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Loser (2000)
Pathetic
I'm not generally a fan of these hastily made teen-movies, although I should mention that I enjoyed American Pie and Clueless, and I presumed that Loser would be have been a similar experience. This is not the case.
Jason Biggs plays a young lad moving from quiet family life to the big city, and this transition is accompanied by a full compliment of stereotypes, morality lessons, and projected adult fears about life as a teenager. This uninspiring character represents a pinnacle of fine Christian values within the corrupt society of the city, and succeeds in surviving 'untainted' by the evils of modern life. His girlfriend begins the film working as a waitress in a strip bar (as many students do), but ends up at the world's friendliest vets/cute animal sanctuary. Every other character seems to finish in some kind of personal hell. These includes brain damage, prison, and physical deformity.
'Loser' furnishes the viewer with an embarrassing mixture of 'comedy' and 'drama', but fails to provide the goods for either element. A rape storyline is provided for no apparent reason, and is neither informative nor serious in it's portrayal of Rohypnol. Instead, the rapist doubles as both evil drug fiend and comedy room-mate; a combination that detracts from the seriousness of the issue.
The acting from Biggs and Suvari is standard, but with such a ludicrous script it makes little difference. I felt genuinely offended by the end of the film and would urge people not to watch it.
Yan yuk cha siu bau II: Tin jue dei mit (1998)
Humour, suspense and good acting
(This applies to the VCD version) *POSSIBLE SPOILERS*
I haven't seen the original Bunman yet, so I can't compare it against that, but I feel that this film stand up very well on it's own. It would be hard to give the plot away, but needless to say it involves the standard lunatic woman exacting demented 'revenge' upon poor unfortunates.
The acting is perfect for this style of film, with Cheung Kam Ching giving a fine portrayal as a sensitive fella who just can't keep his lady friends under control. As things go bad, which is a good 25 minutes into the film, you want to slap him as much as you feel sorry for him.
The humour stays with the film consistently - even in the last few confrontation scenes "Officer Lazyboots" (according to the subtitles) manages to deliver the kind of lines that can raise a chuckle, and flesh out the characters, if you'll excuse the pun. Actually, it could be that a lot of the humour comes from the translation - the subtitles are written in perfect broken English, with words often seeming both inappropriate and perfect at the same time.
To conclude - this film is fairly gentle and warm-hearted throughout, offering no surprises, but a good deal of tension, sex, eating, and comedy. With dismemberment and cannibalism for added taste. Recommended!