Who Killed Captain Alex?

Who Killed Captain Alex? (2010)

Runtime: 64 minutes

Directed by: Nabwana I.G.G. (yes that's his billed name)

Starring: Kakule William, Kakule Wilson, Sserunya Ernest, G. Puffs, Kavubu Muhammed

From: Ramon Film Productions

Here is a movie that came out a few years ago but went viral last year when it was legally released online. It is a no-budget movie from Uganda that is technically pretty bad but boy is it a blast to watch as the people involved really did try their best w/ limited resources to create an entertaining action picture, which they ended up doing in their own way. My Letterboxd review is below: 

As I have mentioned before, when I do this deal each year where for one month me and others devote much of our time to watching foreign movies, it is nice to see both the countries I am familiar with (Italy, South Korea, etc.) along with more obscure ones... this is now the 4th one I have done and in that span the figurative backwaters of the filmmaking world I have visited included NORTH Korea, Tajikistan, Bahrain, and Kazakhstan. This being from Uganda definitely fits in that category. What a backstory this has...

On a messageboard recently a trailer was posted to something known as Ugandan Expendables. It was totally gonzo with amazingly bad CGI yet the action did look legit entertaining. I looked it up and saw that it was from the director of this movie, which I discovered thanks to Letterboxd but had never seen until today. Note that the director calls himself Nabwana I.G.G. Nabwana and his buddies have made a bunch of no-budget films (allegedly, this one cost only the equivalent of 200 American dollars!) in the small village of Wakaliga, which I understand is a part of the capital city of Kampala.

This movie is barely an hour long but boy, does it stand out for being different. The general plot revolves around the titular Captain Alex, who is a member of law enforcement looking to stop a gang known as TIGER MAFIA, led by a dude named Richard. The law takes Richard's brother, which makes Richard really angry. The two sides do battle more than once, and a mysterious person kills Captain Alex. I won't say who it was... as the movie doesn't even tell you who did it! They admit at the end that they don't answer this question. Are they leaving it for a sequel that may never happen? I don't know... but I say it doesn't really matter. Let me address a few things:

* This movie has a “Video Joker”; that is a narrator known as “VJ Emmie” who frequently makes comments about the film in English... even though this has subtitles that translate the Swahili language to English. He makes pithy remarks about the movie and sometimes even clowns on it. It's all very weird, yet I can't say I was not entertained by this... that goes for the Video Joker thing and the entire motion picture in general.

* The special effects: I don't even know if I could say it's “as good as Birdemic” but they're so goofy they are infinitely charming, and these fine fellows really do try their best with limited resources to create a fun action movie like the ones they have seen and loved before, and like I said I enjoyed this for what it was.

* They “borrowed” music from other places rather than create it themselves. This includes a piano cover of the ABBA song Mamma Mia by a French musician known as Richard Clayderman and a panpipes version of Seal's Kiss from a Rose, which you hear a few times. I can't explain why either were used even in the context of the movie.

* The translated dialogue has some rather unique phrases, including calling someone a "diarrhea squirt".

I am glad that a group of Ugandans came together to create movies for the people of Uganda and provide a special sort of entertainment that they can relate to. There are various articles online about the movement known as “Wakalikawood” and I'll eagerly anticipate the Ugandan Expendables.