Movie Review

                                 KING OF BOYS.

King of Boys is a political thriller, that features a range of exciting actors like, Shola Shobowale, Jide Kosoko, Toni Tones, Adesua Etomi, Reminisce, Ill Bliss and a host of others. Kemi Adetiba wrote and expertly directed this very thought provoking movie flick in an exceptional way.

King of Boys is a tale of a young girl, Eniola Salami, who grew up in a domestic violent home and is introduced to the underworld in her search for freedom and escape. On the streets of Lagos, Eniola develops cunning and ruthless skills that leads her to becoming the King of the Underworld – King of Boys! Now, Alhaja Eniola Salami,
pursuing a political career, begins to outgrow the underworld connections responsible for her considerable wealth. After being sidelined by her Political fathers, she's drawn into a power tussle that threatens everything she holds dearly. To come out of this on top, she will need every ounce of the cunning, ruthlessness, and strategy that took her to the top.

After successfully directing Wedding Party 1, Kemi Adetiba has shown, with King of Boys, that she is not only an award winning director but also a tremendous story teller. I mean, I cannot remember the last time I saw a Nollywood movie with a prologue and King of Boys had such an intriguing prologue that will keep you engrossed with the movie from the very beginning.

From the first scene, I was already asking questions like who is the Senator? Why wouldn’t Kitan attend his Mums birthday party? And what could be the mighty issue between Kitan and his sister, Kemi? King of boys is one movie that you cannot afford to miss a minute of.

The plot of this film is fresh and new with the best twists I have seen in any Nollywood movies so far. This movie will give you a clear insight of how politics is most likely run in your country, with touches on a whole lot of political runs like, whistleblowing, political positioning and a lot more.

Then the suspense; No amount of predictions will give you a clue on how this movie will turnout. Just like I never saw the death of the lady coming at all. How did they allow the lady die? At this point, I am trying hard not to give any spoiler here, because if I do, you will hate me when you eventually see the movie but yeah the lady’s death will shock you.

Special appreciation to the team that handled the makeup and costume of this movie. The way the makeup in the days of Toni Tones clearly changed in the days of Shola Shobowale was commendable, showing the difference in time and class. Then how Eniola’s friend was made up to look believably sick and dying; what a fantastic job.

The cinematography was decent. Proper lightings, camera angles and the way the camera closely followed the subject matter like it was your eyes moving up and down the scenes, I loved. The only issue I had with this department, (which might not really be an issue, giving that it was the premiere version I saw.) was how close to 5 scenes didn’t

have the toned down effect that all other scenes had. The editor must have been overwhelmed for a bit here.

The soundtrack, which was the best part for me, was PERFECT. The intense and frightening sound that came up each time something serious or bad was about to happen and the delightful mix of gangster and street-life Nigerian song made me fall in love with the mind of the sound engineer. The movie had me humming, ‘Makanaki original gangster, Yeeee…’ over and over again way after it was over – it was that addictive.

Now, the Characters:

Let me just say that apart from the child that played Eniola, all the actors in this movie brought their A game. It is either Kemi bribed them to act well or she specifically handpicked well-seasoned actors for this movie.

First, let’s talk about Makanaki, Reminisce. This is his first movie but it didn’t look like it at all. He was a real street gangster, no time to laugh, ruthless and extremely believable. With his act, he has just shown that Nigerian musicians can very well cross into the acting space and do a fantastic job.

Adesua Wellington is my next pick; she was lovely as Kemi. If you had asked me before watching the movie, I would have said that the Kemi character should have been played by some other actress, but she proved me wrong. She wore Kemi’s mean, strong and straight to the business cloak perfectly well. The way she showed undying love for her mother was too real, I was sure she adores Shola Shobowale in real. Adesua was such a delight to watch.

Next, Toni Tones. Her ability to sound like Shola Shobowale impressed me a lot. She was not afraid to be a razz and hustling Yoruba lady at all. You could tell from watching her that she understood her script very well and was excited to play it out.

Finally, my favourite character in this movie, Mummy herself, Shola Shobowale. There is nothing I can say here that can fully describe how fantastic she was. Ahn ahn, this woman is a good actress, she delivered her role like it is her real life. Her anger was raw and genuine, her love for Kitan and Kemi was strong, every scene where she cried will break your heart, the part where Kemi and Kitan had their verbal fight, how she was jumping up and down, begging that they stopped? I was extremely impressed with her acting; you will love her more when you see this one.

All other characters were fantastic but I can only talk about a few of them in one piece.

At this point, it must be evident that I was impressed with this movie. I struggled so hard to score this one because even with the few offs I had with this movie, on a scale of 0 to 5, this baby girl gives this movie a 5! This is the first movie I have ever scored a 5 because truthfully, this is the best Nigerian movie I have seen in a long time. I recommend this movie to any and every one. Go and watch this movie and be proud of our little own Nollywood.

Have fun seeing the movie and tell me what you feel about it in the comment section below. Hopefully, the next time I go see a movie I can get your verbal reaction of what you think about the movie #Wink

Full Cast

Shola Shobowale – Alhaja Eniona Salami aka Oba

Adesua Welington – Kemi Salami

Toni Tones – Young Eniola Salami

Remilekun Reminisce Safaru – Makanaki

I’ll Bliss – Odogwu Malay

Ademola Adedoyin – Kitan Salami

Jide Kosoko – Alhaji Salami

Sani MU’AZU – Inspector Shehu

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……….Talk2urHommie……….