Runtime: Barely more than an hour
Directed by: Nabwana I.G.G.
Starring and produced by random people that are a part of the Wakaliwood universe in Uganda
Hopefully my schedule in June will be more normal, even if I am expecting to be out of town for about a week or so. Seeing this was a last minute sort of thing... it was not on the agenda beforehand. This was part of YouTube's We Are One, an online film festival to raise cash for The United Nations Foundation. Crazy World is not something new from the Wakaliwood universe, a unique DIY studio in Uganda where fueled by the action movies of old and their ingenuity of what limited resources they have, people in a small neighborhood make their own motion pictures... no matter the acting on display or the primitive CG, they are full of heart.
From a brief search, this is either from 2014 or 2015; whenever it was made, it was something I was happy to check out for the first time. I linked my reviews to Who Killed Captain Alex and Bad Black (the latter theatrically in one of my favorite big screen experiences) for comparison's sake and to see more praise for an operation that amazingly became popular among a segment of film fans worldwide. It is a print that played last year at the Toronto International Film Festival-that is why this has some newer material which includes an anti-piracy message, as why the hell not? Also, there was a new introduction where mastermind Nabwanna I.G.G stated that even in Uganda there is a lockdown.
The basic plot is that gangsters (The Tiger Mafia) kidnap kids but they make the mistake of taking the Waka Stars, children who are able to fight back. Of course, with Wakaliwood there is much more than just that; there is plenty of insanity mixed in. Besides the fact that I saw kids who appeared to be barely older than my 7 year old twin nephews doing martial arts against adults, there is a brief counterfeiting subplot, a commando father who goes crazy after his daughter is taken & his wife is murdered... oh, and the leader of The Tiger Mafia is a kid himself.
No matter such things as the appearance of the cinematography or the effects or any of the other technical aspects, Crazy World is as much fun as the other two Wakaliwood flicks I have viewed. It's simply a fun and loony way to kill an hour. VJ Emmie as always added irreverent commentary throughout and there are various 80's action references (Rambo, Chuck Norris, Van Damme, etc.); something new was that they tried doing their own squibbs and it looked quite good for the extremely limited budget. Those that have seen anything else from this crew, Crazy World is a must-see.
One last thing: a great revelation is that old Twilight t-shirts which did not sell elsewhere were sent to Uganda; this has to be why one henchman was advertising The Twilight Saga, New Moon Part I while another one suffered an even worse fate and said that he was Team Jacob!
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