Bio-Dome

For other uses, see Biodome.

Bio-Dome
Film poster
Directed by	Jason Bloom
Produced by	Bradley Jenkel Brad Krevoy Steven Stabler
Written by	Adam Leff Mitchell Peck
Starring	Pauly Shore Stephen Baldwin William Atherton Joey Lauren Adams Rose McGowan Kylie Minogue
Music by	Andrew Gross
Cinematography	Phedon Papamichael Jr.
Editing by	Christopher Greenbury
Studio	Motion Picture Corporation of America
Distributed by	Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Release date(s)	January 12, 1996 (1996-01-12)
Running time	88 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$15 million
Box office	$13,427,615 (North America)

Bio-Dome is a 1996 American comedy film directed by Jason Bloom. Bio-Dome was produced by Motion Picture Corporation of America on a budget of $15 million and was distributed theatrically by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

The plot of the film revolves around two clumsy, dim-witted slackers who, whilst on a road trip, look for a toilet stop in what they believe is a shopping mall, which in fact turns out to be a "bio-dome", a form of a closed ecological system in which five scientists are to be hermetically sealed in for a year. The film has themes of environmentalism, countered with themes of substance abuse, sexual innuendo and toilet humour.

The film stars Stephen Baldwin and Pauly Shore, and has cameo appearances by celebrities such as Kylie Minogue, Patricia Hearst and Rose McGowan. Jack Black and Kyle Gass, more commonly known today as the band Tenacious D, first came to global attention in Bio-Dome in which they performed together as Tenacious D on-screen for the first time.

The film grossed $13,427,615 in North America, and also earning something of a reputation as a stoner film, Bio-Dome was universally panned by mainstream critics, some of whom named it as their pick for worst film.^{[citation needed]}

Plot

Bud "Squirrel" Macintosh (Pauly Shore) and Doyle "Stubs" Johnson (Stephen Baldwin) are best friends and live together in the same house. Their girlfriends, Monique (Joey Lauren Adams) and Jen (Teresa Hill) are environmentalists who ask Bud and Doyle to join them at an Earth Day event. The troublemakers, however, are not interested in picking up trash, so they fake an injury to Doyle's head in order to get out of the environmentalist gathering. Although they are sympathetic at first, their girlfriends eventually find out it is a trick and go to the Earth Day event without Bud and Doyle. Once there, they call the boys from a payphone to announce they'll be joining some hot guys from a swim team at a party down by a lake. Jealous, Bud and Doyle drive out to the lake, only to find there is no party, and they have been had.

On the way home, they drive by an area where scientist Dr. Noah Faulkner (William Atherton) is about to seal his team into the "Bio-Dome" for a year without outside contact. Mistaking it for a mall and going inside to use the bathroom, they get sealed in along with the scientists. Dr. Leaky (Henry Gibson) discovers them and demands that they be kicked out. Faulkner refuses, claiming it would destroy the purpose of the experiment, so Bud and Doyle end up remaining. This proves a mistake, as Bud and Doyle begin acting like they did outside of the Dome, harming themselves and destroying many of the scientists' projects. The scientists remain silent, but they soon grow tired of the childish behavior and dump the boys into their desert environment section. After three days of being stuck in the desert environment, they discover a key in the lock of one of the windows and escape the Bio-Dome.

To impress their girlfriends with their newfound interest in the environment, Bud and Doyle organize a party at the Bio-Dome, but this only angers their girlfriends, who tell them they're destroying the Dome's experiment. After the party, Bud and Doyle try to make it up to their girlfriends by cleaning up all the trash, saving the Dome's environment, with the help of all the scientists. Faulkner, who has gone mad because of Bud and Doyle's antics, plans to blow up the Dome with homemade coconut bombs. He fails, but does blow open the Dome's door, allowing everyone to exit, considering the fiasco a success. The film ends with Faulkner running off into the desert after climbing out the same window Bud and Doyle used to escape through earlier, while Bud, Doyle, and their girlfriends drive off toward a mysterious factory so Doyle can yet again use the bathroom.

Reception

Produced on an estimated budget of $15 million, Bio-Dome grossed $13,427,615 in North America.

The film was an overwhelming critical failure, universally panned by the mainstream critics. Bio-Dome has a rating of 5% on the ratings aggregate site Rotten Tomatoes, based on 21 reviews. The film has the distinction of the lowest aggregate score for a film currently included in the database of Metacritic, a website which aggregates film reviews. As of October 2010, its score of 1 (indicating "Overwhelming dislike") is tied with the 2003 film The Singing Forest and the 2005 film Chaos; however, this score is based on only ten critical reviews (The Singing Forest's score is based on seven reviews, while Chaos's score is based on ten as well).

At the 1996 Golden Raspberry Awards, Pauly Shore won a Razzie Award for Worst Actor for his work in the film. He did not win the award outright, tying with Tom Arnold for that actor's performances in Big Bully, Carpool and The Stupids.

In popular culture

• The film is referenced by "Weird Al" Yankovic in his song Albuquerque as an in-flight movie.

See also

• List of American films of 1996
• MARS-500
• Biosphere 2
• Montreal Biodome

External links

• Bio-Dome at the Internet Movie Database
• Bio-Dome at AllRovi
• Bio-Dome at Rotten Tomatoes
• Bio-Dome at Metacritic
• Bio-Dome at Box Office Mojo