Yaay kfbers, this week, I finally got to watch Kunle Afolayan’s much talked about movie, the C.E.O and here goes my review!
A few weeks ago, I brought you a writer’s review of the movie (HERE) and the writer claimed that the C..E.O was a copy and paste version of a popular American movie, EXAM but trust me, it is a lie. The C.E.O was nothing like that…there was no similarity between the EXAM and the C.E.O, well not as the writer made us believe.
However, the C.E.O had no wow factor…it was complicated…it’s not a kind of movie that an average mind understands once until it is watched twice or more but i am definitely not spending my money to watch it again!
It didn’t leave me with a lingering, question but with a lingering confusion.
Director: Kunle Afolayan
Cast: Angelique Kidjo, Jimmy Jean
Louis, Wale Ojo, Fatym Layache, Nico Ranagio, Kemi Lala Akindoju, Hilda
Dokunbo, Peter King, Aurelia Elium.
Screenplay by Tunde Babalola
Genre: Thriller
Running time: 105minutes
The CEO has been described as a PAN African movie by pundits as it was shot in five African countries.
Story:
Transwire is a multinational
telecommunication company with its headquarters in France. There came
the need to fill up the position of the CEO and being such a top
position, 5 of the best top executives from Kenya, Nigeria, Ivory Coast,
France and Morocco were brought to a beach resort in Lagos to compete
for the position.
The executives; Kola (Wale Ojo), Yasmin (Fatym Layachi), Riikard (Nico Panagio), Eloise (Auriele Eliam) and Jomo (Peter King)
all have a skeleton or two in their closets that could potentially
hamper their chances of becoming the next CEO.
There
is the Nigerian lothario with the questionable knack for always being
in the thick of things (Wole Ojo), the Ivorean dealing with family
issues back home (Auriele Eliam), the cocky South African considered a
shoo in for the job (Nico Panagio), the shady French expatriate dogged
with rumours of cutting corners her entire career (Fatym Layachi) and
the hard gambling Kenyan facing a crisis of confidence (Peter King).
Everything takes a new twist when Dr Zimmerman (Angelique
Kidjo) came to the resort as their trainer and consultant, she
introduced a game where they all had to dance round chairs but
amazingly, anyone who lost the game ended up dead.
Within 2 days, Jomo
(Peter King) and Yasmin (Fatym Layachi), two of the executives had died,
everyone became suspicious of the other as the number 3 loser, Eloise
(Aurelia Elium) made sure she opted out of the game before it became her
turn to die.
With only two of them left, no one was to be trusted.
But then who really is behind the killings?
What I loved about the C.E.O
I loved the settings, originality, cast, music, sound and lightning…the technicality was top notch!
It was obvious that so much work had
gone into the making of the movie because it was unique and downright
power packed. It also had some hilarious scenes and dialogues.
The characters especially Wale Ojo, Hilda Dokubo, Angelique Kidjo and Nico Ranagio were amazing. Surprisingly Hilda did not cry at all in this movie 🙂
They all brought their A-Game to the table on this one and lived up to the expectation. Well, except for Fatym Layachi who played Yasmin one of the executives whose acting wasn’t that convincing.
The movie shows how desperate people could be to get a position in an
organization or space in the world. So desperate to the point of
killing anyone that will stand as an hindrance. Beware of close friends
wolves in sheep clothing.
The complication:
Some explanations didn’t match up with some events that had
occurred earlier on in the movie.
Like the explanation the killer gave
for the killings?
The truth about what actually happened to Jomo or
better still; how the killer actually killed him?
And when we (the viewers) finally found out who the killer turned was, I wasn’t wowed…to be honest, I was disappointed!
Not to mention the pointless scene in Morocco where a brother of one of the executives was called on phone, that scene wasn’t necessary!
The scene with Adekunle Gold could have
been better rehearsed or cut out altogether, ditto the masturbatory one
Afolayan inserts of himself and his famous friends partying.
On the surface and for the most part, the C.E.O seems entertaining,
but the moment you turn your brain on and start thinking about what
you’re seeing, you are stuck with a quizzical look on your face.
The script tries too hard to tie up
loose ends but does so in an inelegant manner. New characters are
introduced, some old ones reveal themselves, the plot collapses, the
Chinese are involved, it all doesn’t quite add up.
The movie all started up fine, and it is indeed a posh
movie with plush locations and the technical part of the movie was
excellent Usual good cast, location choice,
production, storyline, suspense and thrill. But I sincerely don’t think
my expectations were met nor surpassed. It was just not good enough.
I am just disappointed
because i expected more from this movie and not on the technical part,
but on the STORY LINE.
In the end, it appears this movie has no real message and is therefore not vauable to many audience.
Unlike Phone Swap (HERE) which I watched like three times, I will not be watching this CEO a second time.
