“Baby & Me” seems like a can’t miss movie. The movie stars one of the most popular young actors in Korea today, Geun-seok Jang, and features a story that revolves around a young teen suddenly thrust into fatherhood. At minimum, “Baby & Me” should elicit plenty of smiles and, possibly, a whole lot of laughs right? Sadly, it just ain’t so.

Joon-soo (Geun-seok Jang) is a rebellious high school kid, popular with the girls, but an absolute nightmare for his parents and teachers. Joon-soo soon drives his parents batty enough that they decide to up and leave their house. When Joon-soo finds out that his parents are AWOL he does what any party animal would do, he calls his friends over for a house party.

At first, Joon-soo devises varies ways to abandon the child, but every time is spoiled by an unexpected event. When his teacher calls to warn him that he will be expelled if he misses another day, Joon-soo decides to bring the baby to school. This causes further scandal for Joon-soo and eventually leads to his suspension. Through all this, Joon-soo finds himself slowly becoming attached to the baby.

Like a lot of Korean films these days, you’re treated to a decent first 30 minutes or so and than pure drudgery. With “Baby & Me” the laughs never come about, the storyline is fraught with illogical actions, and the movie makes a disappointing turn into pure drama territory towards the end of the film. Gun-seok Jang does his part to provide for a likable lead, but everything else about the movie is second-rate at best.

One of the many misguided choices made by the filmmakers was to use an adult voice-over to illustrate the baby’s thoughts (ala 3 Men and a Baby). This came off as a cheap trick to make the movie cuter than necessary and never came close to being funny. Certain scenes also seemed seriously misguided. When Joon-soo smeared the baby’s soiled diapers on another student’s textbook (for complaining about the noise), it wreaked of poor taste and out of whack judgment on the main character’s part. There’s also many scenes with Byeol Kim telling off teachers in an intended cute manner, but came across as a self-centered brat. If all this isn’t bad enough, there’s plenty of moments with flawed logic. The biggest offense occurred during the movie’s climax. Geun-seok Jang ran through the security checkpoint at the Incheon Airport to find a couple leaving the country. Eventually he did find the couple, while being chased by airport security. The problem? He had no idea which gate they were at!

2008 is turning out to be one of the weakest years for Korean films in terms of quality and commercial success. “Baby & Me” seems to follow this disappointing pattern by turning in another unsatisfactory effort. If you want a taste of a really good Korean comedy featuring a main character always running around with a baby strapped to their back than check out “Saving My Hubby.” “Baby & Me” is for only die-hard Geun-seok Jang fans.