Better Luck Tomorrow | Rotten Tomatoes

Better Luck Tomorrow

R

Released Apr 11, 2003

1h 41m

Crime

Drama

List

81%

Tomatometer

108 Reviews

79%

Audience Score

5,000+ Ratings

An accomplished high school student, Ben (Parry Shen) seems to excel at almost everything except winning over his dream girl, Stephanie (Karin Anna Cheung). When he begins an unlikely friendship with trouble-seeking tough guy Daric (Roger Fan), Ben becomes involved in petty crime that gets increasingly dangerous, with his various illegal ventures extending to include Stephanie and her wealthy beau, Steve (John Cho). Can these restless teens curb their criminal activities before it's too late?

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Critics Consensus

A promising work by Lin, the energetic Better Luck Tomorrow is disturbing and thought-provoking.

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David Ansen

Newsweek

Lin's movie tries to do too much--it takes some dark, credibility-defying turns--but you come away knowing you've witnessed the birth of a moviemaking career.

Mar 7, 2018

Full Review

Ben Nuckols

Associated Press

Better Luck Tomorrow, a corrosive, insightful study of the pressure-packed lives of suburban high school students, brings a new variant to gangster movies: gangsters with perfect SAT scores.

Apr 2, 2013

Full Review

Joe Morgenstern

Wall Street Journal

Better Luck Tomorrow breathes new life into a familiar story: coming of age in high school.

Apr 2, 2013

Full Review

Jake Mulligan

Dig Boston

Perceptive at dramatizing moments where teenagers' performances of masculinity and maturity inadvertently melt into something more fraught and real.

Rated: 3.5/5

Aug 6, 2021

Full Review

Barbara Shulgasser

Common Sense Media

Justin Lin's sleek and skillful Better Luck Tomorrow is a well-contoured fantasy, not about magical worlds, secret gardens, or Middle-earths, but about the place within where demons may lie in those who may otherwise seem to be the best of us.

Rated: 4/5

Jun 21, 2021

Full Review

John Powers

L.A. Weekly

Better Luck Tomorrow is a huge step forward, and though it doesn't fully transcend its small budget, the story feels rooted in something more solid than prefab posturing.

May 17, 2018

Full Review

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Arnold D

This story subtly reflected so many feelings and experiences of minority youth in North America all tied together with a progressively engaging story.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

04/28/24

Full Review

Yash B

"Better Luck Tomorrow" is a bold film early in Justin Lin's career. Before he became the guy who revamped the "Fast & Furious" franchise, he made this fascinating character-focused movie. I enjoyed this movie and think even when it starts to take a dark turn, it is always thought-provoking with its themes and ideas. I think the movie moves at a good pace and even when not a lot is happening to push the plot forward, the filmmaking style is energetic and done well. Overall, it is a fascinating early 2000s high school movie that is much more of a drama and thriller than a comedy or coming-of-age story, and I think it is a refreshing entry from that era in that regard.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

09/25/23

Full Review

victor o

In 2001-2002 I was driving by my old high school in Cypress, CA, and saw the big trucks and massive lighting displays and I wondered what was going on. Many years later I saw the Fast and the Furious movies directed by Justin Lin and vaguely saw this movie listed with no idea what it was about. It was only via movie trivia did I learn that Justin Lin retroactively created the character of Han Seoul-Oh from the Fast and the Furious franchise that had originated in this movie. I had no idea how it was done until I took the time to watch it. And I was pleasantly surprised. Cypress, CA. A dead body has been buried and becomes the focus of Ben Manibag and his friend Virgil Hu. Ben is your typical high school kid looking to get the best out of life attempting to juggle academics, athletics, and social life by getting the attention of a Stephanie, a pretty cheerleader. But peer pressure from Stephanie's callous boyfriend Steve, and, Daric, a sociopathic high school student on the same academic decathlon team as Ben bring him to grips with reality. Still, he has a good relationship with Virgil and his cousin Han who is older, drives, and gets his cousin and friend booze and cigarettes. As they live day by day, finding fun, and striving for popularity get themselves into trouble with alcohol, drugs, sex, etc. Then one day they get into real trouble. I got to say, I was more interested in the fact that this included a character from the Fast and the Furious franchise than the story itself, but the acting was superb, real, and deep. I can see how something like this would become the basis for the character of Han, after all, Cypress isn't that far from East Los Angeles where a certain racer/thief would reign alongside an undercover cop from Barstow. But Ben's viewpoint does make for a great story and I'm glad to have seen this.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

03/31/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Entertaining. A really unhappy ending brings the movie down for me.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

02/04/23

Full Review

kyle c

I love how this movie blended teen drama with crime and suspense. It manages to make the stakes of even the simple high school crush feel as high as the life-and-death schemes the kids are enacting. The whole cast does a great job at acting younger than they really are, especially Jason Tobin, who plays Virgil. He is accurately annoying enough to really capture the spirit of a high schooler. I did feel that the movie expected us to take the characters a little more seriously than was really warranted at times, but once things really go off the rails at the end, it's easy to forgive. I love how dark the ending is - you can almost see the main character have the internal debate on whether he can live with what he's done. The ambiguity of the ending drives it over the top, making this a film I would highly recommend to anyone who enjoys a dark slow burn.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

03/31/23

Full Review

jordan m

They really did a lot for the budget they had for this. The way they handled end of the movie was refreshingly disturbing and the rest of the plot was at least somewhat intriguing. I think the movie would've stood better on its own than it did after reading excerpts from interviews with the director where he gave fairly one-dimensional reasons for directorial choices that he made. Seeing a young Cho was neat, but I wish given the retroactive importance placed on the movie that Han had played a larger role.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

03/31/23

Full Review

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Justin Lin

Director

Parry Shen

Ben Manibag

Jason Tobin

Virgil Hu

Sung Kang

Han

Roger Fan

Daric Loo

John Cho

Steve Choe

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Synopsis

An accomplished high school student, Ben (Parry Shen) seems to excel at almost everything except winning over his dream girl, Stephanie (Karin Anna Cheung). When he begins an unlikely friendship with trouble-seeking tough guy Daric (Roger Fan), Ben becomes involved in petty crime that gets increasingly dangerous, with his various illegal ventures extending to include Stephanie and her wealthy beau, Steve (John Cho). Can these restless teens curb their criminal activities before it's too late?

Director: Justin Lin
Producer: Julie Asato, Ernesto Foronda, Justin Lin
Screenwriter: Justin Lin, Fabian Marquez, Ernesto Foronda
Distributor: Paramount Pictures
Production Co: MTV Films
Rating: R (Violence|Drug Use|Sexuality|Language)
Genre: Crime, Drama
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Apr 11, 2003, Wide
Release Date (Streaming): Jul 1, 2013
Box Office (Gross USA): $3.8M
Runtime: 1h 41m
Sound Mix: Dolby Stereo, Dolby Digital, Dolby A, Surround, Dolby SR
Aspect Ratio: Flat (1.85:1)

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