Tokunbo will impress those who find the least bit of intrigue enticing or those who are easily captivated by even the slightest element of mystery. However, for people who value depth and complexity in storytelling, it falls disappointingly short. The plot’s predictable twists cater to a specific audience, leaving little to no room for genuine suspense for anyone who expects more.”
This movie follows the story of Tokunbo, a car smuggler. After the birth of his son, he decides to leave his dangerous life of delivering illegal cars behind and becomes a taxi driver. Unfortunately, his son falls sick 18 months later, and he is forced to return to his life of illegal deliveries in order to raise money for his son’s surgery. Things become more dangerous when his next delivery turns out to be a child named Nike, who is the daughter of the Central Bank Governor.
Some would say this sounds like a common storyline, but I say that regardless of how many other films are out there with a similar premise, it could still have been a gripping thriller. However, in the hands of director Ramsey Nouah, what we got was a lot more underwhelming—an incompetent thriller.
The cinematography wasn’t bad in this film, I also liked the soundtrack “Gaza” by Olamide, which was used in some scenes. Apart from those two things, I didn’t particularly like this film.
What were the issues?
The acting and casting did not work. I must acknowledge that Gideon Okeke gave a committed performance as Tokunbo; he carried this film, and if not for him, we might have dozed off. But, it still wasn’t enough. There just seemed to be something missing—there were times when he overreacted, laughed too hard, opened his eyes and mouth too wide, or reacted too late. Some scenes were really off, but I believe that with better direction, it could have been an amazing performance.
Funlola Aofiyebi was a disappointment for me. I wish Nollywood would offer her different roles outside of the “no-nonsense, unyielding, and unreasonable woman” character. The same goes for Chidi Mokeme; they either need to find another role for him or work with him to bring different nuances to similar roles. I’m not sure what they were trying to do with Adunni Ade… Iya who? It felt like she was merely wearing a costume without actually bringing anything to the role. I’m not sure why anyone thought this role was a good fit for her. It makes you wonder if they still hold auditions for roles in Nollywood. If they did audition for this film, I’m genuinely curious about who else tried out for this role and how it was decided that Adunni Ade delivered a better performance than the others.
Darasimi is a sharp girl, but the truth is, she’s growing up, and having a smart mouth is no longer going to be enough. The acting was not great.
Apart from the subpar acting, the characters themselves were not original. It was really odd that the characters in this film seemed like copies of their counterparts from other Nollywood movies. Let me explain: While watching Folashade in this film, I couldn’t help but see Mrs. Lawal from House of Secrets or Dr. Amara from Criminal—same style, same makeup, same personality, same tone of voice, same attitude. If Gaza had a scar in this film, he could pass for the character SCAR from Shanty Town; Gaza even had the same habit of refusing to let people completely pay off their debts to him like SCAR from Shanty Town. Nike reminded me so much of Ihunnanya from Obara’m. It felt like a mix-and-match of different characters from other movies. The person who designed the characters in Tokunbo should be embarrassed.
Moving on, the next issue I had with this film was the storytelling—was not as engaging as it needed to be. I must say they lost me from the first scene because I did not understand how and why the police were conveniently waiting for him in that particular corner, almost like they could read his mind and they knew he was going to stop in that particular spot to refuel the car. They alerted him to their presence, waited for him to finish pouring the fuel and get into his car before they started their chase 🤦🏽♀️. To make matters worse, he started singing “Baby Shark do-do-do” I just knew we were in for a bumpy ride.
When I say I did not like the storytelling, I mean there were too many awkward scenes, the dialogues were not great, they were unable to build any suspense, and there was nothing to get you excited while watching this supposed thriller. The scenes that should have heightened the tension were poorly done; I particularly hated every scene where they showed their villain’s back. I hated the scene where Folashade had a meeting with the “stakeholders.”
When I say the storytelling was poor, I mean the stakes were too low we were not even invested. Cancelling a press conference is not deal—the kidnapper did not say don’t implement the policy o, he said just move the press conference, I honestly did not see the issue. Did anyone notice that eventually, the press conference never happened, and nobody said anything; they just conveniently forgot all about it. So I was like, what was the point of the whole film?
Anyone with common sense could tell immediately that Aziba, the assistant, was complicit in the kidnapping. After the phone call with Raymond, it was obvious he was the villain. I’m not sure what they were trying to achieve by showing us just his back view, I’m not sure why his setup was in a random car showroom, but whatever they were trying to do, it did not work. Modulating his voice up and down like low-budget “Big Brother” still did not give him that air of mystery, and when they eventually revealed his face, I don’t think anyone was shocked. How about the eventual arrest? I did not care! This film was just flat, bland, and boring.
Some action thriller movies can sometimes overcome most problems with storytelling if they have good action sequences. In this movie, even that was not good. They conveniently left any serious action until the very end, which was the fight that happened between Tokunbo and Gaza, but even the execution of that was poor.
Another thing I did not like about this film was the lack of attention to detail. Let’s talk about the timing in this film and the most important conduit through which information was conveyed—the GSM phone. We were all supposed to be counting down to the 7pm press conference, that was the whole point of the movie and the phone was the tool through which Tokunbo communicated with the person who gave him the job, so you would expect them to pay attention to what was being displayed on the phone, right? Well, that was not the case.
According to the time on the GSM, Tokunbo found the phone in his back seat at 14:53pm on 26/11/2022, but when he got the message for the second delivery, the time had changed to 13:00pm on 28/11/2022! Then he received a new message about where to drop the second delivery by 12:53pm on 28/11/2022. By the time he received the message to deliver the child to Seme border, it was 16:56pm on 03/12/2022! But that should be impossible because the whole thing was supposed to be happening on the same day. How were we supposed to count down to 7pm and anticipate the outcome of the whole situation when we didn’t even know what the time was? How are we supposed to take these people seriously? Whoever was responsible for continuity should be embarrassed!
As I round up this review I must mention that while watching this film, I had so many questions: Why was the Deputy Governor of the Central Bank following up with a kidnapper by himself? Why did they bring Tokunbo’s wife and son to the same building where he was hiding? Why didn’t they give us a deeper dive into his motive? What was that mediocre police investigation about?! I thought we had moved beyond repeating things like, “We are trying to trace the call”—tracing calls that never lead anywhere? 🙄
How did Tokunbo drive past the second police checkpoint, and they didn’t see the child sleeping in his car? Why was Nobert Young’s uniform so tight? Who actually dropped the phone in Tokunbo’s car? I know they wanted us to believe it was from Gaza, but who exactly did Gaza send? When did he send the person, because by the time Tokunbo left Gaza’s place, Gaza was still on the phone, so when? When did they put the tracker on Tokunbo’s car? Who put it? Maybe I missed all these things, someone should please enlighten me. Was Nike actually drugged? Because they wanted us to believe that she was injected back-to-back for hours, yet she woke up every single time alert and full of strength, with her sharp mouth and wits intact—no lethargy whatsoever, how??
How exactly did they survive the fall, in that kind of water? If you want to do these things, at least try to show us small workings. Even if Nike was a good swimmer, she was still a child stuck in a vehicle underwater. So they just expected us to believe that Tokunbo was able to hold her and they both stayed underwater until it was dark, and somehow they both survived… Haba!
In that scene where Raymond was arrested, why exactly did Folashade scream, “Nike, Nike is alive!”? Did someone whisper to her? Did she get a revelation? What happened? I was confused!
What do you mean Tokunbo became Nike’s driver? How??? If his son had not died, he would have kidnapped her and delivered her in exchange for money!
Overall, it was a terrible watch for me. For an action thriller, it failed to generate any excitement, and all its issues were just impossible to ignore. Stale performances, not one hint of originality, poor direction, and a terrible script.
Have you seen it? Thoughts?
My Rating: 3.5/10.
Have you seen the movie, please share your thoughts with us in the comments below
Read the review of Criminal.
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