June 21, 2021

PROPHETESS CINEMA REVIEW

By Jumande Raji

PROPHETESS CINEMA REVIEW – JUST FOR LAUGHS, BUT NOT

DIRECTED DY NIYI AKINMOLAYAN

CAST: TOYIN ABRAHAM, KUNLE REMI, LATEEF ADEDIMEJI, KEHINDE BANKOLE, RONKO OJO, TINA MBA, STAN NZE, UZO ARUKWE, DEYEMI OKANLAWON, ETC

So, the movie follow the story of some interesting personalities, a young egoistic OAP and a “fake” prophetess who apparently is being used by God. The young troubled guy is brought to the prophetess by his aunties because of his many issues as highlighted by his mother, the major one being the fact that he doesn’t want to settle down. He mockingly records the session and asks some tricky and vital questions all in a bid to make fun, but the outcome is something no one would have envisaged.

The movie starred a lot of strong and memorable characters all trying to give their own comical interpretations while telling the story. The issue however, I have with this movie is that as usual with most Nigerian comedies, it was seriously lacking in the story and content department and it was quite obvious that the whole point of the movie was to make us laugh.

From the trailers released to build anticipation, almost everyone could predict the outcome or most parts of the storyline, but I went in open minded expecting to be shocked but the shock never came. I almost always get upset when I see storylines that make the audience feel dumb. Sure, I laughed a few times, most times because of the ridiculousness or one person’s acting at the time but I generally just managed through the movie.

I liked the fact that every character was unique and so that made it interesting to watch but I owe that mostly to the acting prowess of most of the actors. The caliber of actors in this movie is what really sold it for me, everyone carried their own and made their character one to look out for. Why the however gave the lead actress a lisp, still beats me because it made most of her dialogue annoying to listen to because I know for a fact that not everyone with epilepsy has such a defect, it was a bit of an overkill if you ask me.

The set design and location of the movie was pretty basic, set mostly is a small rural area, with very few scenes taking place any place else. The costuming was basic but spot on, that is one area that I give them kudos for, it properly depicted the scene, the locale and the characters. Sound and light was pretty good too, the technical aspect of this movie was great. Why they however had to have a “made-up” prophetess on the poster of her used in the movie was just not right, if the next time we saw her after her claim to fame, she looked that way it would have been understood. But she was still plain looking, so are they saying she got her make up done just to take a poster picture?

Overall, this is an everyday Nigerian comedy and nothing really spectacular. I wish we could have more intelligent comedies but till then, what can we do?

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Editor

June 21, 2021

PROPHETESS MOVIE REVIEW

PROPHETESS MOVIE REVIEW: How bad do you want it?

By Morris Abdul Newton

Dir: Niyi Akinmolayan

Starring: Toyin Abraham, Kunle Remi, Kehinde Bankole, Lateef Adedimeji, Stan Nze, Uzor Arukwe, Deyemi Okanlawon, Tina Mba, RonkeOshodi-Oke, Muyiwa Ademola.

Duration: 142mins

What’s good about the movie, Prophetess? It’s a solid story idea. That’s it. That’s what is primarily needed, which then metamorphosis into a proper story and then the metaphoric ink touches paper and filming follows. Then again, for this one, story idea is just about it.

As the book of Ecclesiastes so gloriously put it, “There is a time for everything.” That very well includes this story idea. Unfortunately, I just don’t see any time for what we eventually witnessed as a film. This film is bereft of any proper plot structure. It runs round and round in vain circles making the viewers waste over two hours of their lives wondering where the movie is heading to. That is not a good thing for any type of movie, Comedy or not.

Toyin Abraham plays the titular Prophetess Ajoke and she isn’t a real one – pun intended. She’s just a fake who mistakenly predicts two events that went viral on the internet courtesy an OAP (Kunle Remi). One of the “prophecies” got fulfilled and the other is what caused the chaos that is this movie. I do mean the chaos part in every sense of it. Again – pun intended.

The biggest problem this film has is the lack of direction. It stems from the writing to its directing and it’s a shame how such lack of direction just classically oozes.

Perhaps the fact that the Nollywood audience has become accustomed to farcical comedy ensured that we were served that in huge doses here. However, this wouldn’t have been a problem if the movie worked in plot and didn’t come across as just some kind of ‘money making’ scheme.

The sheer potential that this project held makes the outcome all the more cringe worthy especially when it’s considered that it was in the hands of one of Nollywood’s most vocal acts. The thoughts make the failure much more annoying.

The acting performances should have done something for us as well, considering the array of stellar acts on display, but even in that department, this movie falls flat on its face. Acting is largely bad except for the very few that delivered noteworthy performances.

There were distasteful scenes that made me wonder what the director or even editor had in mind. I mean, it doesn’t matter if this is a comedy, it is still essentially a story being told and this one had interesting implications. The way it went about the events that could have made a difference left a lot to be desired. We had – the football players (Past and future), the ancient city, the spirituality or lack thereof, the humanity. A lot of these got lost on the altar of nonchalance or maybe a lack of belief.

‘Prophetess’ is funny, sometimes; while at other times it is just pure thrash. We can forgive the movie for that if it didn’t dilly-dally for way too long. This is the kind of movie you watch and you say, “They should have just stuck to the script.” Well, If only the script was any better.

Just maybe this was the time for this film, so we’ll see lesser half-baked works in the nearest future. Humor me, please. Disappointed.

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Jumande Raji

June 21, 2021

THE WAIT MOVIE REVIEW

By Jumande Raji

Sensitive and Beautiful

DIRECTED BY YEMI FILMBOY MORAFA

CAST: NSE IKPE ETIM, DEYEMI OKANLAWON, INI DIMA OKOJIE, JIMMY ODUKOYA, MEG OTANWA, CHIMEZIE, KATE HENSHAW, JOKE SILVER, and others.

This movie was deep and interesting. The central idea was the challenges women face when looking for a child after being married for some time. It is a very sensitive issue that a lot of people shy away from talking about and it was told so beautifully, using different peoples stories and experiences that made the movie quite deep and interesting. One of the most interesting things for me was that this movie cuts across so many experiences that both men and women have gone through while waiting for their baby.

Watch Trailer Movie Trailer Here

I need to commend the casting for this movie, the caliber of actors were not just popular faces but people that could really depict their characters and make us feel what they were feeling. This is one of the few Nollywood movies that I have watched in recent times, which brought me close to tears. The lead and supporting actors (who basically led as well) were perfectly cast. There was also a religious side to it which was carefully put in but didn’t overshadow everything.

The transition between past and present was so beautiful and fluid in Nara’s scene, I almost clapped. It was beautiful cinematography and I loved the creativity of the whole scene. However, in one of the first introductions of Chimezie Imo’s character where he was in a haste and panicking, he made the sign of the cross the wrong way and that didn’t sit well with me, a little more research there would have made a world of difference to me.

The sound for the most part of the movie sounded detached like it was dubbed over. There was a clear disparity between the scene and the voice-over added, you could tell it was not done at the same time, or if it was, there was something really wrong there. The picture was good though and I did not really experience any glitches in that regard. The set choices were also good, not too many but with enough variety to be appealing to the eye.

The subtitles came in a bit late in the places where they spoke in a different dialect, so for those of us who did not understand the language, it was a bit hard to follow at those points. That and the sound served as a huge distraction to the telling and following of the beautiful story.

I liked the fact that they gave every character a sort of resolution as well, not necessarily happy endings all round, but something to let you know where the character had gotten to at the point the movie ended. Most movies that have soo many stories being told, often forget to tie off many ends of people’s stories and we did not experience that here.

So kudos to the cast and crew of “The Wait” it is definitely a movie I would not mind watching more than a few times.

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Editor

November 16, 2020

CITATION ALL HYPE… YET AGAIN

CITATION MOVIE REVIEW By Morris Abdul Newton

Dir: Kunle Afolayan

Starring: Temi Otedola, Jimmy Jean-Louis, Gabriel Afoloyan, Ini Edo, Joke Silva, Ibukun Awosika, Adjetey Anang, Sadiq Daba, Bukunmi Oluwashina …

Duration: 151minutes

Kunle Afolayan (Producer, Director) linked up with Tunde Babalola (Writer) to deliver yet another cinematic piece for our “enjoyment and education”. Remember ‘October 1’ and ‘The Tribunal’? Yeah. They did those too.

That said, did this link-up do it for us this time around? Or better still, have they really ever done it for us? Maybe, ‘October 1’ did. Citation is probably a different kettle of fish.

The story follows the travails of a young post-graduate, Moremi Oluwa (Temi Otedola) as she seeks justice in a sexual harassment/attempted rape case against a ‘trusted’ and celebrated professor Lucien N’Dyare (Jimmy Jean-Louis) whom she has grown fond of. The movie sees the two alongside witnesses appear before a tribunal set up by the institution with constant flashbacks making sure we understand what really went down. It’s unclear if ‘Citation’ is fully or loosely based on true events.

It’s easy to notice the color schemes in this movie. The orange hue is laid up all over sceneries leading the way amongst other elements to a strong shout for the brilliance of the film’s cinematography. The pan-African sceneries were well captured and a delight to see. Now, that wasn’t the only point of excellence, as the music score held its own too. I give solid props to both departments.

The acting wasn’t phenomenal. We can say it’s mildly expected for Temi as this was her debut but we can’t really say the same for quite a number of other popular acts. This is probably one of the weakest movies I’ve seen Gabriel Afolayan on. Some of the issues stem from the characterization. Many characters were too thinly laid out and even largely unused in the story. The villain was also quite straightforward bad. There were no in-betweens and no room for empathy for him. If you are a rookie writer or filmmaker, this is practically not how to build characters.

Character relationships were weak and not well utilized. Pivotal examples of this were the relationships between Moremi and her love interest, the final year medical student, Koyejo (Afolayan). This relationship was never set on any proper foundation. They just seemingly became an item in distress. No enjoyment, weak consummation. Also, the relationship (friendship) between Moremi, Kwese (Adjetey Anang) and Gloria (Ini Edo) wasn’t fully explored dramatically. There’s a whole lot this relationship dynamic could have done for this movie, but we didn’t get it.

Citation is unnecessarily long. The story could have been told way under 120 minutes rather than the 151 minutes we got. A few examples are the winding dialogue sequences that could have been shortened and still pass the same message, the concert with Seun Kuti that was too long (thanks to the lack of what it added to the movie), the pointless karate fight intercuts – At no point did I get a feeling that Koyejo earnestly sought that black belt. This really added nothing to the story. The fact that it was juxtaposed with Moremi’s search for the edge in her case came off as awkward posturing.

No way am I convinced that this movie fulfilled its full potential. It isn’t Kunle Afolayan’s best movie and the storytelling wasn’t pristine.

The issues Citation tackles are great and noble in themselves but were they tackled exhaustively and most creatively? No. The movie is slow, winding and still didn’t do justice to itself. So, what exactly was the point of using all that time?

The way this is set up leads me to conclude that it is indeed a travesty to continue to lay beds of roses for folks that should know better than deliver subpar stuff. Veterans included.

Read Also: MOKALIK: Somehow mechanical, somehow true

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Jumande Raji

March 24, 2020

MUNA: Not Deep Enough

MUNA REVIEW

By Jumande Raji

Directed by Kevin NkemNwankwor

Cast: AdesuaEtomi-Wellington, OnyekaOnwenu, Adam Huss, Robert Miano, Michael Cavalieri, Massa Furlan, Steve Wilder, Miles Cranford, Mayling Ng, Folarin “Falz” Falana, Ikpomwosa Gold, etc.

This movie was typically not a “Nigerian” story, the beginning starts off all cultural and sentimental and then it turns into a foreign action film. However, Muna stands out for a number of reasons, and when the teasers for this movie came out, it caught everyone’s attention with the fitness shots and fight sequences and I for one could wait to see what it built up to.

The story follows the life of a young girl called Muna, who had big dreams of leaving the small village she lived in with her grandmother and going to America to start a new life and make enough money to be able to take care of her grandmother’s failing health. She goes against her grandmother’s wishes and connives with the man who helps other girls get out. Only for her to get out and realize it was all a scam and they were being trafficked. She manages to escape and gets to foreign lands, and meets some help in her quest to take revenge on the men who robbed her of her home and she makes that her life mission until love finds her in unexpected places.

I don’t know if this movie was meant to be a Nollywood movie because most of the actors were not Nigerian and the major part of the movie wasn’t shot in Nigeria either, nice collaboration though. The beginning which was meant to be the reason why Muna became the Muna who sought revenge, was a bit flat, beautiful acting by the young girl and of course OnyekaOnwenubut the dialogues were pretty basic and didn’t build enough emotions for the audience to see reasons why Muna wanted revenge soo badly.

Adesua Etomi was beautiful in this movie because it is very different from most of the movies that we have with mediocre fight sequences, she had the face, the body and the moves to make this movie interesting in that way. However, her portrayal of emotions in this movie was a bit shallow as we struggled to really connect with the character most of the time. We couldn’t understand her drive, we couldn’t really feel her passion, the love part was more believable though.

I also feel like there were gaps somewhere because I watched the movie from beginning to end and yet I felt like there were things I missed out. There were also a lot of coincidences that made us shout “nawa o”. Like how her boyfriend Lawyer Tony, just happened to be Varrick’s son, of all the million people in the world, it’s easier for the story definitely but it just made me feel like something was missing.

The picture and cinematography were good, we had beautiful scenes all through and that was very pleasant to the eyes. Sound was good as well, even set choices and soundtracks were good. But the aspect this movie stood out most for was the fight sequence and choreography and they really did do a good job.

This movie would have been great because of how different it was from the norm, also all the international collaborations but for the few quirks here and there. Overall, though, it was enjoyable to watch.

Read Also: Tope Oshin’s movie ‘New Money Makes It Way To Amazon, iTunes & Microsoft

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Jumande Raji

March 24, 2020

LIVING IN BONDAGE “BREAKING FREE”: Exceptional

LIVING IN BONDAGE “BREAKING FREE REVIEW

By JumandeRaji

Directed by Ramsey Nouah

Starring: Swanky JKA, Ramsey Nouah, Kenneth Okonkwo, MunachiAbii, EyinnaNwigwe, Shawn faqua, Kanayo O Kanayo, Bob Manuel Udokwu, Zulu adigwe, EbereOkaro.

This is a sequel to one of the moves that made Nollywood what it is today and when I heard they were making a sequel, I was doubtful they would be able to pull it off. Most movies that have sequels released a long time after, most times lose the essence of the initial movie, but not this one, I was given a pleasant surprise.

The story follows the life of Nnamdi Okeke the son of Andy Okeke, anyone who has watched the first living in bondage would be familiar with that name. he struggles as a youth to make something of himself but to no avail. Eventually, he goes to visit his “uncle” who knew his father against his mother’s wishes, his luck changes and things start to work out for him. He is gradually welcomed into the league of wealthy men and he is loving the fast life until he is asked to pay a price, one he cannot pay.

The movie started on a high and definitely ended on a high. I can get over how every single scene seemed to draw everyone in, making you want to see more and more. The acting in this movie was definitely something to remember, the blend of top actors from old Nollywood and new actors in Nollywood made this movie a masterpiece.

Swanky JKA broke forth in this movie and he was just so perfect for the character, every scene with him made you stay glued to your screen. He definitely delivered on this character and definitely made it to my list of favorite Nollywood actors. Every other actor in this movie brought out their A-game for this one, Munachi was simply beautiful to watch. Shawn Faqua’s fluency in Igbo blew me away and his acting was so good it looked so beautiful and natural.

Going to the technical aspects of this movie, everything looked perfectly done, because there were no flaws you could easily pick out when watching this movie. Cinematography, sound, screenplay, set choices, name it, you could tell that a lot of hard work went into the making of this movie and it sure paid off. The sound was great all through the movie, with beautiful soundtracks accompanying the different scenes to help convey the different emotions and it did that excellently.

The only thing I heard one person complain about as I was leaving the cinema was that it was not so scary, that it should have been scarier than it was. Well, I can’t say that I agree with the person because I believe the director didn’t just want the movie to be seen as strictly a horror film so all film lovers could enjoy it and the flow in the perfect blend of the different elements this movie showed.

The movie could have been way shorter though and there were some scenes and scenarios that dragged for no reason when it could have been straight to the point. There were a few minor continuity issues but the interesting dialogues and great acting covered up for most of the shortcomings.

Big Kudos to Ramsey on this one, his directorial debut and he did such a great job and he is definitely in the league of big-time directors now, no doubt the awards would roll in. this was surely one of my best movies of 2019.

Read Also: The Merry Men: A Perfect Blend of Comedy, Intrigue and Action

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Jumande Raji

February 7, 2020

THE GHOST AND THE HOUSE OF TRUTH: Left Me Feeling Some Kind of Way

By Jumande Raji

Directed by Akin Omotosho

Starring: Susan Wokoma, Kate Henshaw, Fabian Adeoye Lojede, Kemi Lala Akindoju, Toyin Oshinaike, Keira Hewatch, Seun Ajayi.

This movie goes to show that there are two sides to every story. Pretty short when compared to most of the movies in the cinema today but it definitely had its own uniqueness.

The movie follows the story of a single mother Bola Ogun, whose job is that of a reconciliation officer serving as a bridge between criminals and there victims or victims’ families. She and her daughter have a daily routine that works for them until something goes wrong. His daughter doesn’t come home as she was supposed to and no one seems to know her ware about. The police are doing their best but she can wait for them and does her own investigation. When the worst happens, she takes laws into her own hands and ends up making things worse.

The movie starts off on an okay note as we see different establishment scenes to show the daily life of mother and child. However, these scenes were not well built or arrange and they just went one after the other, not really giving us a proper sequence of the flow. After a while, things seemed clearer and order was restored, thankfully.

The movie had very clean and clear pictures most of the time apart from some scenes that were particularly dark, I couldn’t tell if that was intentional or an error in lighting, either way, it didn’t really turn out nice. The sound was generally good and there were no off sounds or unnecessarily elevated dialogue. Language use, however, was a bit quirky, the only time things sat well was when actors were speaking English, most of the time, the pidgin and Yoruba seemed half-baked.

I particularly like the set choices, the use of the slums of Makoko, I had never really seen it in that light before, the houses so narrowly built and sitting on the water. It was simply beautiful to see, also the boats passing in between the houses, even the boat chase was different and exciting.

The acting in this movie was pretty good, I liked the way every actor convey the right emotion for every scene, drawing you into the action without even knowing it. The movie is highly emotional and serious, and it still held my full attention, maybe that was the reason for the movie’s length. I don’t know why the inspector played by Kate Henshaw, had to be pregnant, I don’t know if this was supposed to help in the character build-up or plot because it really had no relevance to the movie as it is.

Many of the characters were not properly developed in this story, it felt like we were only given half the information we should have been given. Also, the story just sort of ended on its own, there was no big reveal, we didn’t actively see the police solve the case at the end of the day. There were so many things that were just left hanging, many characters were just there doing nothing close to the roles they were meant to be playing. If they were more involved, it would have been able to elicit the right emotions from the audience.

I can tell that they wanted us to feel certain emotions at the end of the movie where the roles were reversed, that was beautiful but so much more could have been achieved with this story.

Read Also: SMASH: THIS WILL NOT SMASH THE BOX OFFICE, BUT

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Jumande Raji

February 7, 2020

ELEVATOR BABY: Unimpressive

By Jumande Raji

Directed by Akay Mason

Starring: Timini Egbuson, Toyin Abraham, Shaffy Bello, Yemi Solade, Ijeoma Aniebo, Samuel Perry (Broda Shaggi).

The movie tells the story of the stubborn and wayward rich kid Damilare Williams, who seems to be angry at everything and everyone. When his finances get cut off by his mother, he lashes out at her and her new partner and decides to make it on his own. However, he has no real skill or experience in the labour market and on one of those unlucky days, he gets trapped with Abigail, who is heavily pregnant and with a whole story of her own. The initial start of being hostile but with two of them being trapped in the elevator, he has to man up and help her birth her child.

The story is just like any other elevator story, where people are trapped in an elevator with no means of getting out, while trying to avert an ultimate disaster. Of course, we know that there is really nothing new under the sun and we just have to keep finding new and exciting ways to tell our stories.

The lead actor in this movie carried a lot of weight in this story, Damilare Williams, played by Timini Egbuson. I was not really impressed by his acting, yes he is good looking and has the looks but he doesn’t seem to be in touch with his feelings, so I ended up seeing very few emotional reactions from him, even where it was needed, it was almost as if he is constantly on default setting.

Toyin Abraham in her role of Abigail killed it of course. When you need an actress to be extra, you can always trust her to deliver. Her acting, delivery and carriage were great and gave most of the depth that the other character lacked. I kept wondering throughout the movie though if she used her real pregnancy to shoot this movie. Lol.

The movie had a number of big shots and everyone tried to bring their A-Game. Though we still had to deal with and endure the unnecessarily forced comedy in certain scenes, especially with the Broda Shagi scenes, most of them were unnecessary and did not add to the story in any way, but I guess they were just looking for ways to make us laugh.

The story made it so convenient for the situation of the trapped elevator to thrive, there were obviously so many other options that could have helped get the people out, but that would take away from the story. Many scenes and situations were stretched, Broda Shagi eating for a gazillion years, the doctor remaining in the ambulance when he could have gotten on the bike sooner knowing Lagos traffic.

The picture quality of the movie was good though, the scenes were interesting to watch and the set choices seemed to work well for the story. However, Shaffy Bello’s make up at the first scene she appeared was falling apart, she was sweating profusely and of course, we know it’s a scene with a lot of tension but they are wealthy people and a house like that definitely has air conditioning. It really wasn’t pleasing to watch her sweat like that.

The story was actually a very good one, very engaging with lots of drama and comedy, but I believe with a little more put in, on every angle, the movie would have turned out great.

Read Also: THE HERBERT MACAULAY AFFAIR: It Felt Like I Was Watching Snippets

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Editor

January 31, 2020

KPALI: A STARK LACK OF FILM KNOWLEDGE.

KPALI MOVIE REVIEW

By Morris Abdul Newton

Dir: Ladipo Johnson

Starring: Ini Dima-Okojie, Torin Pocock, Nkem Owoh, Linda Ejiofor-Suleiman, Kunle Remi, Gloria Anozie-Young, Uzor Arukwe, Ik Osakioduwa, Seyi Law.

Duration: 100mins

Amaka Kalayor is a Nigerian investment professional working with a firm in London. The firm is on the verge of downsizing their workforce and in other not to get fired alongside the others, she needs to close a massive deal in Nigeria for the company in 30 days or lose her job, her visa and her work permit. Generally, her Kpali i.e. the right to live and work in the UK.

That is not all that this Emem Ema produced movie is all about though. Amaka (Ini Dima-Okojie) is also faced with the typical parental syndrome of urging their child that is sort of advanced in age to get married.

Though the second part of the plot is cliché and similar to the plot of the movie ‘Isoken’, it still adds to the set up of an okay story as the first part differentiates the storyline. However, that similarity stemming from the fact that this one also involves a Caucasian character vying for the hand of the maiden is hard to ignore.

To the nitty-gritty of the film – It would have made more sense if Jake hunter (Torin Pocock) was introduced earlier in the scene abroad. The whole idea of Amaka’s immediate boss, Jeremy, not showing up at the airport leaving Jake to replace him as Amaka’s partner/senior rep to Nigeria was flimsily done. This is one of the fulcrums of this movie and yet it wasn’t as much attention as it was supposed to. There was no conflict between the two like was verbally communicated as if it were there. They seemed so chummy and that was the beginning of the flatness that is this movie. I kept asking myself if Jake was supposed to be this soft? Is he not supposed to be her boss? Is he not supposed to be a bit older? Is he not supposed to be some sort of haughty? What if Jake was pompous and didn’t really like this girl? What if the reason he is that way is because of his past? What if one of the reasons he doesn’t like her is because he thinks she’s not good enough and she ends up proving herself? What if he didn’t want to come to Nigeria and he doesn’t really like the country. Amaka would have had her work well cut out with the deal she is supposed to broker without the experience and support of the person they sent with her. Taken all or some of these into consideration would have offered us a different kind of movie, but that wasn’t our experience. This is one of the major reasons the move turned out wishy-washy. Apart from work, I earnestly searched for the personal conflicts in this movie and couldn’t find any.

Sure, there are laughs in ‘Kpali’. Nkem Owoh and his co casts sure delivered some of those laughs in character, but they surely knew that wasn’t what this was about. There was supposed to be way more.

Apart from the major issues with the story and the obvious lack of play on its angles, the picture felt a bit surreal. It wasn’t that the picture was bad. It was just that it wasn’t spectacular. Sound also experienced a bit of difficulty at some point but it was generally good.

Other issues stemmed from character portrayals. It’s a wonder how Jake quickly started enjoying the Nigerian meals that caused him to use the restroom often when he landed in Nigeria. The passage of time as displayed on screen didn’t do justice to any concept in this film. Also, there was that Patrick Dante’s character (Kelechi). The character was weak and inconsequential. Amaka’s parents telling them to know each other is extra ridiculous. More ridiculous is how she went on and sat with Kelechi leaving Jake all by himself and later coming back to him after managing to get away from Kelechi with some flimsy excuse as if she never knew that she shouldn’t have sat with him in the first place.

Most of the problems in this movie looks set in foundation and final execution. If the conflicts weren’t proper on the script, we all know that will be the number one problem but I really saw bad execution of a movie with ‘Kpali’. All the weaknesses shone through. The movie is annoyingly disjointed. Especially the romantic sequences. All that ‘Kunle Remi’ love interest bits were just a charade and still not an elaborate one as the film really served up nothing memorable in the end. There was no sort of rivalry between her two (love) interests. None, whatsoever.

Nothing about any of her relationships was real or even acknowledged properly. Jake’s, for instance, was downplayed because the filmmakers wanted a twist at the end that didn’t fly anyway.

In this movie, it wasn’t casting that was bad; it was most likely writing, directing, acting and even costuming. Proper knowledge of film making would have really helped this film deviate from looking like a very bad impostor.

Read Also: UP NORTH – The Best Bauchi State Advert I’ve Seen

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Editor

January 30, 2020

MUNA: AGAIN, THEY LIED.

MUNA MOVIE REVIEW

By Morris Abdul Newton

Dir: Kevin Nkem Nwakwor

Starring: Adesua Etomi-Wellington, Adam Huss, Robert Miano, Onyeka Onwenu, Gold Ikpomwosa, Onyeka Onwenu, Folarin Falana (Falz).

Duration: 83mins

Having seen the trailer of this movie, the expectations were going to go either way. Low expectations for the previous underwhelming productions of the same nature that I’ve seen in the past and a bit high because maybe, just maybe, Adesua and company would come up with something different seeing that we were tired of what had been previously produced by others.

The case against Adesua Etomi was always going to be stacked though. The trailer for ‘The Set-Up’ movie was a set up in itself, only without the commensurate pay-off. Fortunately or unfortunately, same thing as set to happen with this movie. I’ll probably just be a cynic when it comes to this kind of films from now on.

Muna is shot both in Nigeria and the USA. The Nigerian bit had every bit of the Nigerian DNA while the American bit was every way low budget American. Funny enough, the moment the movie switched from Muna being little and in Nigeria to Muna all grown up and abroad, the problems the movie experienced really then started.

Acting was not as bad as the leads. Adesua Etomi playing Muna and Adam Huss playing her love interest, Tony, did well, but they did suffer and stutter intermittently due to the quality of the others on display. The portion where Muna met Tony at a bar was a bit of a letdown. It was too direct and unnatural a scene and that in itself was a problem. How can one walk into a bar in all of the forms of a disguise and just walk up to the target? It makes no sense.

There were also many other issues that led to problems in this movie. For instance, the point where Muna hijacked a taxi was absolutely unnecessary and contrived. There was no reason. And even when later on, the filmmakers tried to use it, it didn’t rule out that the scene never made sense.

This movie lied with its trailer and didn’t deliver the supposed tricks and thrills it offered in there. Muna didn’t use those sweet skills displayed. The sword moves in her training were not used for anything. It was just training. Eye candy to leave us salivating and get us to the cinemas.

Editing was also weak. A lot of it was cringe-worthy with disjointed portions of the movie rife. Sound was bad and the soundtrack was worse. Dialogue was mighty corny and sometimes vague. There were times that they sounded great but few and far between.

Muna delivered manageable action. A bit better than many others I’ve seen in the same category but it stood at still passable. I find it difficult to agree with the decision of the writer or director as regards some of the protagonist’s choices though. Some of them were just unbecoming.

I think the number one problem with this movie is the haphazard nature of its own creation. A lot of it comes across as inorganic. Many things were not followed through as they should have, therefore there was really nothing deep about the movie. The audience could tell.

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Read Also: Adesua Etomi’s rating in THE SET UP movie

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