Story/screenplay by Itunuoluwa Adefusi, directed by Great Val-Edochie & Olasunkanmi Adebayo, produced by Grace Onyia and Executively produced by Bimbo Ademoye, this comedy drama titled “RUSE 2” with a runtime of 2hours 24minutes is currently available on the latter’s YouTube channel with same name.

SYNOPSIS: (MAY contain spoilers)

When her best friend and roommate Mabel (Ehis Perfect) gets scammed & her skin care brand stolen by a supposed love interest, Shalewa (Bimbo Ademoye), having no other choice and in an attempt to save the day would decide to dust the cobwebs off an old costume that once gave her the love of her life Derrick (Kunle Remi).

MY TAKE:

Phew! What a movie!!! Although it was more dramatic than it was comedic, as a sequel to the first part released in 2024, I’ll admit that I enjoyed this, some flaws notwithstanding.

STORY/PLOT:

The story centres on friendship and how some persons can literally go to the ends of the earth to help their friends in extremely dire situations including endangering their own lives. Shalewa demonstrated this.

It also highlighted some salient aspects of small business owners who procrastinate the registration of their brands till it gets stolen by another person. This was seen in the case of Mabel who kept postponing doing the needful till it was too late. The movie also portrayed how people can get carried away and smitten by love that it blinds them.

While the plot took a while to gain traction as the movie started ever so slowly, by the time it picked up, it became captivating. The plot is clear as crystal.

CAST/PERFORMANCE:

All the actors understood their assignment and brought on their A-game like rent’s due. Biola Kareem who played the role of Ramot (Anthony’s maid) did it best for me. She’s simply hilarious.

Anthony Woode played himself (as Anthony) and just successfully made it to my list of the most villains to hate and love in a movie. I loathed what he did to Mabel but loved how he interpreted it…smooth as silk. Bimbo, Kunle, Ehis, Osereme (as Omoye), all did great!

CREW:

The makeup, costume, lighting, audio, background sound, location and all were okay, though nothing spectacularly outstanding!

LESSONS:

🚥 There’s a friend that sticks closer than a brother. Shalewa was such friend. She genuinely loves Mabel.

🚥 Procrastination is the thief of time and the kïller of ambition. Mabel had all the time to register her business but kept procrastinating.

OBSERVATION/QUESTIONS:

1. How did Kabiru know where to look in search of the stolen files? Did I miss it? Someone please help! 🙏🏾

2. Since Mabel had not registered the brand before the unfortunate theft, what exactly did she have in those files? Lemme guess, the recipe?

3. There were about three subplots in this story but only one stood out. The other two being Derrick’s & Anthony’s were somewhat shallow. They could do with a little more depth. For instance, Anthony being a single father. We didn’t get much about that.

4. The plot twist was not water tight as one could tell motives especially that of Anthony’s. I knew from the get-go that he was up to no good given the circumstances. Maybe it’s because I’ve seen too many movies!

5. As with most movies these days having nothing less than 2hours, the duration was too long, unwarrantedly so. This is one area where the first part beats this one in my opinion. Part one was precise and straightforward with a runtime of 1hour 40ish minutes. Whereas, RUSE was straight to the point, RUSE 2 dragged especially at the beginning such that an impatient viewer may click away.

6. I really don’t know how to feel about Derrick’s part in this story. It felt somewhat detached and slightly passive (something didn’t feel really exciting about it…can’t pin it down). This particular story appeared to have leaned and centred more on Mabel.

7. At first, we were given the impression that Anthony was a powerful person who had connections in high and low places, it then beats me how he was easily conquered and literally subdued or defeated in the end. That was somewhat underwhelming as I expected more from that character.

8. Loved the ending. Even before the wave blew back the thingy, I was already saying to myself that there may be a RUSE 3. Voila! With such cliffhanger, I’m definite that another sequel may just be brewing for 2026. Now that’s a FRANCHISE! As a matter of fact, I already have a story in my head for that! Lol!

9. We still didn’t see Derrick’s mum! Why? We only heard her voice on the phone. I mean, if we could hear her voice why not just show her too even if it’s on the other end of the phone.

10. Loved how Kabiru literally came alive at precisely scene 1:12:50. But that took too long to happen, frustratingly so. When it did, a slo-mo or some intriguingly captivating effect would have been lovely to see.

CONCLUSION:

Despite its shortcomings (some not mentioned here), this was educational, insightful, engaging, funny, relatable, interesting and entertaining. All the actors did great at interpreting their roles. There were some very remarkable lines such as “Mr. Frank, is this a prank?” etc. While this may have been a whole lot better an outcome, this was nonetheless worth the watch. Kudos to all involved in this project.

VERDICT: 5.5/10

Have you seen this? What did you think?