BY AMADI CHIMAOBI KINGSLEY
THE 1990 classic ‘Ghost is about a young man that is murdered, his spirit stays behind to warn his lover of an impending danger, with the help of a reluctant psychic. The acting of the late Patrick Swayze, Demi More and Whoopi Goldberg is all the time as it tries to reassure us that good people can find divine justice.
The Ghost was a combination of Comedy, thrills, and murder mystery like the Nigerian remake by Toyin Abraham’s ‘Ghost and the Tout Too’ but while the former was filled with a well written plot, twist that kept viewers glued to their seat coupled with humor and romance…the latter had dry jokes and A list actors to grace our screens.
The movie revolves around a young woman from the ghetto who is called Isila (Toyin Abraham) who encounters a ghost called Mike (Sambasa Nzeribe) in need of her assistance to communicate with the people he left behind. At the ghost’s request, she becomes tangled and puzzled in solving a murder mystery and her life takes an interesting turn. Only she knows and understands what will happen in the future.
Now, the sequel continues with the hilarious story of Islla (Toyin Abraham) this time accompanied by Mercy Johnson-Okojie on an adventure to help a ghost resolve the circumstance leading to his death.
The movie is too star studded, and we wonder why. Patience (Mama G) has no business in the movie, just one scene as a bar owner, Chinedu Ikedieze (Aki) was also more like a guest appearance and some others.
Most of the scenes in the movie don’t tally; it seems like a rushed project, so much so that it feels a bit less like The Ghost and the Tout Too, and more like The Tout and her fellow touts. Noise, noise, and more noise. Especially between Iyabo Ojo’s cliche and The Real Warri Girl. Those fight scenes are as confusing as ever.
One of the key elements that separates a good movie from a bad one is the level of creativity found in the script, directing, acting, editing, and cinematography. Sadly, ‘The Ghost and the Tout’ too doesn’t boast much quality in any of the elements. Although the sequel is quite an upgrade from the first sequel, both suffer the same flaws and drawbacks. The movie’s attempt to make funny remarks when it isn’t necessary and its resolve to force it’s crass humor on viewers is one of its major setbacks, like they are finding a need to remind viewers that ‘it is just a comedy’, an escape route to beg viewers to pardon them for the uninteresting circus.
Also, the characters in ‘The Ghost and the Tout Too’ constantly make a cue for viewers–– ‘okay, this is where you laugh’, by spending so much time on a scene, repeating the same jokes, thus making the already tedious movie frustrating. The movie’s cardinal virtues rest solely on its comedic formula, which it still lacks, despite the compelling movie concept.
In what seems like an upgrade of the first movie, ‘The Ghost and The Tout Too’ lacks quality, unnecessary scenes, and detours, and a lot of things are left without any actual explanation, the viewers are left to add 1 + 1 to get the results.
One would thing this remake of Whoopi Goldberg’s Ghost would be an upgrade but sadly it was a disappointment.
The final act of a movie is one of its most crucial parts and it soils the whole works if not properly directed. The ending of ‘The Ghost and the Tout Too’ is inexplicable and more like rubbing salt into a wound. With the film’s final moments, its transitions from a bad movie to a worse one was all too quick and the reason for the disarray is not even understood. The ending of the movie is more of a “we’ve tried, let’s wrap this up quickly” –– the same plague that was prevalent in the first part. With two installments (and a potential third), The Ghost and the Tout Too lacks the elements that make a good movie.
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