Click thumbnail to enlarge image

The London Boy

Ramsey Noah

Simone McIntyre

Segun Arinze

Uche Ama Abriel

Directed by Simi Opeoluwa

Chidi (Ramsey Noah) is a village boy who just lost his father and has to fend for his mother and younger siblings. He has a wicked Uncle (Ben Nwosu) who makes life difficult for his family. He gets a big break when a friend, Jide, based in the UK helps him to travel out of the country over to the UK.
During his stay in the UK he meets Stacey (Simone McIntyre) who coincidentally happened to have just broken up with Ken (Lanre Falana), a close friend of Jide's. This turns to affect the relationship between the two friends so Jide resorts to throwing Chidi out of the house because he has refused to leave Stacey. Both Stacey and Chidi are in love but are faced with dire problems. Stacey who happens to be half-Nigerian half- Briton, has a father who has to ascend the throne of the Igwe in his village and it is required that his first child must also marry the prince of another noble family in the village. Segun Arinze plays the part of the Prince whom Stacey was meant to marry. She's not willing to leave Chidi and neither is Chidi willing to leave her and as a result trouble begins to brew in many areas.

There were lapses as usual in the movie. Ramsey Noah's character who was meant to be a village boy didn't look it at all. He was way too polished and didn't fit in as the kind of character you could use as a village boy who gets the break to travel abroad. To worsen matters he even switches within the brief period of time to develop a foreign accent. How realistic is that? Segun Arinze's character was more realistic than Noah's, and Arinze did a good job in the portrayal of the Prince with the Ibo accent. There is a humorous scene in which he is trying to get to know Stacey and he displays the bush nature of a local Nigerian man trying to impress a lady.
Simone Mcintyre is impressive in her role as Noah's love interest; Stacey, and carries the part so naturally that it beat the performance of some the Nigerian actors in the movie. Uche Amah Abriel (formerly Uche Osotule) did a good job as the Aunt that tries to get Stacey to her senses; Ben Nwosu was practically wicked as Chidi's Uncle and Danielle Johnson puts up a good show as Stacey's white friend.
Again it was another myopic idea of using a soundtrack that talked about the movie's title repeatedly as incidental music.
The title of the movie is ridiculous. It rather sounds like the title of a local fuji music or some poorly produced Yoruba movie.
The plot of the story is watery and not well tightened together. There are incidents that divert the movie's theme from its subject matter making it look a bit scattered. Annoyingly the movie ends abruptly at its climax and keeps you posted for a second part!

Lessons to learn from the movie:
Some Nigerian traditions suck!
When you fall in love, don't lose your head

Rating * * * ------- Watchable

* * * * *------- Can we watch it again?
* * * * ------- Grab some popcorn!
* * * ------- Watchable
* * ------- I'm feeling sleepy
* ------- A waste of your money!