After the culmination of the Merry Men series last year (hopefully), Ayo Makun is back with another comedy thriller in The Waiter. Although AY says this film is different from his previous movies, between the usual seemingly high-stakes situation happening on one side, several unnecessary comic relief situations taking place on the other, and AY screaming “Warri” from time to time, we really can’t see the difference. Just like his previous flicks, The Waiter has a plot that merry-go-rounds to a point of implausibility, subplots that seem to be happening in a world of irrelevant characters carrying out exaggerated actions, and several details left unresolved.
In a muddle of events, there are two plot threads that stand out in The Waiter.
In the first, Akpos (Ayo Makun), a fearless and blunt Warri boy, is part of the catering team for an event organised by the Minister of Poverty Alleviation (Shaffy Bello) at the Krystal View Hotel. However, the program is hijacked by a terrorist group led by Tonye Bright (Bucci Franklin), who puts the hotel on lockdown. Akpos, the Warri boy, who is not to be restricted by anyone, attempts to fight his way out.
The other: A terrorist group led by army veteran Tonye Bright hijacks the hotel where the minister for poverty alleviation is holding a poverty alleviation scheme event. He holds the dignitaries hostage and demands all of the poverty alleviation funds (300 billion naira of a 2 trillion national budget, by the way). Apparently, with plans to share the money to the masses who actually need the alleviation, hmn.
Directed by Toka McBaror (Almajiri), The Waiter begins with an exciting action scene where Tonye, still an army captain at the time, leads his team into an ambush. Then there’s a cut to Akpos’ introduction who overpowers a gang of one-chance armed robbers; the car rams into a barricade, Akpos emerges unscathed, and for some reason the car explodes. Then Akpos just goes to work, so badass. Great introductions to our hero and ‘villain?’
Usually in comedy thrillers like this, the unassuming hero is thrown into a high-stakes situation, and they typically blunder their way through sheer luck to bring down the villain. However, in The Waiter, the waiter—Akpos, our supposed hero—never meets Tonye, the supposed villain, at least not in any consequential way. In fact, none of Akpos’s actions directly affect Tonye’s operation, and when the two characters finally meet, it’s like a series crossover. They could have been in different films.
Apart from Tonye, whose motivations and intentions appear to be fairly laid out, though on a shaky premise, the rest of the characters don’t seem to know why they are in the movie or why they exist actually. They stumble through the movie without any purpose. Somehow, Akpos is so good at hand-to-hand combat that he easily overpowers gun-wielding goons repeatedly just because “Warri!” and “You know who I be.” Femi (Deyemi Okanlawon), the hotel’s head of security, for some reason doesn’t think the first place he should head to is the hotel’s surveillance room.
In this return to the big screen for Akpos, everything happens everywhere all at once, from plot to characters. Asides key characters, guest appearances range from Kunle Remi, Dino Melaye to Nasboi, Brainjotter, and several others that have no bearing on the plot. In The Waiter, most of the action even happens for no reason. And we end up with a film that has more cutaways than a Family Guy episode.
In the midst of all the overacting and AY reprising the same character from his many films, two performances stand out: Bucci Franklin (The Weekend), with his cold depiction of a terrorist, despite the shaky foundations of his character’s motivations, manages to deliver a performance that is unfortunately lost on this kind of film. Kunle Remi (Anikulapo), despite playing a bit part role, delivers possibly the only funny performance in the film; he plays the only part where the satire attempted in the film succeeds.
The Waiter ends up being a film unsure of what or whose story it wants to tell: the waiter’s or the terrorist’s; a comedy thriller or a straight-up action thriller. And what could have been a really exciting film is driven into a maze of confusion.
The Waiter premiered nationwide in cinemas on December 20.
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Side Musings
- Probably should have been titled The Terrorist.
- This operation is a terrorist’s wet dream
- Akpos is fighting his way through the hotel with cameras everywhere, but somehow the guy in the control room doesn’t see anything.
- Why did those two just keep kissing themselves?
- Make Ned Nwoko catch AY first; he wants to chop Regina Daniels lips.
- What a Robin Hood
- Kunle Remi should definitely do more comedy.
