Rating: 
Summary: Suprisingly Good
Review: I rented this movie with low expectations. I had heard some buzz about it, but not much. It started slow, but held my interest. Then the movie just took off and left me in awe that a low budget movie like this could pull off a truly engrossing tale of the pressures of a bunch of teens trying to define their place in the world.Some might notice the Godfellas style narration. While the premise for this movie isn't purely original, if you are going to borrow a stlye, you could do a lot worse than Goodfellas. Perhaps I am being unfair. While this movie does borrow a few ideas, it runs with them to a whole new level. I had the feeling while watching this movie that it was one of a kind. Good acting all around, something about this movie just felt honest, accurate, and realistic. The only thing that threw me off a little is the ending. It lost some of the hard realism of the rest of the movie. It was a comedown from the tension, which made me feel like Ben had finally found a way out of his self-destructive lifestyle, but I still see no clear resolution. Perhaps that is as it is supposed to be? In summary, I feel that for a low budget film, this film is completely brilliant.
Rating: 
Summary: Absolutely brilliant piece of cinema
Review: Justin Lin has made one of my films of 2003 (and yes I do know it was released in 2002). Being in Australia, I heard about this flick over the net and after watching it on DVD, I can understand what the hype was all about. He has turned around and portrayed Asian-Americans (and in general, any Asian person who lives in a western country, myself included) in a way that Hollywood has not been able to do well at all in recent times. Most Hollywood flicks thrive on portraying Asians as being kung-fu fighting machines or as the visual eye-candy for the non-Asian male cast. This flick finally portrays Asians-Americans as being really no different from the vast majority of the populace who have to make decisions that will affect their lives, and hopefully the correct decisions at that. This flick also pokes plenty of fun at Asian stereotypes that are not only prevalent in America, but also here in Australia (I laughed at the "Well, the library's closed" remark something crazy). One problem with the DVD is the (severe) lack of extras that are on it, but seeing as this flick will NEVER be released here in Australia, I'm not complaining too much now that I have the DVD in my hands. I am looking forward to more flicks from Justin Lin in the future. In the meantime, this flick will serve as a flare in a sea of martial arts flicks, that presents Asian-Americans in a non-stereotypical context with strong acting and a great story.
Rating:
Summary: Strong, chilling, fully realized, always entertaining effort
Review: I will attempt to not repeat what's already been said in other people's reviews, since they've already said it well. This film is a vanguard, groundbreaking for Asian-American films in that it pulls of what many films by Asian-American directors (as well as other minority-American filmmakers) fail to do -- that is present a story with a minority cast, wherein their racial/ethnic backgrounds are not central to the film -- and are unessential to the story. Just try and see how many films pull that off. With that said, this is a movie which alternates between humor, tension, revelation, strength, weakness and sadness. Sure, you notice the cast is AA, but after the novelty of that fact wears off a few minutes into the film, you realize that these are just your largely typical suburban teens. For a low budget film, it's hard to see that. The film is rich, and doesn't lack for direction and revelation. Having seen this movie approximately 12 times since it first came out in the theaters, this is one film that's hard to forget. Its images sear themselves into your mind. Watching the main characters, is like watching a slow, yet steady, whirlwind, and they're at the center, and you're watching them go down. Many of us can probably relate to the lost souls at the center of "BLT." No matter how self-assured and confident they may see, they are just as insecure as your average teen. It's thought-provoking and even though the film's director, Justin Lin, made a concession in "softening" the ending, it's still a disturbing, taut, yet simultaneously full film and a stellar effort. And at a seemingly short 1 hour and 40 minutes, it's a fully realized vision which presents just what it needs to, accomplishing a lot in its time frame, without seeming overstuffed.
Rating:
Summary: Teens Behaving Badly
Review: As a theme, Kids Who Kill has been a staple of movies ever since that cherubic little blond girl attempted to do in her very own mommy in 1956's "The Bad Seed." Now, almost 50 years later, we have "Better Luck Tomorrow," a film inspired by the true-life activities of a "Chinese Mafia" made up of a bunch of Asian high school honor students in Orange County, California. What makes Justin Lin's film even more depressing than the average "disgruntled teen" flick is that the protagonists here represent "the Best and the Brightest" modern America has to offer. Like their far less brainy counterparts in "Rebel Without a Cause," these suburban malcontents hail from comfortable upper middle class homes and have just about everything they could wish for in terms of material possessions. Yet, unlike the rebels in that earlier film, these are smart, highly motivated achievers who can ace any entrance exam and choose virtually any college they want, and STILL they feel the need to push the envelope of legality and morality - with ultimately fatal results. These are children for whom the good things in life come too easily - yet, like the kids who have nothing, they too need that challenge, that risk, that "rush" that tells them they're alive and in control of their own destiny and not just pawns in a game whose rules for success were prescribed long before they arrived on the scene. Lin, along with co-writers Ernesto M. Foronda and Fabian Marquez, has fashioned a chilling portrait of suburban life, pinpointing just how ethically rudderless so many of today's young people seem to be. It's particularly disturbing in that these are the very people who seem to have it all together on the surface and can therefore get away with illegality and murder since no one in his right mind would think to suspect them - and, more to the point, these are the people who hold the future of our civilization in their hands. Yet despite the grimness of the subject matter, the film contains an amazing amount of humor, as Lin and his writers take an almost lighthearted, satirical approach to the material, skewering the values of an emptily materialistic society with razor-sharp precision. If I have a complaint against the film, it is that the writers have made a conscious decision to exclude virtually all adults from their cast of characters. I understand that they are trying to draw us into the world of these teens, but by draining that world of all adult presence and influence, the filmmakers remove a crucially important element from the equation. We want to know what kind of parents these boys come from in order to better understand how these offspring got to where they are today, though, I guess, the point might be that, because these appear to be "problem free" kids who get good grades, the parents treat them with a sort of benign neglect that allows this amoral behavior to flourish. Still, this total removal of the parents as characters makes the film feel less totally honest and realistic than it otherwise might. This insistence on a hermetically sealed, teen-only world also results in a strain on the film's credibility, as when the boys go off to Las Vegas for an Academic Decathlon competition without a single chaperone in attendance. While there, the youngsters end up procuring the services of a hooker and one of the boys even brandishes a gun around the motel room - both events extremely unlikely given the highly litigious nature of our society and the subsequent stringent rules governing such school-sponsored activities. The acting by a cast of virtual unknowns is outstanding, with Parry Shen, in particular, distinguishing himself as Ben, the likable, too-smart-for-his-own-good model student who functions as the film's voiceover narrator and who finds he has a dark side buried deep within him that he never really knew existed. Jason Tobin, Sung Kang, Roger Fan, John Cho and Karin Anna Cheung, natural-born actors all, offer superb support. It is the incongruity between the familiarly shiny surface of its suburban setting and the malfeasance at its core that makes "Better Luck Tomorrow" such an unsettling and disorienting social document. We're thrown off balance because these kids seem to embody everything we envision when we speak about the ideal, goal-oriented, forward-looking teen. With its bravely inconclusive and nonjudgmental ending, the film takes us to a world we may not want to visit but which we ignore at our own peril.
Rating:
Summary: Highly Entertaining
Review: Well made film. Some of the acting is not so good in spots particularly in the beginning of the film. The guy who played Derrick was the best actor in the film. I also didn't like how the parents just didn't seem to exist. We never saw their parents. I hate "youth"-"coming of age" films that do that. Be prepared for an extremely dark ending.
Rating: 
Summary: it's interesting to see..
Review: I just saw the movie.. It's definitely interesting and disturbing at the same time. Justin Lin is very talented, but tries to do too much in the film. It's all over the place. That being said, it's still one of the better Asian American films out there, if not the best one I've seen that's not martial arts (alas, probably the ONLY Asian American film out there..) .. BUT.. It never impacted me or did little to move Asian American Cinema forward into the mainstream IMO. It didn't endear me to any of the characters or story which is what needed to happen.. My perception of Asians hasn't really been affected, nor did I feel liberated as an Asian American might hope. (I would not say I'm proud of this movie as an Asian American, or even recommend this movie as one that you MUST check out.. But instead I'd recommend it as one of those films that I'd say watch if you wanted something a bit different and leave it at that.. And although it did remind me a bit of a poor man's Heathers with a Pulp Fiction splash, it felt incomplete and rushed. But I did enjoy the music soundtrack!!!) I credit the film for making me re-examine our society, and growing up, and racism, and suburbia and how materialistic and idealistic, naïve and complex teens can be.. But it was also not convincing in parts.. And unless the movie becomes a box office hit, and I don't think it will even come close to Joy Luck Club in revenues, it will probably remain an art-house only, independent film.. Not that there's anything wrong with that. It's definitely an encouraging sign that this movie IS gaining attention, even acclaim.. It leaves you desiring more, if only that you want the mood to pick up or that you want to wake up..
Rating:
Summary: derived from a true story that really happened in taiwan
Review: i think justin lin might got the whole story from the true happenstence in taiwan since lin was definitely from taiwan. the only difference is that a bunch of young guys tried to kill another one and thought he's stone dead but then suddenly the guy revive like jesus chist and that blew all the young killers's minds and made them all cry like babies....and all the killer-students were indicted and jailed afterwards. did you notice that except one adult teacher and one coach, this movie is totally without adults or parents shown? the mtv generation is of course in no need of parents to butt in anywhere and anytime. this is a pretty good movie but still dragged along a bit.
Rating: 
Summary: ...
Review: Better Luck Tomorrow is a very well made movie, it's very good looking and the soundtrack is sometimes decent, the story is told effectively, if a little too straightforwardly. Unfortunately, it's also dull and the tone is drenched with an appropriate but overplayed malaise that, combined with the stylistic glut, ruins the comic moments and subdues the dramatic. That the story being told is routine beyond routine doesn't help. Much has been made of its use of characters being cast out of, but inside their racial stereotypes (really... how often do you see an american movie with asian teenagers who aren't booksmart, well to do, and restrained) and into genre-stereotypes. Sure this is admirable, but it's not as audacious as it's been made out to be - it shouldn't even be an issue,it should be the norm, and maybe this was the directors point, but, for all its righteousness, it doesn't turn a rote story into a brilliantly human one, nor does it make it worthwhile to spend 2 hours watching this when you could just read a brief plot summary and get about as much satisfaction out of it.
Rating:
Summary: this movie broke all the stereotypes
Review: i can only imagine what justin lin could do with a studio budget. this movie is truly a landmark in dispelling the model minority myth. few people realize that there is an entire section of the los angeles police department just to deal with asian gangs. in the entertainment world, asian-americans can only play the martial arts master or the super-nerds. i believe that justin has opened the door to let an asian-american play the bad guy. i highly recommend this movie!
Rating:
Summary: A Step for the Asian Community
Review: (...) This movie was an excellent piece of work. It was definately a step for the Asian community in media. Justin Lin deserves tons of credit for this film. He did the most he could with what little he had to work with. It was an achievement that was properly recognized. I liked this film because it showed an Asian American teen's perspective on life. Finally, a film from our point of view! This film was especially popular with the Asian American teens out there because of how they could relate to the characters so much. It's different from the typical jock/cheerleader concentrated movie which was one reason that made this film unique. Not only that, BLT had a powerful ending; it made it's point clearly and completely. Besides the story being interesting, the cinematography was different. It keeps the viewer's attention to the screen. Even though the characters seem isolated in the film most of the time, I think there was a point to it. Maybe to show how Asians are isolated at times? Even though the film was great, it's not perfect, but still an incredible effort from the director. The only part of the film that could have used work was right before the ending when the film's point was stated. That transition could have gone smoother. But other than that, a film definately worth seeing at least once.
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