Better Luck Tomorrow

Directed by Justin Lin, Better Luck Tomorrow follows Parry Shen’s Ben Manibag as he and his friends slowly-but-surely find themselves drawn into a criminal lifestyle. Filmmaker Lin, working from a screenplay written with Ernesto Foronda and Fabian Marquez, delivers an often blisteringly-paced endeavor that benefits from its stylish visuals and stirring performances, with, in terms of the latter, Shen’s affable turn, which is matched by a solid roster of periphery players, going a long way towards smoothing over the narrative’s periodic bumps and lulls. And although the movie takes some admittedly unexpected twists and turns, particularly in the almost impressively dark final stretch, Better Luck Tomorrow does suffer from a decidedly familiar and derivative atmosphere that ultimately colors its overall impact (ie this is, in the end, precisely the sort of rise-and-fall story that’s been told countless times before). There’s nevertheless little doubt that the movie, armed with Lin’s enthusiastic, energetic approach, remains quite watchable for the duration of its slightly overlong running time, which ultimately cements Better Luck Tomorrow‘s place as a decent-enough piece of work that could’ve used a little tightening in its post-production phase.

**1/2 out of ****