Ah Boys to Men

Many years ago, pre-scandal director Jack Neo scored one of his hugest hits with I Not Stupid, a poignant, intelligent movie about the trials and tribulations (mostly trials) of growing up under Singapore's rigorous education system. That film remains my favourite local movie because it so wonderfully encapsulates the Singaporean experience: it's true to life, featuring characters and situations we will all recognise, and it boasts an awful lot of heart and home truths. I was hoping that Neo would make a long-awaited return to form with Ah Boys To Men, following a string of increasingly commercialistic films that have drawn flack for their shameless product placement.

As I Not Stupid did with our schools and students, Ah Boys has in its cross-hairs the National Service (NS) scheme that's been in place in our little island republic for forty-five years now. Joshua Tan plays Ken Chow, the spoiled scion of a wealthy family – and self- absorbed, vaguely ungrateful son to a father who just wants him to make the most of his time in NS (Liu Qianyi) and a desperately over- protective, indulgent mother who tries all ways and means to get her son off the proverbial hook (Irene Ang). When he's enlisted against his will, he meets his bunkmates: well-connected buddy 'Lobang' (Wang Weiliang), ang mor pai aspiring officer-to-beˆ Aloysius (Maxi Lim). But Ken just wants to be with his girlfriend, who's due to go overseas to study, and he starts plotting ways and means to get off his enforced sequestration on the training island of Pulau Tekong.

How does Neo's Ah Boys measure up to Michael Chiang's oft-revived play Army Daze? Ah Boys updates the circumstances in which the boys find themselves – so there's some talk of camera phones and the occasional use of Skype for not-so-romantic tête-a-têtes. But, strip that all away, and the two stories are broadly similar. Both feature a tongue-in-cheek look at the enlisting process, and then the training period – following a group of very different kids who start out as strangers but find that friendships can be bred in the (literal) trenches. Neither film is a fierce political statement decrying mandatory conscription. There is some mocking of the institution, but for the most part, NS is accepted as a fact of life, and celebrated as something that brings a mismatched group of boys together and forces them to become men.

In that sense, Neo's movie doesn't mean to be inoffensive… though it may annoy some people with its largely benign, nostalgic depiction of a military stint that they personally didn't enjoy or value. There is a whiff of chest-thumping to this film that could prove annoying after a while: Ken's father is a lonely advocate for NS in the film, begging to be heard above the jokes that constitute the memories and narratives of those who look less charitably on the army – but he's presented as the voice of reason, the one who should be respected. It certainly doesn't help matters or impressions that the director received the Ministry of Defence's full cooperation in terms of loans of machinery, equipment, weaponry and access to Tekong… although he firmly maintains that Mindef did not invest in the project.

That's not to say Neo's depiction of NS and a possible war-time scenario don't impress on occasion. They do – any young man will recognise the days when they were hazed mercilessly by their platoon sergeants, and forced to drop twenty for insolence or disobedience. My favourite parts of the film are probably the nostalgia-tinged flashback segments that are scattered throughout: Ken's uncle reminisces about his time in the army, when hazing was twenty times worse, and those moments serve as funny, surprisingly sweet counterpoints to our more regulated, modern times.

As for the vaunted war-time scenario – for which Neo famously scored special permission to shut off parts of the busy business district – it's fun enough to watch, and the CGI doesn't look too bad (though it looks rather too shiny and perfect to be quite real). It serves as a framing device for the rest of the film: it's intended to drive home the real stakes our army boys are playing for, that there might well be blood and death and sacrifice in their futures, however impossible that appears in the safety of their bunks and the lack of a military threat against Singapore. The concept works well enough – but the execution leaves a little to be desired when it becomes clear that the blood, bombs and destruction were less serious simulation and more silly game-play.

As for what can be expected from the rest of the film: Neo goes into it with his standard bag of film-making tricks. His humour is sly and subversive, but only a little bit so; his characters manage that difficult trick of being both caricatures and real people; and he crafts sneaky emotional hooks into his stories which would cynically be called emotionally manipulative. Ken, Lobang, Aloysius and even Ken's parents come close to being stereotypes we've seen before, but their concerns still come through in a way that's occasionally affecting.

For anyone who's watched a Jack Neo movie or two, there are two possible ways to respond to Ah Boys: it could be a comfortingly familiar experience, as it feels just exactly like the kind of movie he's made many times before. It even hits some of the same far-reaching emotional notes as I Not Stupid, reminding every boy of his own experience with NS (whether it lies behind or ahead of him)… while every girl will have known someone who's enlisted. The other way lies frustration: annoyance that Neo is pulling the same old cards out of his sleeve, for a movie that's bloated with padding so that he can slice off another two hours to make the sequel (which follows in February next year).

Ten years after the release of the 2012 Singaporean comedy "Ah Boys to Men", I happened to stumble upon the movie by random chance. I hadn't even heard about the movie prior to sitting down to watch it here in 2022. And I also came to learn that there are four movies in the franchise.

Director Jack Neo failed to deliver a movie that fully entertained me. Sure, I will say that there were aspects and elements to the storyline that were interesting. But as a whole picture, then "Ah Boys to Men" just failed on many levels. First of all, this is listed as a comedy, but the elements of fun and laughter were few and far in between, and they utterly fell short of managing to bring me to laugh or even smile. The storyline itself just didn't prove to be all that interesting or outstanding, making it a somewhat tedious affair to sit through the movie.

Then there was the fact that most of the movie was spoken in thickly accented English dialogue. That was just beyond my comprehension. Why not keep the movie in Chinese, Tamil or Malaj? That thick accent in the English dialogue was just taking away focus from the events taking place on the screen.

And the character gallery in "Ah Boys to Men" was just downright non-existing. I didn't care one bit about the characters in the storyline, and least of all the main character. Talk about having a character with highly unlikable traits and characteristics. That character was just infuriatingly horrible.

"Ah Boys to Men" fell short of being a properly entertaining movie, and an even worse comedy. So I am not really sure what director Jack Neo was trying to accomplish with this 2012 movie.

My rating of "Ah Boys to Men" lands on a very generous three out of ten stars.

This is just one in a series of Taiwanese/Korean army movies rip off by Jack Neo and it's bad, value your time by watching those instead.

Jack Neo is one of the most over hyped and over credited man alive today. None of his ideas or characters are original. From Taiwanese Rip off army movies to his signature gender play/old lady character which was also a blatent rip off from true comedy master Ken Shimura. Even his first successes were word by word, play by play Ken Shimura works.

Without further ideas Jack Neo re-used, repackaged and recycled the same ideas, like a pimp without a conscience forcing his exhausted prostitutes to take on abusive customer unwillingly without rest down to the last profit. His current works are the last drops of juice he could extract from the same fruit since day 1, and he stole that fruit.

He further wrapped up his copied comedy with cheesy moralizing about family, loyalty, friendships etc, when he abused his power in casting position to sleep with aspiring actress. If you value your time, turn away from anything Jack Neo.

The true Jack Neo's signature is moralizing and preaching.

Jack Neo is a steaming pile of puke and his work is the dried up mess that is insanely difficult to clean out of the carpet. And Noel Yap followed into his mentor's hypocritical footstep by giving derogatory remarks to the LBGT group then went on to be an ambassador for Pink Dot Singapore before being called out.

No proper credit or mention was given to Ken Shimura for using his work to propel him to his definitive moment even after his passing.

In comparison, Ken Shimura is widely recognized for his comedy genius and production prowess, with immense breadth and depth that shapedcomedy in Asia, contributed decades of content that brought genuine laughs and chuckles into homes.

Your time is precious, look away from Jack Neo for quality entertainment.

Cinematography looks so fake especially the war in the beginning. Extremely bad actors. Can't even finish the movie and every second I want to cringe. Words are hard to distinguish without the subtitles in netflix. They could have just used chinese or whatever as the movie's language. There's no point listening to the pained actors trying hard to speak in english when you don't even understand it and read the subtitles instead. A fifth grader can make a better movie,cast the right actors and have better script. Surprised that this movie even reached 6 stars.