Who Killed Captain Alex? Review
While most people are quite familiar with big studios such as Hollywood or Marvel, you’d be hard-pressed to find anyone who has heard of a little-known film studio named “Walkaliwood”. This “studio”, which is based in Walkali, a ghetto-village in Uganda, produced a movie called “Who Killed Captain Alex”, directed by Isaac Nabwana, with a budget of just $200. Yes that’s right; just two-hundred dollars. At this point, I’d tell you the cast, but seeing as this is in a Ugandan slum, where the staff never thought that anyone outside of their village would see this film, there really are no actors. Instead, the entire village seems to pitch in. This film is nothing but a labor of love; no one was motivated by money or fame, and it shows. The “actors” seem genuinely enthusiastic and look like they’re having the best time of their lives. So what is “Who Killed Captain Alex” about?
This film follows a man named Captain Alex, Uganda’s greatest soldier. He is tasked with eliminating the evil Tiger Mafia gang, led by the formidable Richard. So Captain Alex kidnaps Richard’s brother, who, according to Richard, is sweet and has a beautiful voice. But Captain Alex, as you might expect, is killed. Alex’s brother, however, arrives on the scene to avenge his brother. Richard, in a fit of rage after losing his sweet brother, shoots his wife (the joke is that he has so many wives that they’re expendable). The wife survives, however, and befriends Alex’s brother. Then they cut to a massive big final fight scene, with such a ridiculously high body count that the actors have to be re-used. Wait… but who really killed Captain Alex? I don’t know. Not even the director knows. It would make a great sequel, though.
This film also has Video Joker (VJ), who comments and makes several jokes while watching the movie, kind of like those Youtube commentators in films. This is quite alright; the entire film is in Ugandan, and the English subtitles really are of no help, so the video joker does offer some key plot points. He also does offer some great, silly jokes. The whole film is in an entirely different language, so the acting seem much better than it might be, because you have no idea whether the actors’ line delivery is good or not. In fact, the actors are great. It becomes quite clear that the actors are very athletic; they even taught themselves kung-fu and other martial arts, so the choreography is extremely fast-paced and a joy to watch. It’s much better than any of the insipid fight scenes you see from garbage action movies like Fast and Furious, in fact. The camerawork in Who Killed Captain Alex is relatively still and really does display the excellent impromptu fight sequences.
The production design is, considering their budget, very impressive. They do a fantastic job at creating fake guns. Nabwana shows off his unbelievable resourcefulness; the editing is done on a computer that he assembled himself out of several parts, many of the blood packets they used have allegedly come from free condoms from the local clinic, the bullets are wood, and the guns are made of several material you’d never believe could make such props.
It’s this kind of film that truly is a rare jewel. In this generations, studios always put an overly serious tone on every film they make, to the point where everything comes off as stupidly melodramatic and shallow, or just mind-numblingly dull. It almost seems as if the days of over-the-top, ridiculously-unsubtle films are gone; replaced by mechanical, tasteless “films”. Who Killed Captain Alex is a brilliant nod back to the fantastic screwball action-comedies. The film is, given the fact that there is a video joker, quite literally laughing alongside you as you watch. They execute every scene with such absurdity and wildness that you just cannot help but laugh at how stupid and silly it is.
Films like these are a rare treat; it is not often that you can find a film that is comedic and relishes in it’s humour. Who Killed Captain Alex really does show the problem with most action movies today; it a world where films are now strategically made and plotted so as to gain the most amount of money possible, this film is made not for money or fame, but for entertainment. And yet, it achieved both. Walkaliwood has gained the recognition it deserves, and over a million people have watched it. It’s on Youtube right now, actually. It really does go to show that films should need millions upon millions of dollars or an all-star cast to succeed; films just require a heart and soul put into them, and the rest will follow.
