Better Luck Tomorrow
[DVD Info]

Ben Manibag (Parry Shen) is a 16 year old. His family is rich and he's striving to be an overachiever so he can get into the best college. He belongs to every club in school and shoots 217 hoops every day. He also tries to expand his vocab by using a new word everyday and repeating it over and over. Ben and his friend Virgil Hu (Jason J. Tobin) and Virgil's cousin started with petty crimes (buying things from an electronics store and then going back to the store, picking out the same items but marking them as bought, and getting money back). Ben is then offered a job by Daric Loo (Roger Fan), another over achiever...and president of all the clubs, to fill out test cheat sheets for $50 a pop. Soon, he's dragged into a world of crime and drugs. He becomes addicted to cocaine and him and his posse become notorious crime/drug group. Virgil becomes mentally unstable and starts to mouth off to everyone about their operation. On his 17th birthday, Ben wakes up in a pool of blood caused by the cocaine he was doing and he decides he's out. But before he's completely out he's asked to do one more thing for a guy who's girlfriend he's in love with. But when things go horribly wrong...what will he do? Will he ever be able to get back to the life he had?

You can be addicted to cocaine and then be able to quit the next day without any repercussions.
When you're rich, you have to steal to make yourself happy.

"You know how you make decisions that lead to other decisions but you don't remember why you made those decisions in the first place?" ~Stephanie.

None really... Can't get into them without spoiling the movie.

This flick was really depressing. The ending gave little hope for those involved. I don't know if this is an accurate protrayal of Asian-American's living in suburbia but if it is then...they have really sad lives and need their parents to be more involved. This movie could really be applied to any race (not just Asian-Americans) that just gets so bored with day to day life and doesn't apply that bordem in a good way. I also don't really understand how the ending worked. What would Stephanie do if she ever found out? What was with the "lending his girl out of a night" thing anyway? It was good but really didn't have that special "umph" to make it great. Because of this, the jury gives this flick:

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