Writer: Ezekiel Lee Zhiang Yang

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Watch this if you liked: Singaporean movies

After the runaway success of "Money No Enough", Jack Neo found it fit to celebrate 10 years of his esoteric films by releasing a sequel.

This time, Mark Lee (who lost his "Ah Long" ladyboy gait) and Henry Thia (who looks more and more like Ricki Hui each day) take centre stage as brothers with a multi-level marketing approach to success. Together they try to outdo their eldest brother (played by Neo himself), in being as filial as possible to their mother (Lai Ming). Representing three different stages of economic independence, the lot discover the difficulties in eking out a living in contemporary Singapore to be incredibly painful sometimes.

Interlacing computer-generated graphics with a story about how Singaporeans view themselves (including some intense views about the Electronic Road Pricing system in Singapore), Jack Neo's latest comedy is again social commentary that is too half-hearted to be taken seriously. Worse, the comic timing in "Money No Enough 2" really loses its edge compared to his other films. Henry Thia and Mark Lee carried the story but they could have been utilised a lot better.

All in all, this caper will find fans among Hokkiens and Singaporeans for sure - but should escape all others not particularly fond of content that is steeped in Singaporeana. For this lot, "Money No Enough" is definitely not enough.

Cinema Online, 23 September 2008