Ah Boys To Men- SAF won James Bond.

Have you heard?
The British Empire has just lost to Singapore's SAF (Singapore Armed Forces).
We won.

Or rather, Great Britain's secret service, James Bond 007 movie, Skyfall, has lost in the opening weekend box office to Jack Neo's local movie "Ah Boys To Men".

From the ST Communities

Local director Jack Neo's army movie Ah Boys To Men has broken local box-office records by earning more than $1.5 million over its opening weekend, in the process beating James Bond movie Skyfall, which was in its second week of release.

This Jack Neo's movie has plenty of actions.

Yes, thats a wretched car and rumbles in the financial district of Singapore.

Armoured vehicle along the CBD

A bit higher budget than the last local movie

Unfortunately, I am not utterly impressed by the special effects and storyline.

I know I am being a little unfair here, judging a local movie against Hollywood, or at least Hong Kong's matured movie industry. However, Singapore loves to boost its "world class" status in every nonsense, from world-class airport to world-class curry-pok.

If that's the case, I think it is only nature to judge a local movie's value against international standards.

The special effects are not good.

The story is full of empty plot holes.

I think the main reason why James Bond lost is that local movies are relatively quite rare, and Singaporeans do want to see how the movies fare. Beside, with the slight advantage in publicity (Straits Times published in the front page of the CBD sealed off on a Sunday for this movie production), and the cooperation of local cinemas' to allocate more screen-times to this rather than 007 helps a lot in nudging Singaporeans to watch this film.

Plus, I have to admit, among all the local directors, Jack Neo has to be the best in providing entertainment value to the masses. (I said entertainment value, not artistic nor creativity value).

If you like to see something local, "Ah Boys to Men" can be an alright choice, just don't think too much on the plot and the enemy's weird military strategies. Leave your brain at the entrance.

Some say I look like him when I don't smile.

But then again, no one ever said James Bond movies are intelligent stuff.