Lockdown (2021) by Moses Inwang: Movie Review

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Imagine a normal day in your life. You get dressed to go to work and stop by a supermarket to pick up some snacks. Shortly after you get in, all entrances and exits are shut. Then the manager drops the bombshell, stating that everybody in the supermarket at that time would be locked in for weeks as a precautionary measure for a disease or a serial killer on the loose or worse case scenario a zombie invasion. Then you realize you left your phone in the car as you hurried into the supermarket earlier. Now, you're stuck in a place with strangers and no means of communication. This could equate for hell. This reminds me of 2020 when the whole world was on lockdown, citizens trapped in their house, others in isolation centres; distance between family and friends, entrepreneurs and their businesses.

Stumbled upon a movie on the internet titled "LOCKDOWN" and my first thought was " Oh wow, a movie about the worst period of our lives". Of course, I didn't hesitate to watch it. I went into without expectations majorly because it's a Nollywood movie. Before you come for my head, I'm a patriotic citizen but we cannot deny that our people offer us crap sometimes. So yeah I went into it blindly. Did I enjoy it? Stay with me to find out.

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Lockdown is a drama directed by Moses Inwang. The movie opens up by illustrating the typical day in Lagos, the hustle and bustle, traffic jam, blaring of horns by angry drivers and people in a rush to get their daily bread. Using this as a backdrop, the movie introduces the major characters and the event that led each of them to the hospital. A groom (Ben Touitou) and his friend (Jide Kene Achufusi) have a wedding and a business meeting lined up for the day but end up in the hospital after witnessing a hit and run situation on their way to the marriage registry. A young job-seeker (Ini Dima Okojie) rushes to the hospital upon realization that she needs a medical report for the job interview. A deliveryman (Tony Umez) who thinks he is done with all his deliveries for the day goes to ask for his paycheck so he can buy medication for his ailing wife at home but finds out that he still has to make one more delivery to the hospital. Josh Alfred popularly known as Josh2funny plays the role of a poor man who wins a lottery and has only four days to claim his price but sustains an injury which needs medical attention. A married man (Deyemi Okanlawo) wakes up to hear that his pregnant wife was rushed to the hospital by 4am while he was enjoying the pleasures of infidelity with his side chick. A nurse at the hospital (Chioma Chukwuka Akpotha) agrees to help her collegue cover her shift for a charge of N10000, after running two shifts herself. And finally, Mr Omar (Fares Boulos) who just lands in Nigeria for a meeting but is rushed to the hospital because he suspects he has fever.

All these people, each with a case of urgency are locked in the hospital because there's a possibility that Mr Omar is infected with the fictional HoloVirus. All of these people have urgent dealings outside the hospital and being locked up leads to a lot of agitation. There's a lot of shouting, cussing and even assault of one of the security guards. With the intervention of the NCDC, the police is given strict order to shoot on sight anybody that tries to leave or enter into the hospital premises. This step is taken as a precautionary measure in order to curb the spread of the virus and since all of them were in the hospital at the time the foreigner was admitted, they became captives. It is truly a state of being at the wrong place at the wrong time. To make it worse, they have to undergo a mandatory 21 days isolation. So what happens to the groom who has a bride to wed. Or the man who has 4 days to claim his winnings? This means there's no interview for the jobseeker hence no job and the deliveryman can't get to his wife who is alone and diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer.

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From this, it's obvious the idea of the movie was birthed from the 2020 global pandemic, coronavirus. I felt very sad and sorry for them. All the anger and frustration was understood because how does one's day go from a 100 to a 0 real quick. In all of these people, the people I felt sorry for the most is the groom. Imagine all the people that travelled from all over the country and even abroad, all the money that was spent, imagine all these going to waste. Ha, that's a lot of money. And his bride (Emem Inwang) and mother-in-law (Sola Sobowale) didn't make things any easier for him. They kept blaming him for playing hero when he should have been to his wedding. I also felt sorry for Josh2funny. Imagine when God finally hears your prayer and sapa frees you from it's chokehold but you're caught in this kind of situation. This is what happens when your village people are working overtime.

The characters bodied their role perfectly. Nurse Chiamaka played her role perfectly depicting a typical nurse in a Nigerian hospital. Tony Umez came with a calm aura but the looks he kept on his face gave me chills. For a moment, I missed the old Tony Umez who was always trapped inside a love charm bottle by women. With the presence of Josh2funny, there was the right amount of humor and I laughed out loud a good number of times. I loved the fact that he didn't overdo it because I'm not a fan of comedy skit makers in Nollywood. They overdo it and it ruins the sauce. But in this film, it was perfect.

I know you have been waiting for the buts and trust Nollywood to never disappoint. I found somethings appalling. Let's start from the terrible acting from Peter Okoye who is the CEO of the company that offered Josh2funny the lottery. It looked like he was reading from his script on camera. Also, there were some shortcomings from the medical practioners in the film. Dr Nwoku (Omotola Jalade Ekeinde) who was the Chief Medical Director came in direct contact with the foreigner, after receiving his medical reports that shows he might be infected with the HoloVirus. She doesn't wear protective gear, she only has a face mask on. And after that incident, she doesn't go into isolation but rather walks around the hospital like she didn't come in direct contact with an infected person unprotected. I'm not into the medical field but I know that in outbreaks like this, you do not come in contact with infected persons without full protection gear. And now to my biggest fault. I still don't get why the police had snipers surrounding the hospital to shoot anybody on sight. I don't think it was that deep. They could simply just tie the person down or something but killing a citizen was rather extreme. The way they looked serious in the movie was so annoying because in reality, you can never find them doing their job diligently. But both in real life and movies, one thing you can always count on the Nigerian Police Force to do is kill innocent people.

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The movie lasted for 2hr30 mins and I personally think that was too long. Nollywood always does this thing where they add unnecessary scenes in order to drag on a movie. Some scenes like the hassle between the police and the people outside the hospital, the fighting and screaming in the hospital and the continuous phone calls became repetitive and boring. The romance that began to brew towards the end was cringey and it made me roll my eyes. I wasn't satisfied with the end but overall, it was an enjoyable watch. I give it a rating of 6/10. If you have watched 93 Days, a Nollywood movie about the Ebola virus and how it came into the country in 2014, you'll enjoy this one. Lockdown is a replica.

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