Film Review: "King of Boys"

"King of Boys" is a crime drama about the rise of an underworld Kingpin in Lagos. It was written and directed by Kemi Adetiba ("The Wedding Party") and stars Nollywood veteran Sola Sobowale ("The Wedding Party") who plays Eniola Salami, a Businesswoman and high society figure by day, and vicious mafia boss by night. The red and black colors for the poster do a good job of conveying the dark, gritty context of the movie. Reminded me of Christopher Walken and Laurence Fishburne in 1990's "King of New York"

Still on the subject of the red and black trim, another film from 1990 that utilized it was "The hunt for red October" starring Sean Connery

Just one more! 1995's "Crimson Tide"with Denzel Washinton and Gene Hackman

Enough with contextual artwork. Back to the film. "King of Boys" quickly establishes Eniola Salami as a big fish in the Lagos pond in the opening scene of the film. She is celebrating her birthday and a number of high society types are in attendance including the Governor of Lagos. The scene is the perfect illustration of the dual life she lives.

The MC of her party calls on her to make a speech. As she is giving the speech thanking her guests for showing up, a man in a black suit wearing sunglasses (the party is at night, so eh, this dude is totally underworld) goes to her and whispers in her ear. His name is Ade Tiger and he is played by an actor named Titi Kuti. She makes a short speech and follows him away from the party. 

They go into a dark room where the bludgeoned body of a man clinging to life can be seen in a crumpled heap on the floor. He is surrounded by hefty men all who stand at attention once Eniola walks into the room. Turns out the guy on the floor that has been beaten within an inch of his life is a kidnapper that failed to capture either Eniola or a member of her family.

She asks him repeatedly to tell her who sent him but he says he can't because he will be killed for it. What follows next is easily the most brutal scene in the entire film and you get the message that Eniola is a very dangerous woman.

So what is the plot of the film? One particular scene sets the tone. 

Adesua Etomi plays Kemi Salami, Eniola's daughter and her right hand woman. She is privy to all of her mother's criminal activities. During the party, a man walks up to her and in a sinister and threatening tone, tells her that her mother better keep her "promise." Neither of them elaborate on what this promise is but Kemi is not fazed by his aggressive tone. She tells him to have patience and once her mother gets the "appointment," he will get what he is promised. 

We find out that Eniola Salami has been bankrolling politicians in Lagos and doing them lots of other favors. It's payback time and she was promised a political appointment. Turns out that the powers that be in the upper echelons of the Political party (the movie doesn't mention which party but seeing as it's Lagos.......who is the dominant political party in Lagos....? Haha) are worried about her reputation and connections to the underworld and the damage it could do to them. They send a messenger to her at one of her businesses to relay their feelings and she throws him out in anger and disgust.

Eniola is understandably upset and pays a visit to the home of one of the top figures in the party named Aare Akinwande, played by Akin Lewis. I think he was an Oba or something. So he tells her to have patience and that her political appointment will come. She takes offence, blows up in front of him, and the beef between her and the big wigs of the party is established.

Next we're introduced to two ring leaders of two gangs played by musicians Reminisce and Illbliss

The scene opens with Reminisce in his lair with his gang of criminals listening to one of the members relay an exaggerated story of how he took down 50 men alone. Illbliss shows up and tells Reminisce in private that they should collaborate on an operation that will yield lots of money. Like $10 million worth of loot. That's N3.6 billion if you can't help yourself when you hear dollar figures and simply have to convert.

Illbliss tells Reminisce that the owners of the money are Politicians who stashed the cash away in a septic tank (sound familiar?) and buried coffin.  They agree to join forces and go on a robbing spree to get the money. Before they begin, Reminisce's character calls Eniola Salami and tells her about the operation. She says all she wants is her 40% cut. 

The scene reminded me again of "King of New York" where Christopher Walken's character, Frank White, tells a group of Drug dealers:

 "From here on nothing goes down unless I'm involved.

No blackjack, no dope deals, no nothing.

A nickle bag gets sold in the park, I want in."

Play the video below to see the iconic scene

A nickle bag is slang for a small bag of drugs. Usually marijuana. #FYI

So Reminisce and Illbliss complete their robbery operation. Aare Akinwande happens to be one of the people robbed but he can't go to the police because he would have to tell them where he got the money from. Asset declaration, anyone? He concludes that Eniola is behind the robbery and thinks of how to cut her down to size. In a flashy Mercedes that's sitting on an airport runway next to a private jet that's waiting to whisk him away, he calls one of his party members to figure out their next move.

Meanwhile, Eniola calls a meeting of crime lords under her jurisdiction. Reminisce and Illbliss are in attendance and they drop off the proceeds of their USD operation in duffel bags which are shared among everyone at the table. Reminisce has something to get off his chest regarding Eniola's 40% tax. He doesn't feel she is entitled to it anymore and goes further to say that she is past her prime and not fit to be leader of the underworld. 

Eniola can't believe the insolence of this underling and tells him that she is going to kill him. Battle lines are drawn as Reminisce walks out on the meeting. So Eniola has the politicians that think she stole from them on one hand, an internal challenger for control of her crime organization from Reminisce on another, and a third headache in the form of two more individuals;

Sani Mu'Azu plays Inspector Shehu and Paul Sambo plays Nurudeen Gobir who reports to the inspector. They both work for the NCCC (Nigerian Crime and Corruption Commission). I don't think I got the acronym exactly right but it is modeled after the EFCC. They've been investigating Eniola for years but haven't had a breakthrough because she is so well connected.

They finally get a breakthrough when one of the Politicians that is salty over being robbed of their millions of dollars sends an anonymous tip which they use to bring in Eniola for questioning. More events unfold that I can't reveal for fear of spoiling the movie. Also, this review is getting long.

Speaking of length, let's get into what I liked and didn't like about this film

Kemi Adetiba has to be given an A for effort with what she pulled off. She wrote the film, directed it, and served as the project's executive producer. That's a lot of roles and shows how invested in the movie she was. I'm a proud feminist and have been eager to see women in Nollywood films featured in prominent roles where they aren't playing second fiddle to anyone. That's what you get here with this project. 

Did I mention that Eniola Salami has a son in this film?

Ademola Adedoyin plays Kitan Salami, son to Eniola and younger brother to Adesua Etomi's character. Still on the feminist tip, he doesn't make any major decisions in this film. To quote famous biblical words, this movie is in the name of the Mother, and of the daughter, and of the holy criminal spirit. Eniola runs the show and her daughter is her ride or die chick giving her key advice along the way and having her ear the entire time. It was very satisfying to watch.

The absolute best thing about this film is Sola Sobowale. She stole the show in the last film I saw her in, "The Wedding Party," and she does it again here. She carries this movie so well. In "The Wedding Party," she made us laugh. In "King of Boys," she made us afraid. That is versatility in two different genres of film and speaks to her talent as a veteran in this industry.

Another actor I liked in this film was Paul Sambo. He was so authentic in this movie. First time watching him on screen and I'm definitely going to be looking out for him going forward. He was a plus in "King of Boys."

Now, let's get to the problems in this movie

Length

This movie is too long. Clocking in at almost 3 hours, it is a lot to ask for a from director who has only one other feature film under her belt ("The Wedding Party" in 2016) which was under two hours. There was no need for this movie to be this long and towards the end I found myself not caring about the movie anymore and just wanting it to end so I could go home. I saw a 9:30pm show and didn't leave until after midnight. It was agonizing. 

Nollywood filmmakers keep talking about having limited access to finance. Here's an idea; how about keeping your movies short so your costs can be lower? I shudder to think of how long the unedited version of this film is.

Flashbacks

During the film, we get flashbacks showing Eniola's tough childhood growing up. Flashbacks serve to flesh out a character and add depth but they got off to a poor start in this film. There was literally no guidance for the first flashback. Out of nowhere, we see a man beating up a woman in bed. Is he attempting to rape her? Are they a married couple? A small child jumps on his back and tries to make him stop. He throws the child off his back and continues to attack the woman. The camera follows the child as she runs out of the bedroom and out of the house.

That's it. They just dumped that in the film then continued as if nothing happened. It was so jarring and confusing and felt rushed. Other flashbacks followed in a similar fashion but they got better in their explanations.

Excessive proverbs

"Oludari fiimu kan ti o nlo awọn wakati mẹta ti n ṣafihan eso laisi fifọ o ṣaaju ki o to jẹun yoo jẹ aisan inu"

I used Google translate for the silliness I wrote above so forgive me. It's just me poking fun at the film's use of proverbs. Blood of Zeus. Proverb after proverb after proverb after proverb after proverb. I thought proverbs were supposed to have an effect by being limited in use. That way, they blend in with the scene in which they are used and become a memorable part of the film. Not so in "King of Boys." It got so bad I started rolling my eyes. In the showdown between Eniola and Reminisce where he challenges her, so many proverbs were thrown back and forth between the characters that it felt like a freestyle proverb battle. I chalk this up to lazy writing.

Eniola's rise to power

I unfortunately can't go into detail here because it will spoil the film for those that haven't seen it. The way in which Eniola rose to power felt rushed. I didn't feel she was challenged enough and there's a scene towards the end of the film that I thought was unrealistic as power struggles go. Pay attention and you will catch it too.

The Twist

There is a twist at the end of this film that I can't give away for the same reason above but the way it comes about was so poor. The film tried to make it one big "eureka!" moment but it didn't work for me at all. If more time had been invested in not making the plot so simplistic, this twist would have been executed way better with a more impressive payoff.

The Brooklyn, New York scene

This scene is easily the worst scene in the entire film. My gawd. It was so bad. Again, I can't give it away but let me say this;

This film was directed by a woman, stars a woman, and has a strong feminist vibe about it. It is one of the reasons I like the film. The Brooklyn scene features sexual harassment and the way it was set up, I thought there would be consequences for it. It was a total and complete letdown. Also, the gawd awful accent by the actor meant to convince the audience he was from Brooklyn was laughably bad. 

Does crime pay?

This film is about crime. This film is about crime in Nigeria. It is also about corruption and the lawlessness of the rich and powerful. While I give the film points for realistically portraying things in Nigeria (Paul Sambo's character had a memorable line that had people in the audience shouting out their agreement), I felt there was an opportunity missed with messaging about how things in Nigeria should be.

Overall, "King of Boys" is a decent film with enough positives for me to recommend it. However, I will never watch this film again. The 3-hour length sucked the soul out of the movie for me. This is not Avengers 4 (coming in 2019 and rumored to be over 3 hours long) and Kemi Adetiba hasn't built up enough anticipation over a period of time with a filmography to warrant expecting people to be willing to spend that much time on only her second project.

Still, she is a talented Director making a name for herself and I hope to see more from her in the future.

"King of Boys" gets 2 stars out of 5 from me