Synopsis: An ex-convict and his gang members hold a hospital hostage, they demand immediate medical treatment for his only brother who is bleeding and on the verge of death.
I wanted to like this one but unfortunately it is yet another Nollywood movie that started well but ended up being a disappointment.
What worked?
The acting and casting were not bad. I really liked seeing Uzor Arukwe play this role, and I thought he did a good job. Even though I feel like Funlola Aofiyebi talks and acts the same way most times, it was not a bad performance. As for the other characters, even though some of them were overacting (for example, Chuks Joseph, who played the role of Obinna), they were generally okay.
Like I mentioned earlier, this film started well. I was very impressed at the beginning because it was obvious that they took the time to research the medical terms. Their surgery setup was also a significant improvement compared to what you’d see in typical Nollywood films. They really wanted to get the surgery scenes right, and I appreciated the effort. I liked that scene where they brought out what was supposed to be a newborn baby. The baby looked off but it might be the most realistic CS scene I have seen from Nollywood.
What were the issues?
The story and the storytelling did not make sense.
What makes hostage movies special? High stakes, tension, and complex character dynamics. Most hostage movies typically have the following elements: a demand that is not completely within the control of the people being held hostage, a process of negotiation with the people on the outside, something at stake, and a timeframe—a ticking clock that everyone is conscious of, which adds to the tension.
In the case of Criminal, the demand was not anything ridiculous; it was something that completely within the control of someone in the hospital. The stakes were not really high, and it honestly did not feel like they had a ticking clock. It did not make sense to me that, at gunpoint, a doctor was refusing to treat a patient even when the lives of other patients were at risk—even when another patient was killed. killed. It was unrealistic and annoying. Even if the other doctors were not qualified to remove a bullet, they could have administered first aid, tried to stop the bleeding, while they waited for Dr. Amara. But for some reason, this film was bent on telling us that the only doctor who could do anything in that hospital was Dr. Amara. I honestly did not understand the whole drama and why Dr. Amara kept on using the pregnant woman as an excuse when she was literally just standing there, wasting time and doing nothing. Instead of disliking the villain, I felt like the person I disliked the most in this film was Dr. Amara. For me, I know a movie is a flop if I cannot even like the person who is supposed to be the hero.
This brings me to the next issue I had with this film: they gave us unlikable characters. Not one of them was impressive. There was not a single person we were invested in and rooting for. Character depth and character arc were obviously not considered while developing this script, but character development in the most basic form was missing. Let’s talk about some of them: Dr. Amara annoyed me ehn! She was so irresponsible, if not for the young doctors who stepped in, more people would have died. For someone who was supposed to be the hero of this film, they did a poor job with her character.
Officer Bade? An irresponsible police officer! He engaged in a full shootout in a closed space even though there were people right there in the same space. In an actual shootout, some of them would have been hit because baba was just shooting anyhow. I should mention Dr. Gbadebo, who suddenly became an invalid throughout the movie because they punched his face 🥴.
Before I go on to the next point, I’d like to talk about the people in the waiting room. Hostage movies often shed light on some of the people being held hostage; their unique stories add character to the film. In this case, they were just props, just sitting there occupying space, offering no value.
While watching this film, I had so many questions:
Why did Chima go to the warehouse at midnight by himself? What was he hoping to achieve? What was that nonsense walkie-talkie he was using? Where did he get it from? What happened to the security team he was speaking with? As soon as they heard gunshots, shouldn’t they have appeared? The scene did not make sense.
When the blood bank guy arrived at the hospital, why was the blood not just dropped at the gate? I thought Obinna went out to shoot and tell them to drop the blood and walk away, but alas, that was not the case. Why would the bus driver from a blood bank need to enter a surgery room that was already prepped for surgery? To do what exactly? Because I was surprised when I saw officer Bade in the surgery room. After the surgery, why did Uzor not lead Dr. Amara and the other doctors back to the holding area? Knowing his brother was fine, he should have left him there and tried to use the hostages to negotiate his escape. But no, Dr. Amara collected her phone and went about her day like it was business as usual.
How did Officer Bade leave the holding area without being noticed? Even though Ekene and Obinna were not paying attention, they would have heard him leave—there was only one way out of that place. Plus, Officer Bade is a tall man, and the place was brightly lit….it was too convenient.
let’s even assume they did not hear him leave. After they found out that he was missing, why did they not go and search for him? Both of them stood right there, screaming at the people sitting on the floor over and over again. It was tiring to watch.
Uzor was injected with a fast acting paralytic and he was able to go all the way downstairs…Okay o.
Another issue with this film was the fact that attention to detail was really bad. Did you notice that when they shot Chima, it was dark because it was midnight, but they did not get to the hospital until around 11:40 a.m. the next morning (Dr. Amara’s daughter sent her a text message at 11:39 a.m., just before Uzor and his guys got there)? How come Chima was still alive? Why did it take them so long? According to them, they came to the closest hospital to the scene of the shooting. So where exactly did they go before heading to the hospital?
On the other hand, there was a clock on the hospital wall that told a different story. That clock also revealed how scattered the timeline of this film was. I did not know what to believe.
According g to the clock, Uzor got there around past 8 or past 9, but a few moments later, when Uzor was punching Dr. Gbadebo, the clock read past 11. When Uzor killed the injured man that was lying on the stretcher, the clock had gone back to past 9. A few moments later, Chima’s phone rang, and it was the police commissioner (Segun Arinze), who asked to speak with the doctor, but guess what? Suddenly, the clock said it was already past 1🤦🏽♀️. The clock kept on going crazy throughout the movie, and I was just thinking, how could they miss something so obvious?
Moving on, the action sequences were not great. Obinna and Officer Bade were shooting at cabinets, glass doors, and walls, and nothing shattered. Their bullets were bouncing off everything.
Effects and makeup were poor. Gunshot wounds looked like ketchup; blood looked like zobo and sometimes watercolour; injuries moved from one eye to the other or disappeared completely. The scene where Uzor was killed looked like there was a powdery substance hidden under his shirt, so what was supposed to be blood splashing everywhere when he was shot looked like a cloud of red dust floating in the air. I could not believe my eyes!
Let’s not even talk about how the film ended…the whole weird clapping scene, her awkward conversation with her daughter, the blood donation scene, I honestly did not see the purpose . What was the point of showing us that she missed her daughter’s event for a flimsy reason? Or that she was O negative? To further confirm to us how terrible Dr Amara was as a person? I did not get it!
This film is Dolapo Adigun’s directorial debut but I could see Niyi Akinmolayan written all over it. Apart from the fact that he wrote the story, Niyi has a pattern: his films are either really bad (Chief Daddy, Palava) or they have a good storyline, a very creative and ambitious angle, a good start, and then everything just flops in the middle. Always a case of poor execution and plenty of loopholes—almost like he experiences a freeze in the middle of his films and lets everything go to waste. It is important to learn from the mistakes of our predecessors and mentors and not repeat them ourselves. I hope Dolapo grows and I hope she does better with her other projects.
Overall, Criminal was not a good watch for me. It was a poor attempt at a hostage movie.
My Rating: 3/10
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Read the review of Hijack 93.
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