IS HEAD GONE THE FUNNIEST NIGERIAN MOVIE EVER?

An ensemble cast can often signal trouble for a movie; think A Few Good Men and even Weekend Getaway, and you may begin to understand why too many actors can sometimes blight a movie. But when it works, as it does, beautifully well in the Fasasi Brother’s debut movie production, Head Gone, it can make all the difference.

Head Gone is a rambunctious laughfest masquerading as a movie but then what do you expect from a movie that has funny men, Ali Baba and Basorge, Sotimiri and IK , Basket mouth and Saka as well as the very funny Akpororo in it?

The premise is a simple one; fun loving staff of a psychiatric hospital discover that the mad men they are conveying have escaped while on another end, two greedy warders are lured away by promise of cheap cash and end up losing the prisoners in their care to a notorious armed robber played by RnB legend, 2face.

Their efforts to recover their charges lead us on a boisterous and ribcracking adventure that will leave you rolling on the floor.

Head Gone is by far the funniest movie ever made in this country delivering as it does a laugh per scene. Its humour is farcical and sometimes over-the-top but it is never offensive or forced. The screenplay by Solomon Iguanre delivers and is on point.

Episodic in nature, the plotline never really loses track as we follow the different escapees on their various and varying escapades from turning tricks to stealing clothes left out to dry; many are the adventures they carry out.

Zack Orji is an old Biafran soldier and every time he peers into his faux binoculars he sees soldiers planning an attack; Basketmouth is a crack head who drives off with two Chinese men then dumps them on a side street somewhere resembling Mushin with very unexpected but hilarious consequences; Basorge Tariah is an ambitious deputy who wants not just his bosses seat but every woman working at the facility; IK is a star-struck surgeon who lets in a “respected superior” into his operating room with tragi-comic results while Akpororo is a kleptomaniac who escapes prison and finding himself in a psychiatric hospital makes no move to leave.

Akpororo is without a doubt the stand out star of this movie. His lines, whether adlibbed or written, are pure gold. When he sings “I go dey steal dey go” you almost want to join in the foolishness.

His character is the only one of the lot who knows himself and accepts himself for who he really is; a thief who does not need help.

On the phone with his friend, he says “If I no thief in a day, my bodi go dey shake and if I play my card well, I fit thief things take build house.”

Head Gone is a delightful comedy; one that delivers the laughs without reservations but it is not all laughter because embedded in the humour are seeds of morals and messages that riff on cause and effect, social commentary, popular culture and the repercussions of vaunting ambition.

The Fasasi brothers, already accomplished musical artistes have opened up a new vista in their creative journey. Head Gone announces their talent and arrival in Nollywood and their amazing cast is testament to their clout in the industry.

While the movie delivers and is well resolved, Head Gone just does not seem like a story that can be contained in one movie. It is a rambling and boisterous and potential filled mess of a movie that will do very well if incarnated as a television series. Its episodic nature will lend it easily to television and the central locale of a psychiatric facility will provide endless possibilities.

The Fasasi brothers may well find their pot of gold not at the box office but on the small screen.

Technically wise, Head Gone rises to the occasion which is surprising in a movie that does not take itself too seriously. The Fasasi brothers went to great lengths to get it right. The picture is crisp and sound is clean. The scenes do not drag and as mentioned earlier, the episodic nature of the plot does not distract from one’s enjoyment of the movie.

It is early days yet but one may well be witnessing the dawn of another movie making tag team in the mould of the Coen and Ejiro brothers as well as the Wachowski brother and “sister”.

Dare “Baba Dee” Fasasi and his brother, Lanre “Sound Sultan” Fasasi have done it in music and who says they cannot reprise their magic on the big screen.

Head Gone hits the Cinemas on November 22, 2014 and you should go see it for the stars, the story, the unending laughter and oh well, just because it is the funniest movie you will see this year.

Trust me.