Gemencheh Boys (2023) User Reviews

An inspirational story better than McFarland, USA

[muhammadnaufalsalleh · 9/10 · 28 October 2023]

A very great story of a school teacher who knew nothing about cricket, but willing to sacrifice a lot to guide his students to achieve greatness.

Movie-wise, the flow is good enough to keep audience attracted to the screen. The kid actors did well in potraying 'naughty kids' characters in typical Malaysia kampung.

This movie does well to capture the extraordinary story of a teacher who would go through the lengths. Who would have thought that this school in a village out of nowhere would produce ten national players, thanks to Cikgu Azman.

However, because this is a sport story, if they add some 'thrills' of the games that those kids played, it would allevate this movie to full 10 in my opinion.

Amazing kids actors but need some technical improvement

[nurhandanish-06093 · 9/10 · 3 November 2023]

Gemencheh Boys, a film about 6 Rascals and Cikgu Azman on their journey to win gold medal which stars Pekin Ibrahim as Cikgu Azman Aziz.

What I do love about the film are actors from the kids, not just those 6 Rascals. Great support by them but I hope they have some spotlight too. Cikgu Azman, nothing to say but amazing by Pekin Ibrahim (and Cikgu Azman's journey is really hard. Thank you, teacher). Then, some great jokes by kids which can relate to us, not like Polis Evo 3 and BoBoiBoy Movie 2 overjokes. (And BTW one character from EATM, I did not expect that)

Even though this film good, that one moment of visual effect, sigh. I feel it's not realistic enough but I know why. It could have been better. Editing and slo-mo literally average, not good. Need some improvement on that.

In the end, I hope Malaysia will have inspiration story like this film and MALBATT (or based on).

Absulutley Fantasic

[Ibrahimdude · 10/10 · 8 January 2024]

This one by far is the greatest movie of all time.

Of how 6 Rascal Play Cricket So good. At beginning they really hated it. But after teacher azman give a good practice. And challenging To These 6 rascal can go to the cup. The one thing that makes this fav is these 6 rascal behavior. Doing everything they can to avoid cricket. But then they realised that Teacher azman try to make these kids can be the best player.

The camera Looks So Cinematic. Along With Storyline . And how emotional scene that is. Almost cried about it. But yeah that was it for my review with this great movie.

Gemencheh Boys Megah!

A nice story, but not well narrated!

[ajleong-98725 · 6/10 · 5 November 2023]

The storyline is based on the true story of a group of 6 primary school boys from the small FELDA town - Gemencheh (Negeri Sembilan) - who were transformed into a great team, and made it to win the first gold medal in a cricket game for Malaysia. Apparently, this plot is very predictable, just like any sports competition-related movies, but there is always a market for this kind of movies!

The pace is alright, slow at times, but overall it is acceptable.

It is always good to let all Malaysians be aware of the unknown hero - Cikgu Azman - behind the hard work & success of our athletes' achievements! I enjoyed watching the movie very much, apart from some pitfalls. The kids acted well on the real characteristics of "Kampung boys", e.g. Skipping classes, swimming in the river, playing slipper games, marbles, kites and so on!

However, it leaves room for improvement on the following parts:

Firstly, cricket is not a well-known game to all Malaysians. It would be wonderful if the director could spend a minute or two explaining the rules of the game! Without having much knowledge about it, I need to guess & learn to know how the game is played and points are scored?!

Secondly, the character development of the boys is lacking in depth. We do see that each boy has a family concern, e.g. With a handicapped mother or from a poor family background.. However, it's not well-developed, or it is rather touch-n-go that audiences could hardly connect with them or feel them deeply. It thus lacks the emotional engagement that touches one's heart or keeps lingering in one's heart after the movie!

Thirdly, the moment of winning the game is NOT well managed or presented! There is no moment of excitement built on the score or game point! At times, I wonder if the boys got a point? Won the game? I m lost!!

Finally, some scenes seem 'choppy' or 'disjointed' and leave doubts. For instance, out of nowhere, a school meeting appeared, blaming Azman for raising funds in the public; the boy with a disabled mother was initially not allowed to go to KL, but it didn't address how he made it to go! Besides, I wonder why Cikgu Azman banned him from playing in the final until the end?!

In comparison, "Ola-Bola" (2016) and "Anak Rimau" (2022) appear to have done a better job in all the above aspects, e.g. Character developments are good, tensions are there, emotional engagement is intact...

It's just an alright and predictable movie, without anything new or special. How I wish the movie could be made more involving and engaging to touch more hearts!