Ah Boys to Men 3: Frogmen

There are parts of the movie that are really funny and that's what Jack Neo does best. He would do well in Sitcoms. However, this is a propaganda movie about an elite navy unit in Singapore which focuses a great deal on some aspects of military training. The scenes in between the episodes of comedy and drama, which are quite similar to movies such as I Not Stupid, are long and tedious to watch. There are quite a few times when you think the movie should end here and I had to drag myself to continue to watch it.

If I compare this movie to another military propaganda movie, The Green Berets with John Wayne from 1968, Ah Boys to Men 3 Frogmen fails to build any significant suspense. The various short episodes lack coherence and do little to contribute to a larger story. While there is some character development, it suffers from the lack of a consistent story line. This means that the various characters have little contribution to the conclusion of the movie. In fact, I felt quite happy that the movie was finally over.

Overall, the movie feels like a overly long commercial for the Naval Diving Unit (NDU) which shows it in a very good light. The product placement for companies such as Bread Talk and KPMG, also feels like commercial breaks rather than fitting to the overall story. This is perhaps not surprising that the sponsorship comes clear at the end of the movie when the list of sponsors is presented.