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Better Luck With the
Next Movie
by Michael Flanagan
Wimpy
I believe it was at the halfway point of Justin Lin's Better
Luck Tomorrow that I leaned to the person with whom I was
watching the movie and said, "This is like that movie Juice."
And she laughed. I believe at this point in the film the
teenagers that drive the plot were plummeting to new lows in the
world of drugs, wealth, and greed. I don't believe the
filmmakers intended for either comparisons to 80's hood movies
or to have their annoying, unlikable characters' struggles
laughed at. We did both. |
| Okay. Juice. It's the story of
a group of black friends growing up in a relatively bad urban
neighborhood in the 1980's. They get involved with the
proverbial wrong crowd, begin stealing and robbing, one of them
buys a gun, there's a convenience store heist gone wrong,
there's severe gang-violence, and the rest is...well, the rest
is pretty bad, but still better than Better Luck Tomorrow.
Tomorrow's group of friends is one of highly intelligent
and wealthy Asian-Americans growing up in a rich suburban
neighborhood and getting through the trials of extracurricular
activities. No, seriously. These kids, somehow,
through inexplicable plot twists and bad storytelling, end up
going down the same road as the Juice kids, with the end
result being that the "MILF" kid from the American
Pie movies is bludgeoned and suffocated by kids who aren't
quite as rich as he is, all because...because he's dating a
pretty girl that the lead character, Parry Shen's Ben, really
wants to go out with. |
"Well, we won the school debate
contest. What now?"
"Hey, I know. Let's get addicted to coke and buy guns and
shoot people."
"Cool." |
| The main difference between this and Juice,
and the biggest problem with Better Luck Tomorrow, is
that the characters aren't real. You don't feel them, and
you don't feel for them. Well, maybe the poor
goldfish. But while the Juice kids are depicted as
fallen innocents whom, though you may find the movie silly, you
find a way to care, the Tomorrow kids already have it
good, and therefore have no real reason to fall. Who cares
if a bunch of rich, smart, trivia club kids decide to go from
cheat-sheets to cocaine to automatic weapons? Moreover,
who would believe it as it is depicted in this jumpy,
slowly-paced and uneven film? The fact that the
"villain," the aforementioned "MILF" man
John Cho is my favorite character in the movie not only
represents miscasting, but mischaracterization.
Save your money, or (and I never thought I'd say this) spend
it on a rental of Juice. It's not that good a
movie, but it has a point, likeable characters, and a spirit
that Better Luck Tomorrow severely lacks. |
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