A Trip To Jamaica

The last AY produced creation I ever saw was “30 Days in Atlanta” and since then these tourism themed movies have taken on a life of their own. At this point we can almost start a dedicated genre for AY films because attempting to critic them by regular standards is a laughable endeavor.

A Trip to Jamaica is actually worlds ahead of 30 Days in Atlanta was. Why? Because here we have an actual storyline. Akpos (who seems to be the same Akpos from 30 Days) has proposed to his girlfriend Bola, played by Funke Akindele, and they then go on some sort of pre-honeymoon trip again to Atlanta (yes, I know the title is “A Trip to Jamaica” but wait for it).

However, this time the trip is different. It’s not just different because this time his travel buddy is Jenifa and not Ramsey. It is different because this time they are not slumming it when they arrive but they are living in style in the home of Bola’s sister’s husband. The “sister” (which, by the way, for those who don’t know is code for any family relation) Abigail, is played by Nse Ikpe-Etim and on first sight you really truly wonder why she is in this movie but you soon find out.

Abigail’s husband turns out to actually be a criminal that is in trouble with some bad guys and the bad guys are out to get him. So while Bola and Akpos are visiting them in Atlanta, Michael (Abigail’s husband) is thinking of ways to hide from those after him. He gets a smart idea to take the entire group on a trip to Jamaica.

So technically it’s in Jamaica that the crux of the movie is supposed to begin. The only problem is that by the time we actually get to Jamaica nearly half – if not more – of the film time is already spent. The entire movie really is just a giant exposition from Lagos to Atlanta to the first half of the scenes shot in Jamaica and then finally a plot surfaces and the entire thing is resolved as quickly as it came up.

AT2J is a comedy true and true and does not try to be anything else (in fact, we should all be grateful for the presence of a plot in this movie). The movie brings most of its laughs in the beginning scenes and then it mellows out and things almost start to stretch from Atlanta to Jamaica. Somewhere in Jamaica we find life again and then finally the conflict is resolved and the movie ends.

If there’s one thing that AY does not hold back on, it is to spend the money. It’s the locations, the clothes, the cars, the flash and he has partnered with a director who is able to showcase it all with the right amount of flash in “AT2J”. There’s no dearth of shameless product placements in this one either. From peak milk to glo, his sponsors definitely get their ROI, and of course you know that the guest appearances will never fall short in an AY film. In this one we see insertion of scenes with Patoranking and Cynthia Morgan for no apparent reason.

All in all AT2J is an improvement from 30 days because here somebody actually tried to conceive of a plot and characters with back stories. Now if only we can find a way to hit the laughs at a consistent pace because the only thing that allows this movie to work is that it is a comedy. It is hard to watch when you are going 5-10-15 minute intervals without anything actually being funny because then you are reminded that there is nothing else going on in this movie. It might also be nice for the plot to progress throughout the movie instead of having an introduction in the first scenes and a rapid resolution at the end. What’s in the middle?