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12 Rounds Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
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$9.99 Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
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Motel, The
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MPAA RATING: Not Rated
Starring Jeffrey Chyau, Sung Kang, Jade Wu, Samantha Futerman, Stephen Chen, Alexis Chang, Jackson Budinger, and Conor J. White
Thirteen-year-old Ernest Chin lives and works at a sleazy hourly-rate motel on a strip of desolate suburban bi-way. Misunderstood by his family and blindly careening into puberty, Ernest befriends Sam Kim, a self-destructive yet charismatic Korean American man who has checked in. Sam teaches the fatherless boy all the rites of manhood. (Palm Pictures)
| GENRE(S): | Comedy | Drama |
| WRITTEN BY: | Michael Kang |
| DIRECTED BY: | Michael Kang |
| RELEASE DATE: |
DVD: January 30, 2007 Theatrical: June 28, 2006 |
| RUNNING TIME: | 76 minutes, Color |
| ORIGIN: | USA |
2005 Humanitas Prize
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
The average user rating for this movie is 6.9 (out of 10) based on 17 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Chad S. gave it a7:
What "The Motel" has in common with a seemingly disparate film like Justin Lin's "Better Luck Tomorrow" is that the universality of people begets a common ground that preordains genre as largely being colorblind. This little gem is more of a coming-of-age film than it's an Asian-American one, but make no mistake, "The Motel" is a quietly important indie that knowingly acknowledges, then eschews the stereotypes which hinder Asian-American characters from being real people. "The Motel" opens at a Chinese restaurant, but interestingly, we never go inside it. This occupational staple of the "Oriental" is where the protagonist's dream girl(Christine, as played by Samantha Futerman) works. We follow Ernest(Jeffrey Chyau) to his family business, and it's not a Chinese laundry service. Like the characters in "Better Luck Tomorrow", there's more to Ernest and Christine than being mere bookworms. The boy is interested in porn. The girl likes to drink and smoke. It's brilliant how these polluting influences prevent "The Motel" from being too sweet, too easy to love. This film smartly shows how pornography retards the relationships between men and women. Even though the rocky relations between mother and son ends in mutual atonement, predictably mawkish, replete with tears; and too much time is devoted to Ernest's mentorship with a Korean motel-guest(Sung Kang), "The Motel" is most definitely worth checking out. Or is that checking in?
Joe K. gave it a10:
Great first feature! Not for the type of audience that needs everything spelled out. Lots of stuff going on in there. I've seen it a couple times now and I keep finding new layers. Definitely worth seeing at least once.
Ken G. gave it a4:
Flat, kind of drab movie, and there are problems with 2 of the main characters. The kid is simply too nerdy and wimpy to be likable, and the male guest who takes him under his wing is seriously underwritten. Plus, it is never clear why this guest becomes so interested in the kid.
[Anonymous] gave it a4:
starts out decent and evenntually falls out flat with a bad plot and a dull screen presence.
sister tycoon gave it an8:
Excellent acting and directon by robert wooosie. Go see it. I loved it. Could have been better but its really fun.
Robin Hood gave it a6:
Kinda Dull and Boring but a good enough plot to be watchable.
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