Director Jack Neo may be the biggest draw at Singapore’s box-office, but that does not mean he’s one of the best. Instead of honing his skills over the years, his films have only gotten sloppier, lazier and more self-satisfied. Last year’s Ah Long Pte Ltd and Money No Enough 2 were haphazard to say the least, and this year’s Love Matters marked another low. That Singapore heartlanders continue to flock to his movies says a lot about the reputation he’s built after years of performing TV skits.
His newest horror comedy Where Got Ghost? is somewhat better than those three, but it’s still crudely made. It comprises three short stories titled Roadside Got Ghost, Forest Got Ghost and House Got Ghost, and stars the most well-known male comedians on Singapore TV.
In the first story Roadside Got Ghost, Richard Low plays a conman who uses a fake hotline to trick people into giving up their lottery winnings to him. But when a ghost comes calling, he dismisses it as a prank call. Of course, it’s the ghost who gets the last good laugh. Well, someone should… since no one at the media screening found much to laugh at here.
The second story is somewhat better. Forest Got Ghost stars Wang Lei and Ah Nan as two reservist soldiers who meet a ghost in the jungle after deviating from their supposed route. This story has a few creepy bits and some good laughs. But it is so long-winded that the long dull bits ultimately drown out the best bits. Is it so hard to find a good editor?
The third and final story, House Got Ghost, is the best and funniest. Picking up where Money No Enough 2 left off, it has Jack Neo, Mark Lee and Henry Thia reprising their roles of three brothers getting on with their lives after their mother’s death. But her spirit (Lai Ming) would not rest quietly until the boys burn her a Mickey Mouse paper bra, among other things.
This last segment is undeniably funny, with Singapore’s favourite trio hamming it up comfortably in Hokkien. Full of affectionate squabbles and caustic put-downs, this last story reminds us what Jack Neo can do when he puts more effort into his stories. We call the first two, Where Got Funny?
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After seeing Royston Tan making 2 movies catered to the Seventh Lunar Month in the National Day market, Jack also decided to come out with his usual crap during the same period, except that Royston touches on getai and Jack on issues concering S'poreans. Now? A PG rated horror comedy, where the standard is equvilant to Malaysia's horror comedy, Jangan Pandang Belakang Congkak. Afraid of getting a NC16 and above rating which would cause his income to decrease, he insist of making dumb and crappy PG rated shows, so that he can draw the heartlanders to see his crap.
It was written on the press 2 years ago that he compared himself with Ang Lee for tackling controversial issues. If Ang Lee can explore beyond every boundaries (exter-marital affair in Ice Storm, 2 cowboys in love in Brokeback Mountain and introducing kamasutra styled positions in Lust, Caution) so as to make movies out of the mainstream box, shouldn't Jack ought to slap himself for comparing his crap with Ang Lee?
Amazingly, Jack was one of the producers for the highly recommended HK business world thriller, Overheard.
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