Title: The millions

Genre: Thriller

Producer: Chika Lann

Director: Toka Mcbaror

Duration: 1hr 34minutes

Synopsis

The Millions tells a story of Bem Kator (Ramsay Noah), a professional con man who swindles greedy men off their hard-earned money. On this fateful occasion, he happens to con the wrong man, one Alhaji played by Ali Nuhu, a drug dealer who doubles as a money doubler, to a tune of 6 million Naira. Meanwhile, after Ben spends the money, the Alhaji catches up with him and forces him to pay back the money which he no longer has. He is given one week to pay back the money.

However, an underground petty thief, (Ayo Mayokun) offers him a deal to break into a house and steal 42 million dollars.

Therefore, Bem, fighting to save his life and regain his feet in a trade he has spent most of his life in, assembles a team of thieves and con men like himself and goes after the booty.

The film also stars Toyin Abraham and Blossom Chukwujekwu. Atinosa Edemudia makes a cameo.

The analysis

This is a hit film, I categorize The Millions in the range of high-end Nollywood heist thrillers.

The Millions reportedly cost N60 million to make and was shot in many notable parts of Nigeria including Lagos, Kaduna and Abuja.

The Pros

The strengths of this movie are in its characterization. The millions is a star-studded film, staring the crème de la crème of Nollywood. One thing deeply admirable about the cast of this film is the beautiful castellation of new and old Nollywood.

Ramsey Noah is beautiful in his role as Bem Kator. A seasoned con man who goes on a first-time robbery heist to pull off the highest of its kind in history and ends up using his wits to outwit his employer. No one could have portrayed that better than him. He was magnificent and adorable.

Even though sometimes, you feel like he is being pampered and treated like an egg, we liked watching him improvise in every step of the way to reach his goal. He has some down moments but he made it up with beautiful acting.

Blossom Chukwujekwu was above average in his portrayal of Jerome. A cold feet ex-con man who is battling to save his precious marriage to a troublesome wife who eventually proved to be more criminal than the husband.

The two appearances of Toyin Abraham was spectacular and even though we wanted to see her as a modern control freak, she appeared like a Jehovah witness wife trying to bring back her erring husband back home.

However, this character obviously contrasted with her second appearance where she stole the van with the millions, she is now a razz hooligan-like get-away driver.

Ayo Mayokun is almost hilarious, his lines are filled with near-flat-jokes, near-serious-punches that fell midway beneath the belt. But nonetheless he delivered as a petty thief who is in his first-time fieldwork.

Chika Lann in her debut was an uncharacteristic actress who didn’t just struggle with her lines but kept her thick Igbo accent thick and bloody. Her lines falling a little below the beat; she proved the only obvious miscast.

But since it’s her film, I heard the audience repeatedly asking quietly if she MUST appear.

Nancy Isime was charming, a darling and even though she was robotic at some point. She gave us the quintessential Nigerian aje butter pikin. Until her final appearance where the filmmaker tried to sweep us off our feet in their desperate attempt to surprise the audience, she appears wearing her trainer belt to flaunt a bad-girl-booty, she came a little off.

The other character who obviously held his ground was Ali Nuhu. A drug lord who runs a side gig in money doubling. Ali was into his character, held his role like a pro and punched us in the face at the end as a lord who was beaten in his own game.

Cinematography

The Million is one of those films which reminds you of the potentials of Nollywood as an emerging film making titan. Even though we are not there yet, one can proudly say we have made a quantum leap in cinematography.

The cinematography is top-notch. The pictures are no different from that of Hollywood. There is no car chase or man-falling-from-the-sky wingless kind, but there is no shaky and beneath the brow kind of picture we are used to in Nollywood.

The Cons

After seeing the movie, I kept wondering why they would hire diggers. The plot would have made more sense if they had had to dig themselves, which is the core of the movie. Most of the conversations would have revolved around the digging. In other heist movies I have seen, the robbers are not afraid to get their hands really dirty.

More so, one thing that is obviously still lacking in our Nollywood films is its lack of character distinction. There is no apparent effort to separate the fictional character from the real person playing the role. So, most times, we are watching the real person and not any fictional character.

For instance, when you walk out of the cinema, you might not be able to remember the names of the characters, which is the indistinctiveness I am talking about. So, you are forced to call the characters by their real names.

Rating

So, do I recommend The Millions? Of course. Does it make an interesting watch? Of course.

And since I am doing this by midweek, I am going to be generous to Chika Lann in her debut. Not many get this far. But this N60 million movie definitely comes out as 8/10.

Thank you for reading!

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