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Thank to the pair of complimentary tickets that we gotten from SAFRA MovieMax Club, both Jacqueline and I had the opportunity to catch the movie, “The Lion Men [Part 1]” on Wednesday at Shaw Theatres Lido.
[Image Credits to J Team Productions]

Disclaimer:

We are going to be brutally honest with our review of this film so if you’re a fan of the various casts whom acted in the film, don’t blame us; we’re just trying to help save some money for movie-goers.

The Lion Men Movie Synopsis:

The film’s plot centers on rival lion dance troupes in Singapore — a liberal-looking faction of a traditional troupe, Tiger Crane [led by Wang Wei Liang], breaks away from it to form a new one called Storm Riders [led by Tosh Zhang], which advocates a new style of lion dance with more modern influences of hip hop dance and more flashy acrobatics. Meanwhile, the male stars of the show clash with a third rival troupe called Black Hawk, competing in wushu, love triangles and of course, lion dance. Five of the well-loved “Ah Boys To Men” casts headline the film, joined by 23 “unknowns”.

[Image Credits to J Team Productions]

Our Review of The Lion Men:

Director Jack Neo and a few of the casts whom acted in the film were present during the screening and they gave us a brief introduction of the film. During the meet-and-greet session, Director Jack Neo said that The Lion Men is one of the toughest movies that he has ever directed and that the film, given its “action” genre, wasn’t so easy to shoot.

Well, having caught The Lion Men [Part 1] in its entirety, we’re not so sure if we are even going to catch The Lion Men [Part 2]. This is because we don’t understand why the movie must have a two-part sequel when seriously, they could have just dived straight into the subject matter and cut out all those unrelated and not so relevant scenes!

Furthermore, The Lion Men [Part 1] has too much advertisement placements that we felt like we wasted 130 minutes of our lives watching commercials after commercials. We’re serious, the ad placements are very obvious and brands such as Resorts World Sentosa, NETS Flashpay, and StarHub are so prominently featured that there wasn’t any attempt to make it subtle.

Adding on, the humour in the movie were just weak. Director Jack Neo seems to be trying really hard to inject some humour into the movie but to be honest, it just doesn’t work out. As mentioned, some scenes were totally not relevant and it just does not fit into the plot.

So, for this festive season, if you’re planning to catch a movie, we don’t recommend The Lion Men unless you have too much angpow money to spend. In fact, we think Robocop makes a better movie than The Lion Men.

The Lion Men Movie Trailer

Jack Neo’s latest movie, “Ah Boys to Men” has been released recently and there are two parts to the movie. The first part is currently being screened in the cinemas while the second part will be released sometime in February during the Lunar New Year next year.
With a production budget of $3 million dollars, Ah Boys to Men is Singapore’s biggest budget film so far. Besides veteran actors like Irene Ang, Richard Low and Wang Lei, the rest of the cast is entirely made up of newcomers, some of whom are prominent bloggers as well [not sure if anyone caught a snippet of me at the Coffee Shop Scene in the earlier part of the movie]! 😛

Our Personal Review of the Movie:
In the earlier portion of the movie, it sets people thinking about what Singapore will be like if we come under attack. Of course, with the support given by MINDEF, Jack Neo tries to put everything together as realistically as it can get and I felt that he did a pretty good job. Although I have to admit that the CG effects aren’t close to the standards of big budget Hollywood films, the emotions that are portrayed together with the “Training to be Soldiers” song playing in the background certainly set a rather serious tone that reminded us not to take Singapore’s peace and security for granted.

Jack Neo also did a pretty good job in balancing the experiences of different generations of servicemen undergoing National Service [NS] in the 70s, 80s, 90s, and 00s. Servicemen whom have completed their Basic Military Training on Tekong Island will definitely find the scenes oh-so-familiar and it certainly reminded me of my time in NS; especially the CB leaf part.

Well, I shan’t disclose further information about the movie and whether or not you have served NS, you really ought to catch this local production because it is extremely funny and it gives you insights about what serving NS is like. In fact, do book/purchase your tickets early because when I was catching the movie at 2350 hours last night [which by the way is a rather unpopular time slot], the cinema was totally sold out!

Also, I do understand that there are some pretty negative comments about the movie and I’ve got this to say; it’s a love or hate thing. People have different preferences and different perspectives but apparently, there are more likes than dislikes; so… I guess Jack Neo did a fantastic job of conceptualising the movie and yes, I rate it 4/5. 🙂

Movie Trailer:

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God bless!