With the phallic desire in all men, and upon seeing “4 Play Reloaded” title on a store shelf, my libido flared. I grabbed it off the shelf, looked this way and that way and then shove it in my backpack because I didn’t want some nosy parker thinking I was a dirty old man. I looked forward to some kinky evening in private. I was still not convinced as to what might unfold in my living room with my daughter watching, for Majid Michael’s and Yvonne Nelson’s faces were on the scabbard, and not too long ago, I watched them in “Hearts Of Man” engage in raw and raunchy sex scenes. I waited until everybody went upstairs to bed before I watched it.
“4 Play Reloaded” turns out to be hilarious and beautiful at the same time. It doesn’t have a plot. In a sense, this movie presents a kaleidoscopic character of present day romance among African young middle class city rats. There is (Nadia Buhari) announcing to the gang of friends at birthday bash by the pool she’s pregnant by a sixteen years old boy, and thereafter in a living room at Chloe’s (Yvonne Nelson) house, the same boy startles Nadia and the rest of the gang when he walks in from Chloe’s bedroom, in a morning gown. Why did Nadia Buhari disappear after this?
The next time we see Chloe, she’s in her bedroom fervently praying, though playfully, with her bible to God to bless her with a man as perfect as out of this world. Her prayers are answered with a next door neighbor’s son who turns out to be a doctor-a gynecologist. But ….Alvin (Majid Micheal) has divorced his wife, Angie (Yvonne Okoro), and leaves his home and hangs out with a friend who turns him out of his apartment. Now he goes babe hunting in malls and gets one who practically enslaves him and…..
Ruby’s bathroom is loaded with men, who, except Alvin, all claim to be the husbands, until the real husband-turned bisexual shows on her doorstep on her birthday with bouquet of flowers, pleading to come back home. (Jackie Appiah) has to test the fidelity of her husband (John Dumelo) by planting a girl on him, who reports for a part in modeling. He falls victim but plays it safe anyway and his wife gives him a kiss.
This movie has genuine situation comedy with genuine laughs. The comedy is real and not planted, especially in scenes where Alvin and another boyfriend of Ruby are shoved into the bath tub and their escape from the house with a gunman running after them. Also, when Alvin picks the girl at the mall and turns him into her houseboy who cleans her apartment and washes her under wears. The two main characters at the end of this movie, Chloe and Alvin remain hopeless and disillusioned.
Besides, this story has no message except that it portrays the promiscuity, lack of self-confidence, uncertainty, hopelessness and helplessness among the young and affluent in our African society today. We have plunged ourselves head on into the western culture and we hardly know how to swim out of it. It seems we gonna stay in the murky waters of that culture and drown and we wake up on the shores of hopelessness and, we hardly know where we are or how we got where we are: Africa or Europe or America?
The film didn’t even start out as one to tell a story, and ended up with none, but a display of the nature of romance in our today African society. I’m a witness to it just as you are: the brand new girlfriend you bring to the club to introduce to your friends who turns out to have slept with half of them; the most sort-after young IT graduate all the girls are swooning over turns out to be a homosexual, a faggot, or the high school beauty queen turns out to be the queen bee of the dikes in town
Stars of this movie are from the top shelf of Ghollywood. The story is marvelously stupendous, you’ll agree. The movie lives entirely in the present, in the moment, seeing what happens as it occurs, drawing no conclusions, no dramatic conflict, just showing plain people living one moment at a time. 4 Play is a human comedy. It is comedy because it tickles you to laugh a genuine laugh and it is human because it is an everyday occurrence among people of the same age.
Kudos to a movie well shot, but I believe the producers, writer and director of this movie did produce the handwork of the sand of present times. If we are bitter now, we make it seem so and if we are laughing, our perspective on life must be different. Whatever it is we are writing our names in the sands of time.
Venus Films Production Presents: Majid Michel, Yvonne Nelson, Omar Captan, JackieAppiah, John Dumelo. Screenplay, Pascal Amanfo; Director, Frank Rjah Arasse; Producer, Roger Quartey.