Title: BEFORE NOON (Full Story)

Starring: Prince David Osei, John Dumelo, Christabel Ekeh, Samuel Sarpong, Bismark Nii Odoi, Toosweet Annan

Synopsis:

A group of thugs entrust a briefcase of money to broke guy but it’s stolen from him and the chase is on.

Review:

A crew of men who were partners in crime were victims of a robbery. The robbers were forced to resort to “Plan B” when they found themselves being followed by police officers. 

While in pursuit, the money was thrown out of the car to Opanka (Prince David Osei). He peddled his bicycle in another direction and took the briefcase home. When he opened it, inside there were instructions that read the money had to be delivered to a specific location before noon. Opanka never made the delivery because the money was stolen by his friend, Ekow (Bismark Nii Odoi). 

For Ekow, it was like he just hit the jackpot. He was poor and he used the money to take Loretta (Delali Sika) out to dinner. Loretta was a woman that he had been chasing and her interest in him suddenly piqued when she learned that he came into some cash. 

She convinced Ekow to bury the money in the woods while she concocted a plan with her boyfriend to double-cross him. The agenda fell apart when the money went missing. 

Meanwhile, Don (John Dumelo) was in search of his money. Tracking down his briefcase was the order of the day. 

Let’s Talk. This is a drama that had an intriguing start but somehow lost it’s way. The entire movie takes the audience on a wild goose chase to get back a briefcase of money. There’s also a subplot around Opanka and his destitute lifestyle. 

The attempt at humor with Ekow dating Loretta sort of sidetracked the story but had this aspect been omitted there wouldn’t have been much of a movie to see. There wasn’t much suspense or conspiracy to really command committed attention. 

In terms of acting, Christabel Ekeh played the femme fatale with an agenda while John Dumelo was the leader of his crew. It’s hard to recognize Prince David Osei as the decent actor that he is because he’s been in so many corny movies. Here, he gave a good performance as a speech impaired, financially challenged, guy. 

As for technical issues, subtitles were provided when the actors spoke in African dialect and although they were useful there were many grammatical errors. 

The movie concluded with one of those happily ever after scenes where a sudden romance developed between an unlikely couple and they go off into the moonlight. It was an unnecessary scene and didn’t fit the movie’s genre. 

Basically, “Before Noon” is a crime drama that was too simple and it’s unclear what type of crime the men were involved in. For a better movie by Director, Samuel Owusu Asare see “Wrong Target.” EJECT