Better Luck Tomorrow

[pete]

I saw this film and was pretty diappointed.  it felt like they clinged onto the "asian american" angle just because the film would be otherwise a generic sell.  anyone seen "amongst friends?"  it felt like that, and amongst friends wasn't even a very good film.  it's one of those crime films that felt like all the other crime films because the director really has no insight (and no interest) in crime, just inspirations from other crime films he's seen in his time.  then he masks it with crap like the opening line "you'll never forget the sight of a dead body...etc." trying to be all existential about it.
here's my lengthy review written right after the opening night:
http://www.mccully.cc/~petelee/better%20luck%20tomorrow%20review.htm

[MacGuffin]

anyone seen "amongst friends?"  it felt like that, and amongst friends wasn't even a very good film.

I thought the same thing. This film felt like "Amongst Friends". But I do have to say these characters were worth watching. But like that film, "Better Luck..."  was riddled with first-time director cliches (although Lin did have a hand with "Shopping For Fangs", a film that owes a lot to Wong Kar-Wai and "Chungking Express"); shots were blatently taken from other films. And while it had great cinematography, there were so many distracting "Hey, look at me, I'm directing" shots (the fast speed into slow motion shots, the 360 degree rotating around the characters shots, etc.). The actors were fine and could grow, but there were times when their stiff acting shown through, and, at times, the poor dialogue didn't help them either. I did like, though, how they were students who just happened to be Asian.

[billybrown]

I've redirected this post to here thanks to the guidance and direction of Ono, the guy w/ that Critic avatar.  

I saw it this weekend, and quite honestly, I don't get all the hype and accolades it's received, other than being a film to be break new ground by using an all Asian cast through the American studio system.

I will say that even with it's limited budget (250 Grand) the film looked quite good and had a few visually interesting sequences, but on the whole, the performances were uniformally not up to par, the story was illogical at various points, and any degree of plot/ character believability and thematic substance seemed a mere afterthought, a good bit of the dialogue was rather cheese and cliche, and much of it felt like a Noxema commercial using Asians. For me, a very interesting idea was lost and hampered by these aforementioned flaws. Had this film used a standard, "White Hollywood" cast to tell this story, I doubt we'd even be talking about this film.

Any further thoughts to share?

[pete]

...and the asian didn't break that much ground either.  the main guy was an extra in a Dell commercial shown around Christmas last year.