Eight Other Movies to Watch If You Enjoyed King of Boys

King of Boys was disruptive when it premiered in cinemas across Nigeria in 2018. While the themes that were explored are things that have been done countless times in movies, many other movies have been able to do it almost the same way Kemi Adetiba did with KOB. We have taken the liberty to list those movies for you.

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1. SCARFACE

This 1983 crime drama with Tony Montana (Al Pacino) as the main character, takes us through the story of Tony as he builds his drug business from the ground up. Though Eniola Salami didn’t build her business from the ground up, we see her set traps for herself the same way Tony allowed his self delusion and paranoia to get to him. 

Tony is killed in one of the best gun scenes in cinema but our beloved Eniola absconded to Brooklyn at the end of part one and returned to contest the Lagos gubernatorial office in The Return of the King. That’s a win for her. If this was a business school, the lesson would be to choose your battles, but this isn’t and lessons are sprinkled all over these movies.

2. THE GODFATHER

The first of the Godfather trilogy tells the story of a family that faces the threat of being murdered. Asides the similarity in a few of the sequences, these two movies share other themes in common. The way the rival gangs declare war on the Corleone family is similar to Eniola facing attacks on different fronts. Both Michael and Eniola also went through significant losses and even had to retreat at some point.

3. PROUD MARY

Asides the two movies having a female main character who are both established as badasses. The all-out war Mary (Taraji P Henson) declares is similar to that of Eniola, but we both know how that turned out for Eniola Salami and Mary. Anyways, Eniola came back for vengeance in the sequel series. Proud Mary was directed by Babak Najafi and is available on Netflix.

4. ROCKY (1976)

Sylvester Stallone has always been about the brawns and muscles, and his 1976 movie is no different. It’s easy to dismiss Eniola Salami as the winner at the end of KOB but that’s not what some other people think. The fight in the finale of Rocky resulted in some sort of stalemate but Rocky was crowned winner. Even though significant damage had been done to the both of them, he wasn’t the winner based on the fight. This movie is similar to KOB in the sense that Eniola barely scathes through the challenges that she encounters. Yes! Makanaki was gunned down at the end of part one, but we should keep in mind that he was just a pawn to the real enemies, the political class. Eniola’s win becomes more of a mirage with Reminisce reprising his role as Makanaki in the sequel.

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5. KILL BILL (2003 & 2004)

This Quentin Tarantino’s classic has “the bride” (Uma Thurman) as its main character. The bride tries to leave an assassin organization that she has been part of but hasn’t been granted permission to leave. She eventually had to elope with her lover, whence they plan their weddings. She, her fiancé and her friends are then gruesomely murdered in a church during their wedding prep. Kill Bill tells the story of The Bride coming back to life and living the rest of her life in pursuit of vengeance. Kill Bill is similar to KOB in terms of it’s themes centered on betrayal and vengeance.

6. BLUE STORY

Blue Story tells the story of two friends on opposite sides of a London postcode street war. Though KOB isn’t about petty street wars but about how dirty and twisty politics can be, we begin to see similar themes when one of the friends betray the other. We also see the no victor, no vanquished theme. Blue Story was directed by Rapman (Andrew Onwubolu) and is available on Amazon Prime Video. 

7. MUNA 

This 2019 Nollywood action flick with Adesua Etomi-Wellington as its main character reminds us of a mutual friend. The movie follows Muna’s journey to destroy the same child trafficking ring that ruined her life. A strong female lead is one of the things this movie shares with KOB, another is that they both ‘take out’ the heads of these organizations, though for different reasons. Muna and Eniola both find themselves in these male-dominated worlds and have to fight for the things they want. One other common thing would be that they are both Nollywood productions. Muna was directed by Kevin Nwankwor.

8. THE THERAPIST

The Therapist portrays Chidi Mokeme as a man still dealing with the loss of his wife, but we are not here to talk about men. Oloho Odafe (Rita Dominic) and her friends, in this psychological thriller, build a business around finding evidence for victims of domestic violence. Things start tumbling when their greed gets in the way of business. Rita Dominic’s portrayal of Eloho as both a strong woman and someone with weaknesses is close to the one we see in KOB. This thriller was directed by Kayode Kasum and released in 2021.

For more Nollywood movies with strong female leads, watch KOB again or The Return Of The King.

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