Bukana Entertainment, World Entertainment, Riverside Production presents Frank Donga (Tayo), Ikponmawosa Gold (Ehiz), Genoveva Umeh (Anita), Emiola Badmus (Uloma), Diran Aderinto (Viper) Chris Okagbue (Poison), AniI Iyoho (Killer), Ali Nuhu (Radiant), Lynda Ada Dozie (Bisoye). Writer Chigozirm Nwanegbo; Director, Ekene Som Mekwunye; Director of Photography, Mohamed Atta Ahmed. © 2021
If you ever heard the adage, ‘life imitates art,’ here we must turn that adage on its head, ‘art imitates life.’ One Lagos Night explores the day-to-day reality of how the powers in Africa employ a series of ways to pilfer money from the governments of their countries. I have heard of drug couriers but never money couriers. This film exposes us to the plummage, pillage, and plunder of our African finances by big shots in governments. They have couriers who help them launder money, and save it in their wardrobes and later ship them out of the country on commission. Bisoye (Lynda Ada Dozie) is one of those couriers.
Tayo (Frank Doga) and his friend, Ehiz (Ikponmaumeh Gold), two abject poor friends are about to lose their rented room; one, in fact, has a near-death sick mother in the village. They both have no means of getting out of the financial bind, so they set out to pull a heist that will yield them millions of United States dollars. Tayo first suggests that his friend dates the courier. Ehiz sees impossibilities in meeting his goals of getting money in time to solve his or their problems if he takes the route of dating Bisoye. They instead think of heisting the millions she has in her care.
They aren’t alone with the thought of heisting the millions of dollars in Bisoye’s apartment. Just when Tayo and Ehiz have broken into the building, they face another group of thieves, Radiant (Ali Nuhu and his gang). They are on the same mission: to steal the millions stashed away in Bisoye’s (Lynda Ada Dozie) care. The story gets a little interesting here. Yes. A little. But not funny.
One Lagos Night mimicks The Millions. It fights so hard to be like the 2019 film, but it falls miserably short. Assume this is like Oceans Eleven on a mission to pull a million dollars heist. Present actors with a caliber of actors we know that can pull such a heist. In The Millions, Bem (Ramsey Nouah) and Wole Baba (Ayo Makun), and Jerome (Blossom Chukwujekwu) bring so much intensity and comic relief into the story that you unconsciously accept them as a real-life incident. These are characters of substance that can swindle and rob millions of dollars from a bank without questioning their feelings.
Tayo was excellent in his performance in the award-winning drama, Hakkunde. The film was intriguing and inspiring, and it tells an African continental tale of the impediments of university graduates. Hakkunde creates a world of hard times for a university-educated fellow. Of course, in One Lagos Night, there is no scene of expositions of hardship besides the cot of a bed for two grownups in their bedroom. For instance, Ehiz is on the phone with this person reporting to him about his mother being sick. The writer tries to justify Ehiz’s plight and his reason for involving in crime.
Character assignment in this movie is not perfect. This reminds me of Sarah Hassan, the producer of Just In Time (2021), and plays Muthoni as the film’s main character. The definition of character assignment must include the character’s look, what he does in the story, what he /she says, and how and why. These characteristics meet Sarah Hassan as the lead in Just In Time, except for one feature. Hassan is overly pretty, beautiful to be the lead in a movie; to an extent, she steals away the show. She is best suited to behind the camera, which brings me to Ali Nuhu’s spate of appearances in crime movies.
One Lagos Night uses Ali Nuhu only to bless the production with a big star. I am not stereotyping Ali as best suited to play Bukuharam or the Alhaji roles. Far from that, my friend. His best performance in Kula Da Shi (2016) is award-winning. That movie needs to be reproduced in animation. Or better yet, in Diamond In The Sky. Those were excellent movies that befit his person. When I saw him sponsoring criminals in The Millions and now partaking in this as a gangster, I laughed out loud to myself. Ali Nuhu can never play a role of a gangster. Listen to his deliveries in One Lagos Night, “If you think…I’m taking you for anything, you’re wrong. You’re not my type.” That gangster line is so lame. Ali doesn’t have the stature of a criminal. His size aside, he couldn’t produce the cold, murderous stare of Michael Corleone in The Godfather. This is a film, you know, and it got to be make-believe.
One Lagos Night says in its title that the exercise of stealing millions of dollars from Bisoye’s apartment only takes one night. Time is of the essence here. How can we know? The writer would have created tension by letting time play an essential role in the progression of the crime. For example, Lagos was alive with traffic that evening, and party noise far and near into the distance is heard from the vantage point of the criminals. In the middle of the film, say by midnight, one hardly sees anyone on the street, except a dog bark, distance sirens. Then a church clock tower alarm rings twelve midnight. The heist goes on. The Muslim Azan for the five ‘O’clock call to prayer comes on. More panic.
Tayo and Ehiz are eventually helped to safely get away with the money by crooked police on night patrol getting upon the heist. Ali Nuhu and his gang didn’t get any. What I take away from this movie, seriously, I didn’t take anything. There is nothing in heist movies we haven’t seen before, and this didn’t make me laugh either. You can watch if you want to idle away essential viewing past time. This film is a turkey.