Bad Black

Having started the year with Uganda's first action movie, the ultra low-budget smash hit Who Killed Captain Alex?, there is no better way to wrap this year than by returning to Wakaliwood in order to bring my 2021 journey in film full circle. A powerhouse of unbridled energy & limitless creativity, Bad Black is yet another fun, enjoyable & wholesome delight from the humble artists operating from the slums of Wakaliga.

Written, produced, directed, edited & photographed by Nabwana I. G. G., what excludes his works from the "so bad it's good" category is the actual zest, drive & imagination behind his efforts. Its comparison to a movie like The Room has no merit coz where Tommy Wiseau's disaster had us laughing at his utter incompetency, Nabwana's film has us sharing a laugh with him & his crew but with an admiration for what he pulls off with just $65 budget.

Bad Black features a story that has it all: action, drama, crime, conflict, conspiracy, bizarre twists & more, all presented in a wicked non-linear structure and accompanied by Video Joker Emmie's rib-tickling narration that makes the ride endlessly amusing. As before, the film exudes a genuine sense of joy which allows the love, heart & honesty to shine through in ways that even the best of Hollywood fails to produce most times despite all their money & resources.

Overall, Bad Black makes for a wild, hilarious & rambunctious offering from the self-taught Ugandan filmmaker who makes magic happen with mere scraps of filmmaking tools and gets maximum mileage out of minimal resources. The primary purpose of movies is to entertain, and Bad Black more than delivers on that. A labour of love in all its unadulterated glory, this Wakaliwood epic runs entirely on Nabwana's passion for filmmaking and is as endearing as it is ridiculously entertaining.

To watch this film is to ascend. It is amazing, fast-paced, funny - the love and effort that was put into this film burns white in every frame. I cannot recommend it enough. The action is genuinely cool, people do flips and jumps for no reason, the sound effects are great, the plot is perfectly anarchic; overall, it really is one of the best movies.

"See it... and believe."

The story of Wakaliwood is so wholesome. This is a pretty well made and entertaining movie. Has more cohesive story than several blockbuster Hollywood movies. Not to mention the Twitch meta that these movies ended up creating.

As in so many follow-up films in the universe, the classic (who killed captain alex) remains the all time favorite. Eventhough I had seen rhe classic, i still can't comprehend and explain what i've just seen.

Wakaliwood never seems to stop amazing me.

At first I thought maybe 8/10 was too high a score, but then remembered that this 70-minute film contains:

• VJ Emmie crushing it and being constantly hilarious
• A bank heist
• A car chase
• Multiple shootouts and fist fights
• A prison break sequence
• A training montage
• Cows!
• A 6-year-old kid nicknamed Wesley Snipes (and sometimes called 'Ugandan Miyagi) who has super strength
• A courtroom sequence
• A token white guy who actually fits in surprisingly well and is pretty damn funny
• Poop humour
• A surprisingly heavy after credits scene that gives a big middle finger to Marvel's tradition of making the after credits scene goofy/fun
• An unexpected shoutout to 24 and an even more unexpected to the fantastic stuntwoman ZOE BELL of all people!!!

There's more but I don't want to ruin it. Of course it's not perfect, but it's charming and not only shows that Who Killed Captain Alex wasn't a fluke- it arguably exceeds it in quality. Great stuff, and free on YouTube to boot.