The Laserman

Stars: Marc Hayashi, Peter Wang, Tony Leung. Produced, directed, written by, and starring Peter Wang (A Great Wall), The Laserman is a low-budget, low-brainer that should have stayed in the vaults. Wang stars as Inspector Lu, who serves as the monotonal narrator for the events. The story centers around Chinese-American scientist Arthur Weiss (Marc Hayashi) who loses his job after killing his assistant in a laser experiment that goes awry. When his brother-in-law Joey (Tony Leung) sets him up with a new interested group (actually hit men for terrorists), Arthur gets in over his head, unwittingly involved in the black market weapons trade. What passes for comedy here is always either infantile or uninspired: Arthur's obviously American Jewish mother believes she has the soul of a Chinese woman inside her, providing the basis for feeble food jokes, Arthur's girlfriend is working on telepathic orgasms, Inspector Lu acting like Columbo, etc. Interestingly, although you sure can't tell by looking at it, The Laserman was shot by former Spike Lee cinematographer Ernest Dickerson (Do the Right Thing), director of Juice. A comedy-thriller that is neither funny nor suspenseful, The Laserman misses the mark on all counts. Audience: Beats me.