Movie Review: King Of Boys
"Yesterday I was, today I am, and I remain the one to fear. The dreaded one. I am Eniola Salami. KING OF BOYS." I almost peed in my pants while watching Sola Sobowale say this. I was too impressed.
(Image credit: google)
“By the time I'd become a high-end gin, you were little more than tap water. By the time I was in the streets, you were just a toy for sugar daddies. You are small. Too small for my level. Little sister, ma-fo!”
This was my favourite line from the series, KOB. The audacity of the First Lady. No wonder she was given a 2 bedroom apartment. That is where fits her brain😭
So I just finished Kings of Boys: The Return of the King, and I have literal goosebumps… omg Alhaja Eniola Salami, I’m lost for words.
Sola Sobowale is such an amazing actress, the emotions she portrayed in this series are beyond indescribable. I was wowed. For someone who hardly watches Nigerian movies, I had to start adding few interesting ones to my list after watching KOB. It’s amazing how far we’ve come in Nollywood from the days of Aki and Pawpaw, even though we kind of went down some years back, Kemi Aditiba is doing great work in bringing the beauty of Nollywood back.
Every scene was well acted and directed with passion. The emotions they all portrayed from Sola Sobowale to Toni Tones to Illbliss to Reminisce were all real and mind-blowing. The scene where she flogged herself with pepper, and the ending scene between her and Toni Tones were my favorites. No other person could have acted that role so well.
Although some of the guards needed more training because they looked hungry in some of the scenes but I can’t deny the fact that they did well.
Now what made the series so good was the plot. The storyline was on point. She knew she had gone too far in her world when her children died in KOB1 and during her exile she kept contemplating on what to do, leave the throne and focus on the governor seat or exact revenge on those who killed her children. When she got back she forgot who she was and that was why her younger self kept trying to remind her.
Toni Tones is a badass actress.
While watching the acts of all the elders on the table and Charlie boy, I kept saying to myself that they could do whatever they want but I know for a fact that she was not going to let them have the crown or rule over her. I suspected she was probably still mourning and the death of her children made her forget who she was but I knew she would come back. I knew they couldn’t rule over her, there is a reason why she is called the KING OF BOYS and that is why the ending scene was my favorite where she and her younger self(Toni Tones) made the acclamation…
“The skull of an elephant is too massive for a child to carry. No one, no one can seize my crown. My successor will be determined by me and only me. Yesterday I was, today I am and I remain the one to fear. The dreaded one. I am Eniola Salami, universally acknowledged as the monarch, KING OF BOYS.” Ayyyeeee this was so epic. It gave me goosebumps. I kept going back to watch just that scene.
The loyalty of Ade-tiger to Oba cannot be over-emphasized. I’m impressed.
Now for the part, I wasn’t satisfied with…
How did Eniola and Makanaki make up? I didn’t see them have a sit-down. He had a hand in her children’s death so how? She was also the one that killed him or rather, tried to kill him. How did they get past that?
I wasn’t satisfied with the death of Aare Akinwade, his death needed to have been slower, more painful. Or better still, his children and family die, all his power taken from him and he becomes a low-life with no way to power again.
How did Makanaki survive? He was shut in the head, who brought him back to life? I was happy he didn’t die though.
So at the end of the day na 2bedroom apartment dem give First Lady of Lagos state. She’s a badass too but a foolish badass. She doesn’t think ahead. We should have seen the 2bedroom apartment sha, is it fine?
There was a statement Eniola made after she won the governor seat, something like she is finally where she wants to be, at the top, even though it came at a great cost and that would mean the death of her children. It felt to me like her children needed to die for her to reach the top. Is that it? Or I’m just reading too much into the series?
I thought Ade-tiger was betraying Oba, what happened? Was it all a plan from her? I don’t get it or I’m just slow.
Was boxer really a traitor? I need clarification.
Finally, I feel bad for the journalist, he wanted to be true to Nigerians but at the end of the day even in movies Nigeria is still a corrupt country, integrity doesn’t work. It never wins in the face of corruption in Nigeria. In politics, people would rather choose to be shameless traitors and save their life than to be truthful and lose their lives and that of their families.
King of Boys: The return of the King deserves a 9/10. The time I spent watching it wasn’t wasted. The suspense, storyline, acting, and actions were top-notch. Kemi Adetiba, you are a King.
I’m sorry if you haven’t watched it and I just spoiled it for you. I couldn’t help it, I just had to drop a review.
What next?
Money Heist or The Squid game. I don’t know which to watch. Don’t tell me you haven’t heard about The Squid Game. It has been trending for a while now. I’ll watch it and drop my review.
I can’t give reviews if I don’t watch movies and watching movies feels stressful lately. How I finished KOB is still a mystery, I think it’s because it was so good. I’ll try to watch Money Heist and The Squid Game next so I can drop my review on it. Pray for me y'all . I have been choosing sleep over movies lately.
To answer some of the questions, I think you need to watch again. First, part of the beauty of the series for me is that Kemi isn't putting everything in our faces. She assumed that the audiences were intelligent. On the "resurrection " of Makanaki, it was clearly stated why he didn't die. His body wasn't burnt. It's the tradition that made soldiers have to be burnt after killing them. Eniola said this while on phone conversation with odogwu. It was the same reason Makanaki asked that Odogwu's body be cut into pieces and burnt , as he didn't want another surprise in five years. Of course, it meant that they has some kind of "fortification' from juju. Even though I don't believe in resurrection. Second, Ade Tiger's betrayal was clearly faked. Both of them had it all figured out all along. He played along with her approval. There's a scene on the first episode where Ade tiger told Eniola he had some things to tell her about the table. And then, Agnes the maid came in an interrupted. Then, Agnes was sent away and Eniola then asked " So, what do you have to tell me about the table?" If you missed that scene, you'd miss the reason many things happened later. Boxer was a sacrificial lamb, unfortunately. His killing was used to fake the opponents into believing she fell for their trap and Ade tiger was still working for them. Odudubariba alluded to this and when he said at the last scene " you even had to sacrifice your own so as to fish us all out", a statement to which Eniola laughed. Makanakis making up with Eniola wasn't shown to us and I liked that. It would have spoilt the plot twist of the last scene. Maybe a back story would have been shown after the last scene to show how it happened. Again, when it happened was also alluded to by the statement Eniola made after killing Boxer - " get the car ready. We need to go and see someone very important". Many things in the series were stated with only body languages,and a few statements and that to me is beautiful storytelling. For example, if you missed the President's PA body languages during the press conference (where Dapo was thrown under the bus) and while watching the news of the attempted bombing of the journalist, you'd miss the people who planned those. The President's PA was another underground person in that movie whose body languages needed to be read to understand certain things. This is already looking like another review😁
I absolutely loved it 😭😭😭🥵🥵
So about KOB and makanaki, it’s about the popular saying “my enemy’s enemy is my friend 😂