. Together, they behave like mentally deficient 6YOs who’ve just eaten a bag of sugar. How these guys have girlfriends is one of life’s mysteries. In any event, it took me a little while to get into the right mind frame, but once I did I laughed like I did nearly a quarter century ago.
The catalyst for the events that take place in Bio-Dome is Bud and Doyle’s stupidity. After pissing off their uncannily patient environmentalist girlfriends Monique (Adams, Chasing Amy) and Jen (Hill, Puppet Master 4 & 5) for the umpteenth time over their lack of respect for their cause, they try to get back into their good graces by…. WAIT A MINUTE! That’s not how it goes. In need of a bathroom, the guys stop at the Bio-Dome mistaking it for a new mall. They manage to get themselves sealed in with a team of scientists led by Dr. Faulkner (Atherton, Die Hard) conducting a year-long experiment that involves living in a self-sustaining environment with no outside help or interference. The guys are on board with being stuck there for a year; they even manage to convince the girls they’re sincere in their new attitudes towards saving the environment. Naturally, they make a complete mess of things with their dumb antics.
What else can I tell you about Bio-Dome? One of the scientists is played by Australian pop singer Kylie Minogue. She was also in Street Fighter with Jean-Claude Van Damme. The eclectic supporting cast also includes kidnap victim and John Waters regular Patricia Hearst as Doyle’s mom, comedian Taylor Negron (the pizza guy from Fast Times at Ridgemont High) as Monique’s lazy stepdad, Rose McGowan (Planet Terror) as a friend of the girlfriends and Laugh-In’s Henry Gibson as the Bio-Dome’s financial backer. Let’s see, what else. It’s directed by Jason Bloom who doesn’t have any other major titles to his credit. The plot moves along in predictable fashion from Bud and Doyle leading the team in fixing the broken Bio-Dome (to the tune of “The Safety Dance”) right down to the red digital read-out at the end counting down the seconds until an explosive device goes off. Yes, somebody goes mad and tries to sabotage the project. Guess who?
Granted, Bio-Dome is NOT a comedy classic. It’s as hopelessly dated as any 90s comedy centering on slackers of low intelligence. Shore and Baldwin make damn fools of themselves. There are moments when you’ll want to smack them silly. It’s not a well-made movie. It’s not very well written either. I can’t attest to the science in it although I think the guys are right about cannabis plants creating oxygen. In any event, there’s no earthly reason I should enjoy Bio-Dome as much as I do, but I can’t help myself. It makes me laugh albeit for all the wrong reasons. Not all of the jokes land, but enough of them hit the mark to make it worthwhile. It doesn’t change the fact that Bio-Dome is bio-dumb.
