Reviewed by: Hyomil Date: 04/07/2011 Reviewer Score: 10

Reviewed by: Sydneyguy Date: 08/13/2002 Summary: Ummm Well a little confusing, but that doesn't matter because this movie is no good. Nice little plot twists do not make up for a lack of story. It's obvious they went overseas to film this, what a waste of money!! A nice ending does not help this movie at all, just read what everyone else wrote about this and they are probably right!! 3.5/10

Reviewed by: snookie_1 Date: 04/24/2002 Summary: aiya! kinda confusing...but enjoyable if u can figure out what is happening at which time....sigh....while watching this movie i found myself saying aiya to myself at how confusing this movie had to be and then i wondered how the heck the writer didin't manage to confuse themselves....o well...mild laughs make it mildly enjoyable...the sing guy was good and ekin turned in a mediocre emotionless performance as usual...as for cecilia...i really don't kno how to talk bout her performance except that it wasn't too bad or too good...nothing special here...u might like it if ur a sci fi fan but then again...even the biggest scifi fan might get confused...5/10 Reviewer Score: 5

Reviewed by: Akina86 Date: 04/23/2002 Summary: Nice Movie This is a pretty decent movie you can watch when you don't have anything to do ekin cheung didn't do his best job and cecilia neither. The movie has some unanswerd questions which viewers would like to know and i'll put a 7/10

Reviewed by: Inner Strength Date: 04/14/2002 Summary: dull I can't beleive I sat all the way through this one, because it didn't deserve my precious 90 minutes! Though I wasn't expecting much from this film anyway, I was pleased at some moments, but after half way I got the strong impression things were not going to change. I was right too, as it's not until the last sort of 30 minutes until any sort of plot unfolds into a story, but ends with some questions still unanswered. I would actually pretty much agree with everything that the last reviewer said. I too would not recommend this one to anyone. Rating: 2/5

Reviewed by: MilesC Date: 04/14/2002 Summary: Junk... I had been looking forward to this movie for a long time as a comeback for the talented Jeff Lau; unfortunately, the fact that it was shelved for a long time indicated this was not going to be a triumphant return for Lau. It's easy to see why the film's release was delayed: for a major production, it's remarkably poor. Most of the film's budget seems to have gone into shooting the whole thing in Las Vegas, and this has a lot to do with why the movie is so bland. Hong Kong is one of the most interesting and colorful cities around, not just on film, but in real life as well. However, it's understandable that HK residents are probably getting fed up with seeing their own city on film over and over again, which explains why so many films are going overseas to shoot these days. However, Las Vegas has very little to offer; the image that "The Strip" presents is one of the most hideous and gaudy things I can imagine, and what we see of it in this film doesn't add much to the experience. Besides the more typical LV locations on display in this film, we see typical suburban settings and some hicksville locations. It's interesting for about five minutes to see Ekin and Cecilia in these settings, but after that their blandness becomes apparent. These bland locations suck the life right out of the film for an American viewer, and I imagine they aren't much more interesting for the Hong Kong audience. America has better to offer than this. But, obviously, locations aren't the most important part of the movie. Unfortunately, as I mentioned, they really are the most notable part of this movie, whose plot takes forever to get moving, and once it does, doesn't go anywhere interesting. There is a fairly surprising twist towards the end, but it doesn't have much impact because they characters don't do much to engage the viewer. The time-travel angle isn't taken far enough in terms of either farcical craziness or truly interesting twists. In the end, everything about the movie feels flat, and it doesn't add up to much. Throw in some weak comic tangents and you have to wonder what they were thinking. Things could've been a bit worse, though. For all the complaing about the English language acting, I thought it was relatively innocuous, certainly not as bad as what we were seeing/hearing four or five years ago. There's only one line that's particularly laughable, though it is a standout. Also, Ekin and Cecilia, actors who've been known to both bore me and get on my nerves, respectively, do okay here. Ekin doesn't have much of a character, but he acts reasonably enough. Cecilia doesn't do any of her whining here. Still, lack of bad isn't much of a substitute for good, something this film is distinctly lacking. It's not very funny, there's no action of note, and the twists that come about don't add enough to the film to be worth the 35 minutes it takes to set them up. I'm afraid this film deserved to tank at the box office.

Reviewed by: Blue_Shadow Date: 04/13/2002 Summary: Confusing Yet Quite Enjoyable..... It's obvious that the main plot of "Second Time Around" revolves around time travelling. But it's more than just that. The story also involves the mystery of deja vu's and parallel universes which adds to the confusion for viewers. Now I'm not going to review the story again, since many writers have done so already, but rather comment on the film itself. In terms of acting, I believed Ekin did a great job with his role (or rather 'roles') and his performance truly prooves that he is a versatile actor. Cecilia also did quite well, however, this is definitely not her best performance to-date. It also seemed as though there was never enough chemistry between the two main leads and this sort of left the story hanging. However, the twist of the story made up for the gaps here and there. The story mixes time travelling with the parallel universe theory and though confusing at first, once you understand it properly, it seems as though all the jigsaw puzzles fit perfectly. The unpredictable ending will keep viewers on the edge of their seats but that's maybe it. The film lacked some excitement that should be coupled with time travelling and though I think the film would be enjoyable for many, it's no box-office smashing material. However, definitely recommended to Ekin fans out there. Ekin surely has lifted his acting onto another level in 2001 and has definitely shown it here. Overall, I rate it 7/10.

Reviewed by: future113 Date: 04/04/2002 Summary: memento ..... Impressions: watched this movie tonight, first impressions.... it's similar to the movie 'Memento'. The movie is a bit confusing and the terrible sub titles made it even more confusing. There are many loop holes to the movie but in the end it saves itself. I guess this movie classifys as a action/drama type movie with some funny spots added in. The sub titles were horrific, i don't think i've seen any worse than this. Cecilia did an ok acting job, nothing outstanding like in her other films, but she wasn't really the main lead. Movie Summary: Ren convinces his friend Sing to burrow $1million from his boss's safe so they can use it to gamble in las vegas. When they get there, an accident occurs. Ren tries to dig through to find out what really happened. Overall, I'd give this a 6.2 out of 10 due to the bad sub titles. don't know if i recommend buying it, but would be a good rental

Reviewed by: danton Date: 04/02/2002 Jeff Lau-directed time travel adventure that could have used a healthy dose of the zanyness that characterizes so many of his other movies, because as it stands, this film is as dry and barren of excitement as the Nevada desert that forms the setting for parts of this movie. Which brings me to my first beef: why did they have to move the location for this movie to Las Vegas, Nevada, when they just as easily could have set the story in Macau, for example? I didn't mind so much the fact that apparently most everyone in Vegas is Chinese and speaks fluent Cantonese, if this movie is to be believed - but I do mind that I have to listen to what are supposedly American characters played by HK actors work their way through labored attempts at English dialog... Cecilia Cheung in particular, who plays US cop Tina Chan, has trouble with any English line that goes beyond 3 words. She gets the words out alright, but they just don't sound as natural as they should. I do have a better sense now of the annoyance native speakers felt when listening to CYF and Michelle Yeoh work their way through Manadarin dialog in CTHD... But anyway, back to the film: it's the story of a gambler/dealer played by Ekin Cheng who wants nothing more than go to Vegas and do some high-stakes gambling. You can't get into the VIP room in a Vegas casino without plenty of cash, so his friend Sing embezzles a million Dollars from their employer, and off they go. Things go poorly for Ekin at the casino, and they get even worse when he and his friend get involved in a car accident that leaves Sing dead and Ekin in a coma for two days. When he wakes up at the hospital, Inspector Tina Chan (Cecilia Cheung) is waiting for him, as it turns out his friend may actually have been the victim of a homicide after the accident. Together, they start investigating, and through a series of events too far-fetched to make much sense they get thrown back in time to a few days prior to the accident. Together, they must now try to prevent the accident/murder from ever happening, while also avoiding their own past selves. Of course romance blossoms as well (well, sort of), and the truth about what happened at the scene of the accident is revealed. All this was done much better in Tsui Hark's whimsical film Love in the Time of Twilight, which also combined the romance element with a couple traveling into their own past to prevent a murder. But while LITTOT had the benefit of a fun script and plenty of sparks generated by an absolutely charming Charlie Young, this new film left me pretty bored. There's hardly any chemistry between the two leads (which the actors can't really be blamed for - they just have too little to work with), and the story itself feels sloppy and disorganized. By definition, a time-travel story will run into logical contradictions, so in order to make it believable, you require at least a modicum of cleverness, which this script simply doesn't possess. The production values are very poor, with the casino scenes in particular consisting of very fake-looking sets (they obviously didn't film on any real casino floors). All around, there's very little to recommend here, and the only reason to seek out this film would be to catch a glimpse of Cecilia, given that this may be her last appearance in a movie for a while on account of her accident...

Reviewed by: cat1863 Date: 03/31/2002 Summary: Light-hearted movie about deja vu I liked this movie. It was a little confusing but if you ever have a feeling that you have been someplace or seen something before (deja vu) then you can associate with this movie. In summary, it was an enjoyable movie with some laughs on a well-made vcd.

Reviewed by: lemeast9 Date: 03/13/2002 Summary: Enjoyable but confusing If a movie involves going back in time, it somehow in some part of it will bring confusions to your mind. The same with SECOND TIME AROUND. I thought this movie is enjoyable, eventhough the middle part of it and some in the end brought some confusions. I then thought to myelf I'd better not try to think to much on the logical part of it and just try to enjoy the movie and I did. This is the second Ekin cheng movie that I've watched this year. The first is ROOT2. His acting in that movie is good, eventhough the movie is a letdown for me. In this movie, I enjoy his acting very much, a bit easy to watch, it doesn't irritate you. Cecilia is great also. The other actors are good. Only the US actors are a bit frozen in their acting. The movie is filmed in the US, so there's a few English language used in this movie. It's about a card dealer named Ren whose dream is to become the no. 1 card dealer in Las Vegas. He tried it two years before and failed. So he tried it again and looses US$1,000,000 when he gambled with the no. 1 card dealer in Las Vegas. The money he gambled with is the money he asked his friend, Sing, to steel from someone named Uncle Wan. So from there began the story of them meeting this woman named Anna and Anna gave them this Stone of Return which has its own legend. They then were involved in a car crash. Anna and Sing died but Ren survive. Ren couldn't remember what happened at the car crash. So some detectives were investigating the crash and found out that Sing's death is a homocide. The detective (cecilia) found out thet Ren had stolen the money. She pursue Ren. The were involved in a car crash and somehow were transferred two/three days back in time. So this event led the whole story to the end. In some way this movie could be better.Not much special effects used in this movie. I recommend you to watch this movie . Rating 3/5.