When you see a film full of celebrities, it is either total nonsense or a good watch. For the Nollywood movie; City Hustlers, let’s find out if it’s a good watch or not.
City Hustlers is a story that depicts the city of Lagos and the hustling lives of those who live in the city. First, there is the story of a landlord and different tenants in the house; then another story of a Lagos slay queen living in the slum but pretending to be a big girl on social media.
There is also the story of a young gigolo who scams rich women and runs away with their money. At the end of the film, we see how these different characters wiggle their ways out of their situations.
As funny as City Hustlers is, it would have been a lot better if the writer had paid more attention to the plot of the movie. Just like many comic Nollywood movies, little attention was paid to the plot and structure of City Hustlers. There were so many unnecessary characters, and the fact that they were trying to tell many stories in one just made it disjointed. It would have been better if all the characters had strong plots, but for some characters, the film would have been perfect without them. Regardless of this, the movie had hilarious scenes that could make people pay little attention to the poor plot structure.
The acting in City Hustlers is the icing of the movie. City Hustlers is not one of those movies with many superstars filled with overacting. The actors in City Hustlers carried the film well. Should we talk about Akin Lewis, the Landlord? Or Mercy Aigbe, the rich career woman? Or should we talk about Ninolowo Bolanle and how he carried the gigolo role well? Or is it Deyemi Okanlawon, Jide Awobona and Linda Osifo who played their roles well? Charles Inojie remains an ace comic actor, and he sure gave us a good laugh.
The Directing wasn’t bad, but some lapses could make you ask if the director is really a professional or just doesn’t pay attention to details. For instance, how can Lilian Esoro have only one clothe in the wardrobe of her house? How can Mercy Aigbe be so rich that she effortlessly gives her boyfriend N10m, but she has only one Honda car in her house? The list goes on, but the director didn’t do badly beyond these avoidable errors.
The cinematographer should be flogged, though, because why is it that the hand of the cameraman mistakenly covered the frame, and the cinematographer thought it was okay to let it slide. Beyond this, the colours weren’t so sharp for a cinema standard. Nonetheless, beautiful ariel shots of Lagos were well captured.
In all, City Hustlers isn’t a bad watch for ratings; it would get a 6/10.
