With the help of their friend (a hooker named Meg Ryan), they ponder various ways to earn the money back. This includes everything from prostituting themselves to selling their organs. After getting hopped up on a homemade drug cocktail, they are arrested while trying to make off with an ATM machine. The cops wire them up so they can hopefully dig up dirt on the gang. That ends up just being the start of their troubles, which eventually leads them to making off with a load of dope and having the cops and more gangsters on their tail.

Okay, here is my big problem- I just didn't like these guys. In the best case scenario, the film makers were hoping for their lead characters to be loveable losers, just a pair of luckless, crass guys who get in over their heads. But, they ain't exactly Abbot & Costello or Cheech and Chong. I'll venture to say I found the Menendez brothers to be a more endearing duo.

Whereas the druggie scammers in Trainspotting were likable losers due to sharp characterizations and the stylized tone of the film, the guys in Jungle Juice are bumbling wannabe criminals, who we aren't given any reason to like, lost in a film that steadily veers from goofball to grisly. Even in a moralising way, in Trainspotting the drugs are a cause of all of the characters problems, wheras in Jungle Juice it is just a device for more shenannigans. A stupid duo like Jay and Silent Bob, for instance, are likeable because no matter how they might try, they are hard-wired to be clueless and crude. You get the feeling Ki-Tea and Chul-Soo should know better and their appeal (for me) was zero. In the end, I found myself searching for some incentive to like the guys more than I was paying attention to any gags and laughable moments or giving a flip about thier outcome. I cannot say that I would have cared much if the film suddenly ended with the two getting bullets to the brain.

The DVD: ADV

Picture: Anamorphic Widescreen. The transfer is quite vivid, maintaining the look of the slick production. Nice color details reveal striking hues and good fleshtones. Sharpness and contrast, likewise, are well-rendered. Some slight combing trails in a scene or two is the only real technical defect.

Sound: 5.1 English dub or 2.0 Korean tracks with optional English subtitles. I thought a (mainly) anime company like ADV would favor an original language track getting the better audio track. Guess not. The Korean release of the film has a 5.1 track and a DTS track, but you'll have to settle for a decent, though limited, 2.0 presentation on this disc. Well, yeah, you could watch it in 5.1 with the dub, but I don't recommend it.

The subtitles go by a bit too fast in some instances. Though, maybe that should be expected with a fast paced comedy. The language is dirtbag filthy, with the Korean equivalent of "bitch" being the most common insult. The subtitles reflect this. For instance, the dub says "That's a bunch of crap." which becomes "What the fuck?" in the subtitles. But, the subs do have some awkward translations like, "Jang Min-Chul, you've said your 'hellos,' so shut up." on the dub becomes "If you are greeted, then shut up." in the subtitles.

Extras: Nothin' really. Just some ADV release trailers.

Conclusion: Well, it didn't really win me over. To be fair, comedy is such a subjective thing and maybe Jungle Juice just wasn't to my taste. It didn't have me switching off the player or groaning, so I can see how others (who for whatever reason actually like the main characters) may find it amusing. By not import a single extra from the (non-region coded) Korean release, ADV doesn't offer any extra incentive to purchase the disc, therefore the most I can say is "rent it."