Story/screenplay by Confidence Onyejegbu, directed by Smart Edikan, produced by Precious Kadiri and Executively produced by Ruth Kadiri, this drama titled “LIQUID CASH” with a runtime of 1hour 36minutes is currently available for streaming on the executive producer’s channel – Ruth Kadiri 247.

MAY contain spoilers from here on 

SYNOPSIS:
When his mother (Oby Titus) is diagnosed with renal (kidney) failure, Desmond (Anton David Jeftha), a corrupt police officer/kidnapper must do all he can to raise the money for her surgery.

MY TAKE:
Phew! Heaven knows I wanted to rate this movie high but after watching it for 2 and a half times just to be sure I wasn’t missing a thing, I had no choice but to give it the score I did! Pained…but well, it is what it is!

The movie had potentials…oh it absolutely did have huge prospects to be a blockbuster but regrettably, it lacked proper direction and its plot suffered in depth. You can tell there was a destination in mind. However, the movie appeared like what in the Nigerian parlance, people would refer to as ‘cut and join’ It felt disjointed!

STORY/PLOT:
The story is good and refreshing. In fact, quite commendably, it seeks to address or highlight some of the current menaces that bedevils Nigeria as a country. These are corruption and two-faced police officers and the issues of kidnapping, robbing victims of their hard earned money as well as equally unaliving them afterwards and consequently causing sleepless nights and heartbreaks for the victims’ families.

It also highlighted the estrangement between mother and son in addition to the dynamics around kidney failure & surgery. However, the plot to weave all these together and pass the message in one piece to viewers felt all over the place in a seemingly uncoordinated manner.

CASTING/PERFORMANCE:
Hmmmm…while the movie had some industry stars like Lilian Esoro (depicting Angel) and also Kelechi Udegbe (as Doggy), there appeared to have been some miscasting where the actor who played the lead character didn’t carry his role well in my opinion. His acting was subpar and in some cases did not convey matching emotions. There were also some actors who appeared passive for no reason and you wonder why they were casted in the first place. This is especially Quasi Blay. If you ask me, he had no business being in the movie as his script was very minimal and his role somewhat inconsequential to the plot. You may even forget he was in the movie.

DIRECTION/EXECUTION:
The direction of the movie felt rushed. The story to me was not properly developed and this affected the overall execution. The duration was good but a little bit more minutes to add to the plot wouldn’t have been harmful.

TECHNICAL ASPECT:
Although the sound score in some parts made it appear like an action film as it sets the ambience for it but the overall turnout gives a different vibe. The cinematography wasn’t very impressive.

The audio was equally poor as one can hardly hear the actors sometimes. You’d have to raise the volume which then blasts when ads come on. Costume and makeup were inconsistent. Applaudable that they used a real hospital and police station as per location. So kudos for that.

LESSONS:
There was a good lesson to take home from here nonetheless and that is “what goes around comes around” Desmond engaged in crime to raise quick money but this lifestyle became the source of his downfall and the tragedy in his life.

OBSERVATION/QUESTIONS:
1. What was the name of that almighty drug worth over 15million Naira, so scarce in the country yet was transported by an individual via public transport inside a cooler? In fact, who was Azuka (played by Prisma James)? Was she a pharmacist? A sales girl? Someone please help.

2. Desmond’s mother’s friend said they didn’t have money for hospital bed prior to surgery. How then was Desmond’s uncle able to pay the 15million Naira for the almighty drug in a heartbeat?

3. Come to think of it, one minute, the doctor said the drug in question was not anywhere in the country and that they’ll have to import it. Did they eventually import it or by way of miraculous providence, they found one in the country? This wasn’t clearly stated. If they did import it, wow how fast was that and why wasn’t it sent straight to the hospital?

4. What was the essence of using another actor to play a younger Desmond in the flashback when Desmond’s mother already looked like she looked in the present time with a wee bit of the same sickness makeup?

5. From what we were shown, was that enough reason for the estrangement between mother and son? It wasn’t compelling, that!

6. The doctor mentioned they needed 100 to 120 million Naira for the surgery and he sounded urgent given the deteriorating condition of his mother. Desmond then decides to waylay and hijack buses for this end. Please make it make sense! How did he hope to raise such money from poor citizens plying the roads? Not that I’m promoting kidnapping…but for a movie, one would have thought that the gang would target politicians or billionaires. To be brutally honest, given the poster, I had thought there was gonna be a bank heist. I mean, that would have been more believable, right?

7. How did Desmond not know about the drug in question? For all we know, he was already in communication with the doctor, right?

8. Inconsistent scripting with an unnecessarily excessive mention of “I go give you doggy” That was distracting. Kelechi Udegbe’s depiction of that role was annoyingly irritating in the way he kept incessantly sticking his tongue out. A character to hǎte but this was worse as I felt like going into my screen to rïp off the tongue.

9. The background music at the end was not in sync for a movie that ended in tragedy or sorrowfully. It ruined the experience that one was managing to hold on to.

10. Why was Desmond’s girlfriend so desperate to see him that she had to trail him? Yes, she had been calling him without answer. It didn’t add up that she seemed so edgy about it!

11. The first time Desmond/General went to see his mom, she had more patches on her face than she did when she was hospitalised after she collapsed.

12. Should we talk about the title of the movie? Of course the title had no correlation whatsoever with the story as the meaning of LIQUID CASH has no direct or indirect connection with kidnapping or cancer or corruption.

13. The transport company confirmed that one of their buses went missing yet did not file a report to the police. How does this even make sense?

See, there’s more but let’s just stop here.

CONCLUSION:
This movie would have had a better outcome if adequate time had been put into brainstorming, planning and execution. Too many loose ends and too many lapses. Unnecessary casting and poor performance by the lead actor as well as some of the supporting actors too; some caught smiling when they shouldn’t.

Many would find it entertaining or interesting as there are different strokes for different folks. It was emotional at some point but as mentioned earlier, the plot feels disjointed and this didn’t help matters much. Nevertheless, this is a good deviation from the usual storyline by the producer; quite commendable. Just sad that the packaging wasn’t fine-tuned for optimum execution/delivery.

VERDICT: 4/10

Have you seen this? What did you think?