Rejoinder

After speaking with one of the Godfathers in Nollywood UK, a man i respect, a man of honour and integrity, i have decided to write this rejoinder about my review of Ibu in Sierra Leone and subsequent reviews.

Ibu is a Sierra Leonean film and as we know the industry is much newer in Sierra Leone than it is in Nigeria. My review and score of the movie which i stand by are based on the efforts of such a new industry to come up with such a movie. From what i watched, the sound and picture quality were good especially for the location it was shot, there was a good story line and while in hindsite people are commenting on the role played by I u, in my own view and i think people are entitled to their views, he did well.

Let me make it clear, when i issue a 10or 1 film and a 7 for another, i am not saying the 10is better than the 7. There might have been issues in the 7 which were major. This is not meant to grade films as i don't have the power to do so, but to let each producer/director know major issues with their films that they should pay attention to in subsequent movies. May i boldly say and my general agrees with me, were i to review movies and critic nollywood movies in all areas, most of the mov es would not get anything near a pass mark.

After due consultation and sincepeople are seeing my review marks as a competition, i have decided to keep reviews simple henceforth. While i would not be bullied by people who should know better, i would henceforth review and critic movies without putting scores. I STAND BY ANY SCORES i have given in the past and chalkenge those that are unhappy to make comments boldly with their names and let us have an honest debate about these reviews.

In the time being, all that is left to say is this blog has come to stay.

Review Criteria

It has come to my attention that people do not understand my criteria for reviewing movies. I must say categorically that Nollywood are like babies when it comes to movies. If I were to look at everything in a movie that I consider wrong, then possibly non of the movies would pass or just a few. I keep saying that I am not looking at little things that can be worked on, but on what I consider major issues. Nollywood has to grow and as such I review movies as if dealing with babies. For those who know me, I am fastidious and I believe a lot of Nollywood movies especially the ones we watch on TV have no place in the industry, but we must grow and a child does not just grow in a day. A child crawls, walks and then develops, so is our industry.

In the light of this, these are the basic criteria I use to review all my movies:

• THE SCRIPT & STORY LINE
• THE CAST AND HOW THEY CARRY THE STORY LINE ALONG, INCLUDING DICTION
• PICTURE QUALITY
• SOUND
• OVERALL AMBIANCE & PERFORMANCE

In some movies I have reviewed, some of these things might have been wrong but not to the extent of affecting overall performance, so I let it go but still indicate the movie was not perfect, whereas in others, they are so obvious, I have to deduct points.

I started these reviews on my own without being forced into it. I seek views of people who watch the movie before writing my reviews. My reviews are to the best of what I have seen. 

IT PAINS ME THAT PEOPLE WANT TO SEE THE INDUSTRY GROW AND ARE NOT BOLD ENOUGH TO CHALLENGE WHAT I SAY ABOUT FILMS AND HAVE BEGAN TO CHALLENGE MY INTEGRITY. PLEASE FEEL FREE TO WRITE A COMMENT AS LONG AS IT IS NOT ABUSIVE. I WOULD READ IT AND RESPOND. WHO KNOWS, I MAY HAVE MADE A MISTAKE AND IF I THINK I HAVE, I WOULD RE-REVIEW

If there is a Q & A session, I would in my review consider and raise any issues that have been raised. Let us work together to get the best of Nollywood. Please I am not claiming to be perfect, challenge my reviews!!

London premiere of Collins Archie Pearce's Ibu in Sierra Leone

The much awaited Ibu in London premiered at the Odeon Cinema on Friday 25th October 2013. Although I was not available for the red carpet as I had to be at the BEFTA awards, the movie attracted one of the largest crowds in the history of Nollywood Premieres showing in the Odeon Cinema.

Amongst those that attended included HE Edward Mohammed Turray High Commissioner of Sierra Leone to the UK and Ireland, cast and cre of the movie including John Okafor aka Mr Ibu and Fatima Jabe. Others in attendance included members of the press, members of the business community, the Sierra Leone community in the UK and distinguished members of the public. Of couse members of the Nollywood UK community including Obi Emenloye, Theodora Ibekwe (who apparently had just picked up two awards at BEFTA), Nelson Spyke (who also picked an award at BEFTA in absentia) were all present to support Collins Archie Pearce.

The movie produced by Collins Pearce & directed by John Solo was shot in Freetown and features John Okafor reprising the infamous role of Mr. Ibu, Fatima Jabbe, Ifunanya Igwe, Alunette Karama, Jeneba Pearce, Salami Carew and other Nollywood stars.

The movie is about Mr. Ibu Okonkwo (John Okafor), a jobless, London-based professional boxer with a big mouth, who desperately wants to stage a comeback, but faces obstacles that centre around his nagging wife, Nina (fatima Jabbe), who he hates very much. Ibu leaves Nigeria to contest in a boxing match in Freetown and he is accompanied by his wife, which makes him very uncomfortable.

John Kingston (Desmond Finney) is a ruthless crime boss who for many years has been the chief mastermind behind the violent spate of criminal activities across Sierra Leone. JK, as he is widely known, has managed to stay one step ahead of the police in their desperate attempts to nail him, but the relentless pressure from the law enforcement body means he must go underground and lie low for a while to cool off the heat.

Now, after two years of inactivity, JK is beginning to feel the pinch. With a handful of his vicious henchmen raring to return to action, JK knows he must cook up a plan fast to get out of his premature retirement and back in business. The new plan requires something that carries less risk, less violence, less manipulation. Something that will turn in the Leones in their millions and leaves little room for suspicion – JK and his henchmen unveil the boxing scam as his new line of business.

The scam involves pairing a potential heavyweight basher and a pint-size, sure-to-lose lightweight in a fight that is heavily publicised. With the unsuspecting betting, the public throw their weight and money behind the bigger man. The fight is thrown by the heavyweight as pre-arranged by JK, and either of the two mismatched fighters later grab a 20% cut of the huge chunk of betting profit and leaves JK and his henchmen with the bigger slice. 

Those who refuse to play by JK’s rules are subdued by issuing death threats to their wives or closest family members. On boxing match day, Banky, thinking that the fight is already fixed, faces the menacing glare of IBU, with his usual confidence. There was the hidden suspense of Ibus daughter. You need to watch the movie. In the fight that ensues IBU gives Banky the beating of his life, and sets the stage for a head-on collision with JK and his bunch of trigger-happy thugs.

The movie was top class and the sound and picture quality were top class. Credit must be given to the Director John Solo, and the e D.O.P Raymond Finney for a job well done. Seeing that the people of Sierra Leone speak Creole, there was a need for subtitles and that again was very good although majority of the people could follow the movie without the subtitles.

I must commend the producer Collins Archie Pearce as this movie was well researched. Little things as the numbers of bullets in a gun being researched is commendable. (Those that watched the movie and those that would watch it understand what I am saying). The cast was on point. What can I say of Mr Ibu. People have known him for playing particular roles impressed me and the audience playing an unconventional roke and speaking impeccable English. Fatima Jabbe was just great. Having watched her in various movies, she impressed me that she is able to play various roles in different countries. Fatima well done! Desmond Finney, Ifunanya Igwe and the rest of the cast all blended together to produce a top class movie. The story line was easy to follow and the movie ended with an applause from those present.

I spoke to random people who watched the movie and some Nollywood UK industry members to seek their views about the movie. Everyone I spoke to was anonymous that it was a good movie. I even asked if people would do anything different and the response was unanimous in the negative.

Now to the crunch of the review, my score for the movie. I must say there were little issues here and there, but they can be overlooked as they did not really impact the movie. My role as a reviewer and critique is not to deliberately go fault finding, but to give an honest review of what I see. I intend to use this as a medium to encourage Nollywood attain excellence, so the small things can be forgiven.

That said, I score this movie a 10 out of a possible 10. This is a rare thing for me to do as the sound and picture quality must be right, there must be a story line, the cast must be right and bring together the story and there must be an ambiance in the movie. The question is would I recommend this movie. As those I interviewed at the end of the movie seem to be in one accord, I would recommend you to watch this movie whenever it is being shown again.

All that is left to say is well done to Collins and his team. Watch the trailer.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=11wuPqlBb4c

London premiere of Obi Emenloye's Onye Ozi Movie Premiere

The much talked about film Onye Ozi premiered at the Lighthouse in Camberwell on Friday 18th October 2013. The cast of the movie included Oke Bakassi, Ngozi Iswebike, Stephen Moriaty, Anthony Aclet, Adesua Atuanya & D'Kachi Obi-Emenlonye. The movie was Directed and produced by Obi Emenloye and co produced by Ngozi Ideh.  

People started coming into Lighthouse anticipating to watch a good movie and some of those that attended included those in the Nollywood UK industry, top film, television & music stars, those in the world of African fashion, sports personalities,  businessmen and women, members of the press and of course Nollywood UK lovers and supporters. Generally, the turn out was very impressive. The premiere started of with with a stand up comedy show, music performances and clips from a short film. The expectation of the crowd had built up and then one of the 2 comperes for the night introduced the movie.

Onye Ozi subtitled the messenger is a movie in Ibo language one of the three primary languages in Nigeria but with subtitles in English. Briefly, the movie was about this Graduate from Nigeria (played by Oke Bakassi who arrived in the United Kingdom to meet up with his heart throb (Ngozi Iswebike). On arrival, he discovered that she had 2 children abd while they were celebrating, tragedy struck, Someone was killed and gave him his final wishes before passing on, slipping something into his hands. The bottom line was that this man more or less haunted him until he actually kept his promise and did what he promised the dying man. I leave the rest of the movie to those of you that would watch it later.

To me, there was an excellent script with a bit of suspense, The good thing is that this is the first indigenous Ibo film I know of, at least in the UK that all the cast including the British cast had to speak in Ibo. The dilemma was that how would none Ibo people follow the movie. I for one do not speak or understand Ibo. However, there was much laughter in the room and I know that none Nigerians talk not of Ibos attended the movie. That meant something was right and that was the sub-titles. I commend the lady that did the sub-titles. I spoke to people after the movie especially indigenous Nigerian who watch and do not watch Nollywood and the comments that came out were that the subtitles were to the point and that unlike most Nigerian movies with sub-titles, there were no grammatical errors. For me a non Ibo speaker to understand the movie that someone asked me if I understood or spoke Ibo, that is a positive.

I commend the Director for his choice of the cast as the mixture of Ibo speakers, non Ibo speakers, British actors and children all speaking Ibo and the entirety of the movie shot in the UK, there was a balance. All the actors from Oke Bakassi, to Ngozi, to the British actors especially the one that played TJ, the man that was killed sent home the message of the film perfectly.

The picture quality was excellent and watching the trailer of the movie and the making of the movie prior to actually watching the movie itself, with the amount of work and effort put in the movie, I was not surprised. In the making of the movie, we saw that 60 odd cameras were used to capture a scene. That showed the heartbeat of the Director and Producers of the movie.

Having said all the good, I must as a Nollywood critic  who has promised to be unbiased and always be objective make the following comment. At the beginning of the movie, there were echos in the sound and as such people seemed to be muffling and background sound actually over shadowed the voices of the cast. However, this was only brief and the sound improved so much that even when someone was running, you could hear the sound of his shoes. 

The overall experience was brilliant and usually before writing my reviews, I speak to a few people in industry and people who attend premieres. One of the comments I got from a guest was that she does not watch Nollywood premieres but because of this movie, she would shout on roof tops that people should go out and watch Nollywood Movies. From those I spoke to, the views were unanimous.

I would have given this movie the perfect 10, which is 5 star because it deserves it all round, but that issue of sound in the beginning of the movie cannot be overlooked. Therefore I rate the movie 9.5. The big question is would I recommend people to watch this movie. The answer is definitely yes. I have not told you half of the story. On whatever platform the movie would be showing, please watch it. I commend Obi and his team for a job well done!!

Watch the trailer.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dlGtW591Uuk