Review of Austin Chima's London Premiere of Busted Life

The movie Busted Life premiered at the Odeon Cinema Greenwich on Friday 8^th May 2015. Prominent on the red carpet were Ramsey Nouah, Majid Mitchel, Austin Chima, Riyike Alayande, Kenneth Benson, Toyin Moore, Nelson Spyke, Ruke Amata, Obi and Amaka Emenloye, Dr and Mrs Alistar Soyode, Roselyn Sanni Ajose, Florence Blaster Okonkwo, Brun Njua, Nonso Nwaiwu and a host of other important people.

Storyline:  Busted Life is a highly tensed drama based on the true life story of two immigrants from Nigeria living together in America in search for better life. Starring Uzor, (Ramsey Noauh, winner of best Actor at the Africa Movie Academy Awards 2010) and Femi, (Chet Anekwe from the Hollywood movie PHAT GIRLZ)

In this thrilling movie, Femi's lifestyle of greed, lust for women and betrayal takes centre stage of his friendship with Uzor and the bond of brotherhood was broken. While Femi is apprehended by the authorities and sent to jail for some time, Uzor finds himself unemployed and frustrated and is kicked out of the house by his wife. Uzor takes refuge in the arms of an African American lady named Lisa. She introduces him to her drug cartel and he becomes a part of the family. Soon Uzor rises to become the Don.

Uzor's unfinished business with Femi resurfaces when their paths cross again in a drug deal. This time all caution thrown to the wind and all hell is let loose!! It is about betrayal, unforgiveness and the effects of such societal ills even years after. The movie was written by Austin Chima and produced by Austin Chima and  Bianka Johnson and directed by Bayo Akinfemi.

Let me start from the positives of the movie. It is always a good thing to tell a true life story so that people can learn from it and I commend the Producer Austin Chima for trying to do that. Also taking away the fact that it was based on a true story, the fact is that people leave the continent of Africa and try and go to the so called developed countries in search of a better life and in some cases end up in shady things as drugs or prostitution.

In this movie, the story of betrayal was well told and the moral was clear that one has to be careful about the friends they keep and trust as the people we think are our friends can stab us at the back where it hurts the most. I would say that the major themes of the movie as highlighted could be understood by the average viewer.

However in my view, the essence of the movie became lost as the movie dragged on for too long. When in a movie people begin to sleep or leave the cinema, then that tells me something is wrong. It has nothing to do with the timing of the movie or when it is shown but about the movie itself. I would give an example. I was with some people who went to watch the Avengers recently and their comment was that from beginning to the end it was all action packed, so even if that movie went on to air at midnight people would stay awake to watch it.

My point therefore is that the film should have been compressed so as not to lose its essence and focus and people go out saying only positive things about the movie. I watch a lot of cooking programs and in the words of John Torode and Gregg Wallace of Master Chef UK, less is better. The shorter and tighter a storyline is and subsequently the movie, in my view the better the movie would turn out to be.

Cast: The film starred Ramsey Nouah as Uzor, Chet Anekwe as Femi, Sarah Fasha as Sheryl, Ron Bush as Chief Scott, Koby Maxwell as Mr. Max and Pascal Atuma as The Clerk. The movie had 4 or 5 major characters and a lot of additions.

I would like to start by saying that in my view both Chet and Ramsey played the role as they were expected to. They put in their wealth of experience in the industry to actually depict the characters they were expected to. Adding comedy and not forgetting their native land by speaking pidgin English for example were an added advantage. However, I believe someone else probably a known face in the Nollywood industry would have played the role of Sheryl better. I understand the fact that the movie was based on a real story and that Uzor came to the United States to make a better life but in my view Sarah did not do much justice to that role and was even artificial in some places.

While I believe in collaborations, in my honest opinion, the industry is Nollywood and should promote our own talent. To buttress my point, even when telling an African story, unless there is a prolific African star that can play a lead role, roles would be given to people like Will Smith even though we have the likes of Pascal Atuma or Chet that can readily play such roles. Back to this movie, apart from that I believe the right people played the roles allocated to them.

Picture Quality: The picture quality was generally good.  I would not say that they were excellent as I have seen some Nollywood movies with better picture quality. However, I did not notice shaky pictures or pictures that were out of frame and for this I commend the team. Not much to say on the picture quality.

Sound Quality: With regards to the sound, again for most parts, the sound was of very good quality. You could hear what the people were saying and even the artificial sounds of guns were clear. I really did not have cause for concern with the general sound quality of the movie. In my view if anything, there could have been a bit of control with noise levels. Generally, there wasn’t much echo and distortion and I commend the crew for this.

Overall performance: 

Overall, I think this was a good effort, but certain things could have been improved on. I have already dealt with the fact that the movie was lengthy.

I cannot but mention this next one or I would not be doing justice to this review. This movie was shot in the United States and I watched the end of the movie where there was a gun duel amongst the rival cartels (Uzor’s and Femis). But for the fact that I watch Nollywood a lot, I would not have understood what happened to Femi in the end and his gang. You can tell me to imply this, but not everyone many have understood it. I would have expected a lot more cinematography to be used in this scene to make the movie top class.

I was disappointed that in spite of all the bullets that went past and the fact that Uzor was hit by stray bullets (if you can call them that), I did not see one single drop of blood even though he kept limping. Am I expected to imply that as well. To me that is lack of attention to detail. It is either he was hit or he was not hit. We saw him hit by a bullet and fall so is he superman that no bleeding and he was still so fine to stand and talk to his woman. Without flogging the issue, as producers and directors, those little things count. Stories have to be told to look real for the people watching. We know that actors don’t normally die, but they may be injured, nothing wrong with that 

As a reviewer and critic, For a movie shot in the United States, I would have liked to see excellent sound and picture qualities bearing in mind the high level of technology available now. This was a good effort but if there was more attention to detail, it would have been an excellent movie. I would like to commend the cast and crew for effort, but I am looking forward to a better production next time.

On a final note, Busted life has won an award for 2014 NAFC Awards: Best Drama Diaspora Film and is making its festival and limit theatrical releases across the globe.

Having said all that, the question is if I would recommend this movie. As a movie critic and reviewer, I would  recommend this movie as there are things that could be learnt from the movie.

 Watch the trailer:

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3NPD6CdGcc