Alakada: Bad and Boujee – Review

In this new installment of the Alakada franchise, Yetunde is back again with her ridiculous lies. This time around, trouble hits when nobody believes her at the most crucial moment, even though she is telling the truth.

The movie opens up with a street battle. It’s bloody, it’s fierce, and there is so much anger being displayed. Yetunde was fighting, her brother was fighting, and I was left wondering: “Why are they fighting? What happened? Who died? What does the aftermath of this bloodshed look like?” Nothing. Nothing happened. I was so confused because they just carried on like nothing happened. It was just a pointless scene, like everything else that happened in this film.

I have seen all the Alakada releases. I specifically hated Fate of Alakada in 2020 and was convinced that it was the worst one . As a result, I did not have any expectations going into this but I had hoped that Toyin Abraham would respect us enough to at least upgrade Yetunde’s lies. Also, if she is “bad and boujee” now, maybe we’ll see more style and some sort of upgrade to justify the need for this film and the title.

Well, I hate to tell you that there was nothing like that. In fact, this isn’t an actual movie. It’s an experiment to see how low filmmakers can go and still get the support of the Nigerian audience, and apparently, you can go very, very low. It does not even try to be coherent, it does not try to tell a story, it says nothing new, does nothing new, gathers skit makers and parades them in this film for no discernible reason, throws around inane lines like “I believe in Lagos state, I believe in the Nigerian police” just because, and insults your intelligence for over two hours!

As far as films are concerned, Alakada is strictly mediocre stuff. Watching this, I was so upset!

The story made no sense.

Acting and casting were a mess. There is no point calling out individual names, but every single person in this film was embarrassing to watch.

Makeup and costumes? Very bad.

Toyin, Elesho, and Odunlade Adekola speaking English here and there for no reason? Very awkward.

Too many loopholes, too many unanswered questions, too many scenes that just did not make any sense. Because what do you mean IK met someone on the road and the next minute he is inviting her to his event outside the country, without knowing the name of her NGO, without checking out the kind of work they do, or how they fit into his own event? Make it make sense.

Their trip? A mess.

Argue with me all you want but there was nothing funny about this whole thing. What was the meaning of the shoulder pads Lizzy had under her clothes all through the movie?!

The film was built around social media and how it promotes fake lifestyles. However, in my opinion, this film did not even show an understanding of how social media works today. In this day and age where everyone has access to social media, even those who “fake it to make it” have to put in a lot of work. There is someone with a camera in every corner taking pictures and making videos of you while you are unaware. What do you mean Yetunde, a social media celebrity and millionaire, washed plates at a restaurant because she couldn’t pay her bills, and she was not trending online a few minutes later? Yetunde and her friends walked around their neighborhood looking unkempt and exhausted half of the time in this movie. It did not make sense that she had not already been exposed for the liar that she is. Seeing those girls gushing about her was ridiculous to watch because what was the basis? What philanthropy work was she involved in? What events did she organize? What expensive stuff did she wear? What kind of impressive stuff was she posting?

They tried to highlight some moral lessons such as the dangers of looking up to people on social media and the pitfalls of abusive relationships, but honestly, the whole thing was too scattered to make an impact.

After her brother is killed, Yetunde runs around, trying to convince everyone about the evil deeds of Madam Sharon, then with the help of Shola Shine Shine, they mobilize some people and they storm Madam Sharon’s house but of course they all had to get their matching asoebi bubus first. God have mercy.

After her brother is killed, Yetunde runs around trying to convince everyone about the evil deeds of Madam Sharon, then with the help of Shola Shine Shine, they mobilize some people and they storm Madam Sharon’s house. But of course, they all had to get their matching asoebi bubus first. God have mercy.

The end was annoying but the biggest question on my mind while watching the end was: “Who were the people being pulled out of the water at Sunset Beach?” Because I definitely saw the rescuers performing CPR at the scene. Victims from Madam Sharon’s party or just random people? If they were from the party, that means they would have been in the water for days so CPR for what? If they were from the party, that also means their organs had been harvested as well before they landed in the water, meaning, the bodies pulled out should have been opened up in some way. The rescuers even brought out some people alive from the water…one person wearing lemon trousers was carried out of the water by the rescue team, and the person stood on her feet immediately. How? What is wrong with Toyin and her team?!

I have said it before, and I know saying it again does not mean she’ll listen, but Toyin should never make an “Alakada” anything again. She needs to let it go.