“Viva Riva!” has won 6 African Academy Awards and an MTV Movie Award for “Best African Movie.” After being away for 10 years, because he was working in Angola, Riva (Patasha Bay) travels back to his home country of Congo, which is currently having a gas shortage. However, he is being followed by Cesar (Hoji Fortuna) and his thugs because Riva brought back a truck load of fuel and a lot of cash along with him. This is the first of Riva’s problems because along the way he ends up falling for the girlfriend, Nora (Manie Malone), of Congo’s crime boss. It’s a lot going on and a lot to handle for one person on one trip.

The things I liked about the movie were the picture quality, the music, the scenic shots and the characters. For a movie in DVD format, I though this movie was so sharp and crisp that it rivaled most movies in Blu-ray. Also, the music was so exotic and authentic that it really added a lot to the mood and the impact of the movie and the scenes. In addition, most of the camera shots in the movie, especially the scenic shots of the country, really showcased how difficult life is in Congo and it gave a great overview of the actual setting of the story. Lastly, this movie had a variety of interesting and flawed characters. I would say they did have too many characters, but all of them really made the movie come together.

I appreciate how real and raw the movie was, but I have to admit the common flaw was that everything was too much. For instance, this movie had way too many sex scenes to the point that it was in excess and not needed. The fact that this movie had several awkward and unnecessary sex scenes (a female urinating, a lesbian love scene, 2 scenes in a brothel with woman wearing either a mask or nothing but white body paint, and two characters fooling around with a barred window in between them) that did not contribute to the plot validates this point. In addition, “Viva Riva!” was also filled with a lot of violent beating scenes where some of the characters were thought to be dead, but miraculously get up and act as if nothing happened to them. I thought this was very odd, but hilarious in a serious movie. Lastly, because the movie had so many characters, there is a lot going on in one movie where some details are mentioned briefly, but are never resolved by the end of the movie. The ending was not really an ending because you are left wondering what happened to this person and why didn’t they elaborate or finish this first?

If you are looking for action and sex, this is a decent movie for you. However, if you are looking for logic and a story with closure, I would not recommend this movie for you. There is just too much going on, lots of odd sex scenes, and several plot holes in this movie. For those reasons, I am giving this movie a “C-.”