AY's Merry Men: The Real Yoruba Demons follows a group of friends, Remi (Folarin Falana), Ayo (Ramsey Nouah), Naz (Jim Iyke) and Amaju (AY) who think of themselves as the most eligible bachelors in Abuja. These Merry Men have been the "Robin Hood's" of the state because of their mission of stealing from corrupt politicians and giving back to the poor. They face a daunting task when they come across a corrupt politician whose plan is to demolish the Garki village and build an ultra modern shopping complex. The plan is particularly of a personal nature to one of the Merry Men, Ayo, who has personal roots in Garki Vilage. It's left to the Merry Men to make sure this plan never comes to fruition while they deal with relationships, love, family and the risks of getting caught by the police.
From 30 Days in Atlanta to A Trip to Jamaica and 10 Days in Sun City, AY has continued to prove to Nigerians that he knows what they like and he does it again with Merry Men. There's no denying his marketing skills which includes casting a lot of big names, putting up a lot of billboards and adding a bit of flair to the premiere to make the film trend on social media. The last three films by AY were below average in terms of the lackluster plots and poor execution and the last one (10 Days in Sun City) starring Adesua Etomi was definitely the worst because it left a very bad taste in my mouth and I couldn't stop wondering what they were thinking when they came up with the concept. I was in no way excited to see Merry Men and I only saw it to mark the invincible register in my head that's titled "Nollywood Films seen by Frances in 2018" and thankfully it wasn't as bad as I expected it to be.
Nouah, Makun, Falana and Iyke served as eye candy throughout the film. They looked really classy on screen and they had really great chemistry together. I've always been a fan of Ireti Doyle and as always, she looked chic and brought so much life to her character. There were so many popular faces popping up in every scene in this film and a lot of them had no business being in this film. There were some scenes that were very confusing and questionable. There was a fight scene that included Nouah fighting with some thugs that beat up The Johnson's Samuel Ajibola and this was probably the most ridiculous scene in the entire film. I still couldn't believe Nouah agreed to do it. There were also a lot of scenes that included Falz typing gibberish on a computer and it made me so angry at how much they pay very little attention to details and I was convinced that they felt like everyone seeing the film was below 13. They were also switching back and forth to different scenes that were in no way related to each other and kept making unnecessary mistakes with the subtitles. The shooting scene which included Noah, Iyke and Meurer was something out of a 1999 Nollywood film. It was absurd and I found it very hysterical because that was supposed to be the climax but it ended up being very flat and silly. There were a lot of plot holes but the audience didn't seem to care because they all left the cinema grinning from ear to ear.
AY's movies live off hype and the casting of big names and they usually all end up being very empty. Merry Men was very cliche and even the big names were not enough to make it worth seeing a second time. I can't count how many times I rolled my eyes while watching because I really found their cheesy dialogue very hilarious. Even with its many faults, Merry Men is definitely AY's best film yet and I really hope he gives us something way better than the four films he has put out in the last 5 years and maybe switch up on the casting.
RATING 4/10
STARRING Ayo Makun, Ramsey Nouah, Folarin Falana, Jim Iyke, Ireti Doyle, Damilola Adegbite, Rosaline Meurer
RELEASE DATE September 28th, 2018
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