Fridae

Jack Neo goes from bad to worse. As the years pass, the quality of his films continues to deteriorate - even though his box-office pull remains as strong as ever. His latest comedy-melodrama, Love Matters, is simply awful. It's so haphazardly-directed and littered with bad sex jokes, it makes Good Luck Chuck look like dramatic masterpiece.

Henry Thia plays a man who's been married to Yeo Yann Yann for years. The passion has gone out of their marriage, and they haven't had sex for 3 years. When they finally get down and dirty one night, she discovers that he has erectile dysfunction.

On the other hand, Henry's sworn brother Jack Lim is in the prime of his sexual life. He sleeps around regularly and juggles different partners - until a lovely young schoolteacher (Cheryl Lee) catches his eye. Meanwhile, Henry's teenage son (Benny Lee) is just starting off on his journey towards sexual adulthood. He falls in love with his classmate (Natalli) but she's attached to another boy.

Through this inter-generational prism, Jack presumably wants to explore the different aspects of love and attraction. But Jack, being Jack, has neither the intellectually depth nor dramatic finesse to make this memorable. The film begins as a bawdy sexual comedy and ends as a cliched melodrama that quickly tries to sum up the point that love matters more than sex and attraction.

Bad directing and messy script aside, it feels as if Jack got the idea from the similarly multi-story dramedy Love, Actually. If you took away Jack's occasionally funny sex jokes and Yeo Yann Yann's strong performance, there is absolutely nothing here worth watching.