How to Ruin Christmas: The Funeral

How to Ruin Christmas: The Wedding, is a masterpiece, cinema at its finest. In my top 10 movies/series of all time. The series had glamour, wit, it celebrated African wealth and success just like Crazy Rich Asians did. 

The weddings OMG the wedding! If you have not watched the movie, please watch it on Netflix. That is the reason why I wrote my first blog. How to Ruin Christmas: The Funeral, the sequel, as they said, lightning only strikes once, it could not live up to the standard season one gave us.

My friends and I watched the prequel so much that it became our benchmark for any African movies or series we watch on Netflix. It says a lot. Okay, enough bragging or flash credit for the prequel, let us talk about the five - episode miniseries that is How to Ruin Christmas: The Funeral.

Lighting does strike twice:

Season two has more episodes than season one. It makes sense, the series had a lot to digest. From the first episode, you can tell something is missing, Lightning did not strike this time around, the flavor is missing, everyone is angry, but to give credit, it started where season two ended which is with Tumi and Khaya finally trying to date (lucky them). How to Ruin Christmas: The Funeral focuses on Tumi trying to return a letter to Durban which was given by Tumi sister's grandmother in law who sadly passed away in the car with Tumi, yet at the same time she is trying to figure out if she wants to date or just drink a bottle of Tequila each night.

Why didn't lightning strike in the bottle? For me, the series started with an over the - top acting and an angry vibe. If you watch the first two episodes, you will understand, no one in this modern world speaks, thinks or talks in that manner to anyone, angry or not. There was no understanding, logic could have seen that Tumi was not at fault for the death of Nandi Nyembe Granny's character. Then the family refused to read the letter, which was the last message which was left for the family. I found that part of the script odd. The weird part was Beauty insulting a woman's newborn baby in an airplane.

This time the old shine:

Season two focuses on the old members of both families, and at the same time, gives a shine to the youth, I love the focus of losing a baby and the trauma that comes with it, Beauty, played by Thando Thabethe, She played her emotional role to the Tee, still keeping the princess charm that she portrayed in season one. Every character had a ghost or a monkey on their shoulder. If that makes sense, I love it. Mama Sello's former husband comes back just to ruin his daughter's life, yet her friends are forcing her to get back in the love scene, but she tries to stick to her guns.

Desmond Dube, AKA Uncle Shadrack was funny as usual, but I felt they did his character injustice. I really thought the man whose first love is Gin would finally settle down and prove to everyone why he should be the man of the family. The script gives it a hint but does not capitalize it.

The good:

Here I will list my favourite characters not in particular order and why I think they kept it cool, though the script did not come to the table. 

 

Trevor Gumbi as Siya Twala; Trevor is a walking national treasure no doubt about that. He just killed his role, season one we saw a glimpse of him. The guy came full force in season two. The screen lights up when he comes on with his colorful outfit, I love how he is always trying to find problems, so he could fix them just to show his brother he too can help.

 

Lehlohonolo Saint Seseli as Vusi Twala; How can we speak about Siya without mentioning his yang Vusi, He showed why old actors are just gold, did not once go off beat, even during the more challenging part of the series, He kept me wanting more, I just want to watch Mr Seseli act. 

 

Swankie Mafoko as Lydia Twala; Three Twala’s Wow, we all felt for her at the end of season one. In Season two, she finally got her child, got her husband back, who finally got sober, but she had to fight her large - to - life mother-in-law. You just have to love the way the script made her confront her mother-in-law. 

 

Sandile Mahlangu as Sbu Twala; No, No I do not have a thing for the Twala family.  Let me explain why I respect Sbu's character. The script shows his strategic side, which I really enjoyed. He figures his wife's deadbeat dad came back after all the years of absenteeism, and he finds a loophole in his father almost to jail government issues. He hardly had screen time, but when the chance came his way, Sandile went full throttle. 

Bad ending:

Season two felt rushed, there was no chemistry amongst everyone, I am not sure why, Most people I spoke to felt it fell off, I do understand where they are coming from, but I think it’s the rush of shooting back to back, Tumi, was not really herself, something was missing, even in her eyes you could see it though Busi Lurayi tries her best with the cards she was dealt with, you could see something was not there.

The ending was poor. I am not sure maybe the writers wanted it that way, but her character did not have any arc in season two, she was just a running gag, it felt forced, things could have easily ended differently if should, could just think, I mean the script shows she is very intelligent. Yonda Thomas as Khaya Manqele who is Tumi's boyfriend throughout the series. I did not feel sorry for him when Tumi handed him the ring back. He definitely deserves better. The brother tried to please her and make it work, but she was just too much.

The end:

I am not sure if we are getting a season three, but I hope we do. The unanswered question can rest in peace. Maybe they will focus on Cape Town. I mean season one was Johannesburg, season two was Natal. It just makes absolute sense. They need to add new characters, just like season two did, bring the children this time around. 

Nevertheless, I enjoyed season two, not as much as season one. Do you believe there are no ratings for these series anywhere on the internet? How odd, Thank you for giving me time to read my weird review.

Four ⛾⛾⛾⛾ of coffee out of ten.

A Naija Christmas

I would like to apologize for my lack of posting, rent had to be paid, if you get what I mean. Yet I had time to watch Netflix under the circumstances. Okay that's out of the way let us start, since watching Crazy Rich Asians (which you could watch on Netflix) I’ve been eager to see if any African movie can do the Asians from Singapore one better, sadly I am waiting, I had hope A Naija Christmas could do Justice, I mean there's no country on this beautiful continent who does grandeur events like Nigeria.

Truth be told, I have watched more Nigerian movies this year than all the years prior combined, all thanks to Netflix Africa. A Naija Christmas is about three brothers who need to get married by Christmas to fulfil their mother's wish. Meanwhile, their mum sets out to plan the most beautiful Christmas celebration for the neighborhood. On paper, it's a good movie. I would also approve of it if I was an executive, yet two hours and ten minute the film feels like an event calendar, it's just long. I had to pause after an hour and fifteen minutes because every scene felt like eternity.

The  bad gift.

I watched the movie with my neighbour who came for coffee and decided to watch the series with me. According to him, I am a harsh critic, but he understood my points. The scene where the brothers meet for the first time at the mall was useless. It had no impact, there was no chemistry between the three brothers. Kunle Remi plays Ugo, the oldest of the three. A record producer whose studio got damaged because he had not paid his debtors. My bet is he was supposed to be intimate and have a huge present on screen, yet it did not come across because of poor line delivery.

Efa Iwara plays the nerd middle brother named Obi, he's a marketer and the love of his life who turns out to be his boss, dumps him at the beginning of the movie. For me, Efa was supposed to play Ugo. He would have done the character justice because of his body physics, and he looks older than Kunle, I give it to him. He did the stuttering part of his character very well, but he could not pull the nerdy part. Anyway, I thought he was timid and nerdy, nope.

The younger brother, a gym instructor, the more charismatic of the two is Chicke played by Abayomi Alvin. He acted very well, especially when the trio were in front of the camera, maybe because he had less to say or even do in the film, but whenever it was his turn he did well, even performing in front of a GOAT actress like Mercy Johnson, who plays his love interest.

Weak plot.

In my opinion, the plot is the reason for the movie's low rating, scripted by Kemi Adesoye who I thought did a good job in terms of writing, but the plot was too obvious, there was no room for the audience to guest, everything was laid down in front of us, I should give credits when its due I thought Abayomi Alvin character was going to be a LGBQ, in my mind I was like “no ways, no ways” I was so anxious to see it happen, but I was not disappointed when the film reveal his love interest is Mrs Johnson.

The worst part of the script was having everything negative link to Tony Torpedo, who came across as a gimmick character, He was just over the top. Maybe that's how the script wanted him to be, but I did not feel Lateef Adedimeji was a gangster character.

The good gift.

I felt the Christmas spirit, I truly did. The film leads to a grand party, which did not disappoint. I want to be in Lagos for Christmas. The party was just beautiful, the cinematography of the Christmas party was spectacular. The children receive gifts while the choir sings a Nigerian version of a carol. If I could insert Emoji I would put the watering eye Emoji, That scene stole my heart.

Okay, don’t hate on me, but the women stole the whole show, they ate their male counterparts. The best performance was Ade Laoye who played Kaneng Efa Iwara's best friend, from her first appearance in the mall to the last. She was full of energy, stole each scene from my opinion. My favourite scene of her is the staff after-party, when she cries and tells Efa character that she loves him.

Vera, a lady boss character who will stop at nothing to get a client, played by the beautiful Linda Osifo, did a great job at bringing the importance of her closing the deal for her company, even if that was to hurt Obi's heart, it's nothing personal it's just business.

The message of the film is that family is important, the family legacy should be protected, I did not feel the family love, I did not even care for the house, There was not much scene in the main house for me to worry about who gets the house, or how important the house is for the mum to let the son who marries first get it, and who falls in love and get married in four weeks, I need to know because I want to drink the same water, A Naija Christmas has one scene depicting Christmas, the rest feels like a two-hour January meal, it lacks gravy for the dry meal.

Imdb gave it a 4.7/10. It says a lot about the movie. 

 For me its ⛾⛾⛾ of coffee out of ten cups.

But I am sure we will get other Nigerian Christmas movies about weddings. I just hope they spend time on the script and choose the right cast.