Ah Boys to Men II (2013)

Ah Boys to Men II: Directed by Jack Neo. With Tosh Zhang, Daniel Ang, Irene Ang, Vivek Arora. A bunch of mischievous recruits go through National Service in Singapore.

“Last year, director Jack Neo stormed the local box office with the first installment of his Ah Boys To Men duology. The film didnu0026#39;t receive particularly good reviews, but it nevertheless raked in over S$6 million to make it the highest-grossing Asian film of all time in Singapore. Thatu0026#39;s right – highest-grossing Asian film, beating out movies starring the likes of international superstars Jackie Chan and Jet Li. Come Friday, the sequel will be marching resolutely into cinemas to take full advantage of the Chinese New Year box office rush. Itu0026#39;s probably pretty safe to say that the critic-proof Ah Boys 2 is likely to completely decimate its competition, despite being a poorer film than its predecessor in almost every respect.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eMuch of the first film focused on the spoilt, good-looking Ken (Joshua Tan), who had to grow up overnight after his dad (Richard Low) suffered a paralysing stroke. As a result, the sectionu0026#39;s star slacker has changed his attitude about the army, and now finds himself siding more often than not with sanctimonious goody-two-shoes Aloysius (Maxi Lim). This puzzles and infuriates his previous partners-in-crime, especially his good buddy Lobang (Wang Weiliang). Can the section mates rise above mutual distrust and adversity to form a bond that will stand the test of time?u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThat question pretty much has only one answer – the story beats in Ah Boys 2 will be familiar and obvious to pretty much everyone. Of course the boys will fight and fret and bicker with one another. How could misunderstandings not pile on top of paranoia to create more suspicion and unhappiness? Someone will inevitably make the noble sacrifice or unexpected confession that causes enemies to lay aside their grudges and become friends. Anyone whou0026#39;s been hooked on a drama serial, read a book or watched a movie about high-school kids will know where the story is going.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eBut predictability isnu0026#39;t even the worse of this filmu0026#39;s crimes. Itu0026#39;s actually kinda fun to watch the boys go through the paces, with Ken now finding himself more on the sidelines even as the cheerful, affable Lobang of the first film morphs into the sequelu0026#39;s unexpected antagonist. The characters are stereotypes, sure, but theyu0026#39;re fun to watch nonetheless. The trouble is Neo has saddled his boys with a terrible script that relies far too heavily on crass humour for laughs. There must have been another way to show the boys being at odds with one another that didnu0026#39;t involve bodily functions and poop jokes.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eAnyone who thought the first film was sexist is going to be even more appalled by what goes down in the sequel. The main female character, Kenu0026#39;s mom (Irene Ang), is portrayed as an insensitive, single-minded idiot with little capacity for emotional growth, even after her husband suffers a stroke, while all other incidental female u0026#39;charactersu0026#39; come across either as sex objects or brainless sluts. A film about a group of boys training to become soldiers was never likely to feature a perfectly even-handed treatment of both sexes, but the casual objectification of women in Ah Boys 2 – including the troop of girls who had enlisted in the army alongside the titular batch of recruits – is distracting and, on occasion, thoroughly off-putting.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eItu0026#39;s a toss-up as to whether Neo has more effectively unleashed his bag of special effects tricks this time. In the first film, he whipped up an over-polished war-time scenario that was actually crushingly effective… until it became disappointingly clear that it was contained safely within the realm of a computer game. The sequel sees planes, tanks and even submarines deployed across the Wisma Atria food court, as Aloysius is lectured by his dad (Chen Tianwen) on the necessity of turning the other cheek. Again, the metaphor and weight of the u0026#39;lessonu0026#39; being imparted turns out to be pretty pointless, but thereu0026#39;s no denying that itu0026#39;s really cool to see tanks roll out and fighter jets dive and swoop amongst the familiar hawker stalls.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eNeo remains a dab hand at tugging on viewersu0026#39; heartstrings – a feat thatu0026#39;s all the more impressive considering how offensive the rest of the film can sometimes be. Even the hardest of hearts will melt when the boys do – not literally, but figuratively, when theyu0026#39;re handed letters that give them a small connection to the homes and people theyu0026#39;ve left behind. Itu0026#39;s a painfully manipulated (and manipulative!) moment, but it nevertheless manages to serve up some genuine, powerful emotion from the boys that almost makes up for everything else in the movie.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eFor all that has already been said, the main reason to catch Ah Boys 2 is to watch its impressive young cast at work. Tan seems to find it pretty tough-going to make his characteru0026#39;s transition from sinner to saint, and is perhaps the most wooden of the lot – but even he and his perpetual hangdog expression are serviceable enough. Lim and Noah Yap (as bitter dumped boyfriend IP Man) are both good in their roles, but itu0026#39;s really Wang who walks away with the entire film. He makes Lobangu0026#39;s switch from sidekick to antagonist effortlessly, somehow managing to retain his characteru0026#39;s rough, sweet charm even when he should be losing a great deal of audience sympathy for some of the terrible things he does.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eAll in all, Ah Boys 2 is a misfire in practically every way. Once in a while, the filmu0026#39;s heart struggles out from beneath a host of gross, sexist jokes and almost overbearingly chest-thumping patriotism. But it doesnu0026#39;t do so anywhere near often enough to deserve its sure-to-be- enormous box-office take.”