Reviewed by: MilesC Date: 02/11/2001 Summary: More or less painless... This movie makes one of the biggest blunders a romantic comedy can make: it fails to give its main characters any real personality. Nick Cheung initially appears to be the lead character; he's the first person on-screen, and talks directly into the camera, quickly setting up a lot of details that, if demonstrated instead of flatly stated, might've given the characters some depth. After this opening narration, though, Cheung quickly becomes a secondary character. His usual loudmouth schtick is nowhere to be seen, and while this may please some, it unfortunately isn't replaced with anything, making him a near non-entity. The casting of Athena Chu as the female lead doesn't help matters, either. Chu isn't an actress that will drag a good movie down; she can be adequate in a good role handled by a good director. Here, though, she doesn't seem to have been given much instruction, and plays a very dull character who is defined almost entirely by the bad things that happen to her rather than by an interesting or sympathetic personality. Most of the supporting cast are much the same, with the notable exception of Monica Chan, who plays a ditzy co-worker with a noticibly higher energy level than anyone else in the movie. She is probably the movie's single greatest asset. Unfortunately, Chan is about the only thing the movie has going for it. The gags are generally nothing special, and are often accompanied by intrusive "wacky" music, as if this somehow makes them funnier. The only thing that really made me smile were the "Greek chorus" radio DJs. There are a few attempts at CGI, which aren't too bad, but don't serve much purpose. If nothing else, the movie is filmed and edited reasonably competently; while it's an unsatisfying film, it's not a painful or inept one like some recent low-budget flicks lately. Unfortunately, the lack of interesting characters and truly funny situations makes for a film that, though painless, doesn't have much to offer.