This review brought to you by Dodo Fishballs and Carlsberg Beer.
Watched I do, I do today. It has nothing on Best Bet but worth my 6.50. I thought Jack did pretty okay with the plot but I think he has problem with romances. This one fell into cliche by the end and Jack was also not very good with romance in That One No Enough (his forgotten flop). With Best Bet, he got the pulse of the heartlander spot on but in this one, he kind of loses the plot halfway. Supporting cast was admirable, with Ah Nan stealing the show as a fey hairdresser in the mould of David Gan. Marcus Chin also turned in a hilarious performance and he gets to end up with Margaret Lee too. Hui Ge play multiple roles, ranging from Getai Owner to Tang Kee to Fortune Teller to the Prime Minister and is his usual pathetic but humourous self in them. I thought that Adrian Pang was a bit subdued and his lines were not that good. The less said about Sharon Au the better because she does not manage to generate the right empathy by the audience. Allan Wu is Allan Wu. The product placement was terribly intrusive and sometimes even disturbing. One scene was practically a Dodo advert for Mee Tai Bak while Marcus brings Carlsberg to "cheer up" Sharon. Great, make her an alcoholic while you are at it. It just irks you. The ending was totally unnecessary and quashes the glimmer of hope that the film holds out for aging singles up till that point. It is somwhat cynical to say that singles cannot find love if they were not set up by their parents. Jack, this was worse than Best Bet's ending! What are you doing? However, the film does take pot shots at everything from governmental bureaucracy, the Baby Bonus, Public Entertainment licensing, etc, etc and those jokes are pretty refreshing and hilarious. Overall a (2.5 +.5 ) 3 star show, 0.5 * more for Margaret Lee in a bikini. LOL. Kidding!
