There’s such a thing as misleading advertising in order to trick the audience to purchase your product. Then there is that unfortunate breed of misleading advertising that can hinder the progress of your product indirectly and this is one of those cases. From the title, one would assume that the movie is yet another royal movie. On the cover, you see Kenneth Okonkwo, Emeka Enyiocha, Yvonne Okoro and Chika Ike, exempting Yvonne that seems like a well grounded royal movie.

However, this movie is nothing of the sort. In fact, there is not a single princess in this movie neither is there a mention of anything near royalty. ‘My lovely princess’ is an endearing story of a beautiful family going through rough times. You know the thing about Nollywood movies is, nowadays it’s becoming harder and harder to find a good one. So when you find that good one you recognize it from the outset. So you hit pause, go finish everything else you have to do so that when you come back and press play there will be no distractions, this was one of those movies.

The story was not the most original concept under the sun, however, it was ridiculously endearing. For once, I can say that I was slightly confused as to who the secret villain was. I suspected every single character one after the other and the movie had me guessing, until it didn’t anymore.

Kenneth Okonkwo, as usual, did a fantastic job with his role but Yvonne Okoro was the star performer in this movie. Asides from Ken, one cannot help but marvel at Ms. Okoro’s brilliance. Even in a non-speaking supporting role she steal possesses the screen with every gesture. But I must add though, that even though her last name is Igbo, the lady cannot do the igbo intonations to save her life.

The one thing lacking in this movie was the acting. The acting alone was the difference between an averagely good movie to an exceedingly beautiful movie. And the two weakest links, asides from the extras were Chika Ike and Emeka Enyiocha. Usually I’m not the biggest fan of Ms. Ike however in this movie I was especially aggravated with her performances. Especially in the early scenes, watching her so called acting bounce of off Yvonne Okoro’s skills just made her performance look that much weaker. If the casting director took her and replaced her with (let me not even reach for the obvious replacement in Mercy Johnson, but even…) Chacha Eke or Nuella, the movie would have been that much better and much more emotional and I might actually have shed a tear at the end.

And then there is the thing with Emeka Enyiocha. I don’t know if he was ever a better actor but he was just not it for this movie. He had the look but his performance was just failing from scene to scene. Say his character had been given to Mike Ezuruonye, oh what a different experience it would have been.

Regardless of all of that, however, the movie was still entirely worth the watch. I’m still undecided about exactly what was the best thing about the movie was it the immaculate locations, the fact that it only had one part, or the realization  that it was not a royal movie.

The movie “United Kingdom” tells the overbeaten story of a king who has come to power by chance and used diabolical means to secure his throne. It throws in what is arguably an original twist in that he wants his son to take over the throne from him and his son also needs to join in the diabolism in order to get the throne.

The movie really isn’t the sort of film that would be the first to catch your attention on a shelf, and even reading the synopsis is not that encouraging. However, shockingly enough it’s a much easier watch than many other movies in the ‘royal’ category.

The movie has a strong core cast of capable actors on all fronts mainly because these actors have acted the exact same roles numerous times before. The endearment for me really was Nuella’s presence in the movie, I tend to believe you cannot go wrong with a Nuella movie, even if it’s unoriginal it will rarely ever be of the eye-gouging, hair-ripping sorts. In this movie too, Nuella held her own in the little role she had and delivered as well as she could.

Kenneth Okonkwo as the rebellious son of the diabolic king was quite energized. Even though I still can’t wrap my head around how young the king would have had to be when he had Kenneth as a son, he was very convincing.

Everyone from Steve Eboh to Mr. Jacobs to Ngozi Ezeonu to Clem did a fantastic job with their roles, the most surprising for me however was Angela Okorie. I think she did quite a splendid job with her character and she held her own without any of those annoying nuances that have come to characterize her acting. Maybe because she didn’t have much of a major role, but whatever little she had she did a fair enough job with it.

Regardless of the good performances, the story really isn’t something worth setting out time for. I’m of the opinion that we have now exhausted all possible topics for royal movies, it’s about time we moved on to another fad in Nollywood. It’s as though we retired Yul Edochie from the Prince role in 2012, and installed Kenneth Okonkwo in 2013 and it’s just the same stories with a different actor.

June is gradually coming to an end but before she leaves, she’ll give us two more Mondays for Guess Who!

Nearly everyone guessed it correctly but congrats to Crystal for being the first to correctly guess last week’s guess who. Find out who it was HERE

CAN YOU GUESS WHO THE LADY IS?

This week’s guess who is a Nigerian TV presenter that doubles as an actress. She is best known for her appearance in TV series’. Can you guess who the lady is?

I give it to Nollywood! We are the only ones who would be able to tarnish a success in cutting down on the number of movies with numerous parts by making  a one part movie seem longer than ‘a cry for help’.

Stolen Tomorrow is the story of a woman from an abusive father who marries a rich old man in order to escape her previous poverty. If I were to include spoilers, I could describe the movie in one grammatically correct sentence – no run-ons. There are movies that we say don’t start until the second half, or don’t start until the first couple of minutes but this movie doesn’t start at all. The entire film feels like an exposition. I wouldn’t feel compelled to pause this if I had to leave the room, because I would miss absolutely nothing. To state it simply it was quite boring.

The story was not even pretending to be original. The highlight of this movie for most, especially the females, seems to have been getting to watch IK Ogbonna on screen. But seeing as I don’t buy into the school of thought that he is anything but a pretty face, I had to find something else to sustain me through this tedious hour and fifty minutes of film, and I found that in Omoni Oboli. Omoni did a guest appearance in this movie so she hardly had that many scenes, the joy for me was that lingering hope that maybe the next scene would have her in it.

There is a phrase I commonly use in association with John Dumelo in order to describe his absolute lack of ability to do anything other than the usual which is “John Dumelo does as John Dumelo does” and today I’ve found that that phrase is also beginning to apply to Ini Edo. In this movie, Ini Edo did as Ini Edo does. It was nothing exceptional. I would not, in my proper mind, advice anyone to invest time into this movie for her sake.

The only two actors worth watching in this movie were Kofi and Omoni. The movie in itself really isn’t worth watching. And I’m honestly beginning to suspect that iroko partners might throw down a script in a couple of days, film it as fast as possible so they can have movies to premiere on thursdays, fridays and saturdays.

It really isn’t much of a story. It bores and it lingers and it stretches and it pulls and it just attempts to see how long you’ll last in this. And I don’t see why anyone who doesn’t have to review this and is not related to anyone who made this movie, would sit through it.

Chioma Chukwuka used to be my favourite actress back in the day but then she fell from grace after a particularly lip curling film( it involved corpse molesting) but she is redeeming herself bit by bit starting from this movie. It challenged her and in such interesting ways. Her character had a slight disability and she portrayed that amazingly. And her lines were so good, one made my eyes water. Mike Ezuruonye and Bobby Ogoloma were good as well although I found Mike Ezuruonye’s character to be unreasonably malicious. Ngozi Ezeonu character was also stupidly wicked. She waited seven years to ask for a grandchild??

The plot was beautiful, although there was not need to stretch it into three parts when only two would have done. It got long and wandered off to Cotonou at some points. It got lost often but regardless of that it was still a good original plot. Not as predictable as one would expect but at some points you can usually tell what is going on. Some storylines were just forgotten, like who poisoned the prince or what happened to Chioma Chukwuka’s pregnancy and these were as you can see very important parts of the film. I did think that it lost its focus and skipped into another focus but forgot to highlight that aspect of the story enough to warrant the change. The time frame was so crazy, they kept moving in two weeks , this happened like three times, but then just jumped seven years then jumped another God know how long without out rightly stating it.

That being said, the production value was so poor it was almost unbelievable. The boom mike occasionally popped out to say hello. The lighting was so bad, sometimes only a single spot was lighted, so it was like this circle of light in a screen of darkness. The actors’ faces were lit and shoot so unflatteringly it was painful watching them at some time. The camera angles were bad and just so close in their faces. There were shadows on the walls that were not supposed to be there, people in the mirror. At least the sound wasn’t bad but the soundtrack itself was so 2003.

In conclusion, at the beginning of this review I was fully prepared to recommend it for its very interesting storyline however looking back on its flaws made me realise how stupid it was. But if you can ignore the flaws then this film can be enjoyed. By the way, sending a child to go and live with her rapist? It is literally the worst thing the you can do to a person and in civilised countries this is actually immoral.

I’ve watched quite a number of documentaries and interviews on the early days of Nollywood, her development and reasons for her initial success; and one idea that is the same across the board is the idea that Nollywood was originally successful because it was the common man’s cinema. It was something the average Nigerian (or dare I say, African) could relate to.

It presented our troubles, dilemmas, conflicts, desires on screen in the lives of someone else, it was relatable. And one can argue that it’s for this reason that many of the first Nollywood movies had the same themes of ‘family’, ‘search for wealth’, ‘love’, ‘class conflict’, et al.

Over the past couple of years though, the cinema culture in Nollywood has began to grow. People are increasingly more likely to visit the cinema to see a Nigerian movie. However, there is a certain trait that’s in most of our our movies that go to the cinema: they seem more tailored to the refined audience, and I use the term ‘refined’ here very loosely to refer to the middle class and above. The scenarios they depict, for the most part, are mostly not the common man’s problems.

To state it simply, the common man cannot relate to most of our cinema films. For him there is no connection, he does not exactly visit the minister’s office everyday that he’d be worried about  the corrupt secretary (the meeting), he doesn’t exactly fly on a plane to Abuja everyday that seeing it crash in a movie would be much of a bother to him (unless of course it is crashing into his house then that’s a different story), he doesn’t really have a sister in the United States that he’d be worried of her being falsely accused of murdering her husband (Ije). Now of course the underlying motifs apply to a general audience but at first sight, the common man would reach readily towards a Mercy Johnson film than most of our cinema pictures.

The point here is not that the home videos are the boon of Nollywood, neither is it that cinematic films are misleading or going against the so called traditional definition of Nollywood. The fact is, as time goes by changes will come and we’ll have to adapt to these changes. As a response to these changes, the cinematic culture in Nollywood has reemerged. Most tend to think that this means that the home video culture should be eradicated in order to make way for the cinematic films, after all they represent us ‘better’, they are grander, and more professional.

However, the aim here shouldn’t be to do away with the home videos as there will always be an audience for that. With reinventing Nollywood, NR seeks to promote the advancement of our cinema culture whilst creating an atmosphere competitive enough to force the Asaba-movie makers to up their standards of production and story telling without loosing their grassroots touch.

An audience split is not necessarily a negative thing. It enables our cinema to cater for the broad category of individuals that make up our audience. However, the negativity sets in when one is deemed inferior to the other, the negativity sets in when one becomes comfortable in mediocrity. The negativity sets in when we can only point to one aspect of Nollywood as our pride, and the other a shameful unmentionable thing. We should be able to stand on international platforms and proudly present both types of cinemas, present both touches of Nollywood – the ones with overlapping themes, plus the ones that only cater to one type of audience. Whatever the case might be we should be able to cater to both audiences without having huge discrepancies in quality.

Kokomma is a run of the mill story about a poor 18 year old girl who moves to Lagos and takes up a housegirl job in order to support her family. She is constantly faced with numerous perverted men seeking to take advantage of her innocence, and if this was your regular nollywood synopsis it would end something like this ‘do they succeed, watch the movie and find out?’

There really is nothing special or different about the movie ‘kokomma’, if you complained that recent Ugezu. J. Ugezu films are unoriginal well then this movie takes us back – way back – to the original Nollywood formula, no minus no plus.

Kokomma is the first Ibibio-Language movie I’ve ever seen, I tried seeing Okon Lagos when it released but the subtitles were out of whack and the experience was not pleasing. For this reason I have to commend the production team of Kokomma, the subtitles never leave you hanging for a moment.

The movie brings up a valid societal problem as regards the issue of rape, “why is it that when such things happen the blame is always on the girl?” If there was an iota of originality in this movie, then it came with the way the madam handled the situation post her house girl getting pregnant.

The ending of the movie is a bit anti-climactic, if I can call it that, because it just seems empty. It seems to fall flat on its face at the end. Like a musician’s note that just crescendos and crescendos and crescendos and when the time comes for the grand finale, he just stops.

So the end was quite disappointing, but one thing that was not so disappointing were the performances. Without a sliver of doubt the standout performance in this movie was Ms. Ini Ikpe. She held her own from scene to scene. Had control of her emotions in the highs and in the lows, something no other actor in this movie can boast of.

I’m made to believe that Kokomma was Belinda Effah’s first movie, maybe it was maybe it wasn’t, but she definitely did a good job holding her emotions especially in the lows. However, when the confrontation scenes came towards the end, she like some other actors in this movie did not do as well. Ekere Nkanga as the husband did an amazing job.

This film was literally agony to get through. Slow, dry, it dragged and some of its plot elements were frankly ridiculous. I still have not watched it to the end because of how annoying it got. Who do you think is to blame when a film misrepresents itself in its synopsis? The producing crew or hosting sites like Irokotv? Because this one did and I am annoyed at it. I can’t even be moved to great emotion for this film.

The story was trying to do some much. There was the lacklustre romance which had two great actors in the lead but even that couldn’t save it. The romance didn’t make enough sense and the premise annoyed me. It did not handle the subject of rape well either just used it as a throwaway plot device. The second storyline was a bit better and Ugezu.J.Ugezu was the standout performance in that one. I don’t watch political drama like that but I was slightly interested in this storyline and it would have been best if it was on its own.

As for acting, no amount of good acting could have saved this. However it was interesting seeing Yul Edochie in a slightly different role and he did extend his acting range a bit, however, I really think that Nollywood should start giving actors intensely challenging roles once in a while (see paraplegic prince). Chioma Chukwuka used to be my favourite actress before the -coveted- spot was taken by better and more talented actresses cough Mercy Johnson cough and in this film I was not impressed. It wasn’t her fault again because the script was just that constricting.

This film had only two parts but it felt like six to me. So many unnecessary and stupid aspects to it. Storylines were created and left at the roadside time after time. The directing of Ugezu.J.Ugezu is starting to have a signature and while I liked it in films like ‘When the King Decides’ and ‘Hour of Salvation’ I don’t like it here. Scratch that, I tolerated it in those films but cannot anymore.

In conclusion, I really disliked this movie. Others may not so I cannot objectively say it is good or bad, but I can say that there are some glimmers of a good plot and a great idea behind it , it just wasn’t communicated well. And I must ask this question, when will rape ever be taken seriously in Nollywood?

Are these things getting easier or is everyone just getting smarter? lol

Happy new week everyone! This week we’re doing the guess who a little differently. We are reverting back to the old formula for this one only and this time instead of a back view, you get to guess who the actor is from his/her baby photo.

In the meanwhile, congratulations to SNICK for being the first to correctly guess last week’s GUESS WHO. Find out who it was HERE

CAN YOU GUESS WHO THE LADY IS?

This week’s guess who is an award winning actress who is taking her acting talent on international platforms. In recent times she has been featured in movies beside Hollywood actors and she is the owner of her own fashion line. Can you guess who she is?

The Anambra state born actor is a trained actor in theater and film. He started his acting career with the movie “Holy Prostitute” in 2001 and since then has been steadily rising to fame.

With his years in the industry, his talent has also risen and gradually he has become known as a strong lead actor alongside his established dominance as a fluid supporting actor. Mr. Erics is not only an actor but also a musician and has done the soundtrack for movies such as “Heart of a Saint” starring Mercy Johnson and Kenneth Okonkwo.

He started gaining recognition after his role in “Eran and Erak” and “Silence of the gods”. Nowadays, he is best known for his roles in movies such as “The Illiterate“, “The Bank Job” and “Royal Sin”. He is set to be in the upcoming movie “In Between” beside Nse Ikpe-Etim

In the spotlight is a feature segment on NR that highlights hidden talents in Nollywood. If you have a suggestion for future I.T.S posts, please leave a comment. 

Their mission is to go to heaven and steal the book of life, which they refer to for some reason as ‘the chronicle of the book’, in order to write their names in it, and for this purpose they employ two touts from Warri. On the other hand, in Heaven two aspiring comedians are chosen to go back to earth and retrieve the book from the thieves. With a foundation as outrageous as that you can only imagine what the movie becomes. Then again it’s a comedy flick? So should we excuse the lapses in rationality based on this?

I think not! I think every movie, fantasy, or not should have some way of making the rationale clear to the audience. We, as the audience, understand what they’re trying to do, why they want to, and how they intend to, but there is some part of that ‘how’ that doesn’t completely make sense.

For instance, how was the book transported from the realm of the place to earth and back. The next sentence might seem a bit ridiculous but please follow my train of thought because I’d think it more probable that a fellow would die, his soul would go to heaven, he would interact with the angels and return into his body. All’s well and fine, it’s a concept most can wrap their heads around, however when you compare that with a person dying, going to the realm of the spiritual and coming back with a book? How does that work out? When your soul comes back on your body does the book magically materialize? And when they try to go back?… To state it simply somethings needed to be further clarified.

As  regards the performances in this movie, most of the comedians were outstanding. Helen Paul is something else. Ime Bishop is fantastic. Patrick Onyeka had great moments and Gordons was simply the icing on the cake. As a comic film, and this coming from an individual who absolutely abhors Nollywood comedies, the movie had its moments. I guarantee that you will laugh at least once in every other scene regardless of how much of a sadist you are.

The problem is not with the comedy, the problem, like most other Nollywood comedies, is the story, it’s just ridiculous. It’s not ridiculous in the “Hangover” sense of it-could-happen-but-what-are-the-odds, it’s more like some-things-don’t-tie-up-but-let’s-pretend-we-didn’t-see-that.

The movie ‘the place’ is not slapstick comedy but I recommend you leave your brain at home for this one lest you don’t enjoy because you’re over-analyzing it. It’s simple and straight to the point, if it was any longer than it ended up then it would have become tedious. The graphics for the most part looked like the first release of C.O.D – Call of Duty video game - back in 2003; there was definitely room for improvement but it’s also probably one of the good ones in comparison to other Nollywood graphics.

All in all the story is a bit ridiculous but it does have its moments

You’ve seen “Osuofia in London”, well now it’s Mercy Johnson’s turn. Mercy Johnson takes it to the streets of New York in “Baby Oku (in America)”. The movie is directed by Ikechukwu Onyeka and also stars Ani Amatosero, Ebere Okaro and Chet Anekwe.

SYNOPSIS: Shot on location in Nigeria and USA, the film depicts Mercy as Baby Oku, a rude, arrogant illiterate who finds herself fortunate enough to be impregnated by Okey who just came back to Nigeria. she then uses threats to force Okey to marry her and bring her to USA where she becomes Lady and Madam over Okey and turns his life upside down

Ijele’s wife is a family movie by Tchidi Chikere that almost returns to that old Tchidi formula of endearing romances, fascinating love stories, and enveloping dramas just without the endearing, fascinating or enveloping part.

It tells the story of a woman played by Tonto Dikeh who had been chosen by a god, Ijele, as her wife without her consent. Now, no mortal man is allowed to marry her and anyone who dears suffers loss. The movie follows her personal trials, her son, and the trials of the unfortunate man, Nkem Owoh, who had fallen in love with her.

This is not the first time Nkem Owoh is being paired with a much younger actress, he has been paired with Mercy, Funke and many others in the recent Nollywood craze of Old+Young love stories; however, this is possibly the least chemistry he’s ever had with any of the female leads.

Tonto Dikeh did try in her role with the crying and the weeping and the bawling (yes, all the same but it seemed that’s most of what she was doing in this movie). When she was doing all this in a scene on her own or with her ‘son’ or Ijele, it seemed fine, however when she was doing this in a scene with Mr. Owoh it seemed a bit less convincing – something about a stronger actor making all other actors look inefficient.

The story behind Ijele’s Wife the movie, is an interesting story but it’s in no way compelling. That is to say that if you’ve nothing to do and you’re sitting watching this movie you could sit through it all, but if something came up there would be no hesitation to get up and leave the movie and odds are you’d probably not return to the movie because there’s nothing compelling you back.

The movie in itself is good however it lacked that feeling aspect. So there’s no connection between the audience and the characters, the movie is just happening in the background. We’re sorry that the characters have to undergo such trials but we don’t pity them. I believe the general low budget production and lack of chemistry between Osuofia and Tonto made it less compelling.

There were also a couple costume errors like Tonto’s tattoo peeking out now and then as well as acting problems especially with the little boy.

Lust is an upcoming drama from the stables of Big Pictures Entertainment. The movie is directed by Toka McBaror and produced by Kunle Abiola Ige and and Taiwo Aromokun. The movie stars Taiwo Aromokun , Wole Ojo of AMBO fame and Sani Danja, alongside Omolara Ladejode, Austin Kanwie, Anita Duru, Isaac Bare, and Henry Losam.

LUST shows the life of three young individuals and the ever-so-prevalent love triangle that complicates relationships.

If you are looking for an apt description for a jigsaw puzzle that leads nowhere, this movie will win first place position. Its attractive jacket pulled me in and I was eager to know what the movie was about, not that its title was any teaser but I lost interest from the first scene and struggled to sustain it as I had a task of reviewing it later.

It reminded me of some watery home videos  during the early or old Nollywood period when some self-acclaimed ‘prolific’ producers and directors shot back to back five or more movies in a month, and didn’t give credence or substance to the story they were telling.

So, I struggled with this movie.

It was hard to tell whom the story was about, although it has been established, somehow, in some scenes, and really over flogged, that it’s about some girls who had visited their village for a certain otolo festival to get themselves rich eye-candy men as suitors.

I waited patiently to see the display and intrigues that would be pulled by these ladies in their aso-ebi’s during the festival which I think is modeled after the popular ‘ofala’ festival in the east.  From the part one till the end of the two part movie there was no show of fanfare let alone a festival whose real life model is noted for pomp and pageantry. Neither did I see them clad in an aso-ebi.

The story seemed like a project where the producers had funds, and an idea, but no script, and gathered some actors telling them what was expected of them in each scene and the freewill to improvise till they lack words to say. Even the make-up, especially in a scene that required a special effect, seemed like the work of an apprentice who has not been approved for graduation but stubbornly called everyone’s bluff and went ahead to display his work. I even saw the shadows of the crew members in a scene from start to finish. Like they couldn’t be bothered if it was noticed or not.

Despite this malady, that marred what could have been turned into a classic traditional tale as regards our ‘aso-ebi’ culture, I must say I surprisingly had a good laugh in some scenes by actors like Ebele Okaro and Nkem Ike, whom acted as the cat and mouse wives to a retired soldier man,  Amaechi Munagor. They played their roles to perfection. Well, their classic performances didn’t make the movie a classic one, and the reason is because the movie looked like it (the producers) had underemphasized the very key role a good script plays in achieving a great movie.

Let me reiterate here, like I have done in previous reviews; every good movie starts with a well thought out and scripted story, don’t need to overemphasize it.  If they had developed the story in as many drafts as possible, I am sure these flaws would have been minimal or not visible at all. I wished the producer and the director had taken time out to work on the story like they did in making the movie jacket eye-catching.

Tunde Kelani’s “Maami” tells an age old story from a different perspective. The story introduces sports into a movie about struggling, it takes you on a journey that you might not have expected from the synopsis. It’s the same yet different, it’s simple yet rich, Maami is the story of a mother who is determined, against all odds – and there are odds, to raise her son and educate him while keeping her honor.

The movie does not overly dote on the usual suspects – sexual exploitation, abandonment, sexual harassment, or diabolical practices -it simply touches on them enough for the viewer to get the general idea without overbeating an already dented drum. The first appeal for me was the realness of the story. It does not portray the mother as a ‘yes man’ to all her son’s desires. She believes that her son is her all but she does not approach it from that view that most are tempted to fall into, which is the ‘if my son wants this I must go out of my way to do it and whatever my son desires is right’.

The mother is more Nigerian in her ways, I guess that’s why the movie is called “maami” and not ‘mother’. She wants the best for her son but as she is the only parent she still manages to find that balance between discipline and love.

The story cascades beautifully. Initially I was of the opinion that it was simply a mother’s struggle to bring her son up in the right way, period. I paid little attention to the other part of the synopsis that includes the part “…despite the hardships of society”, and the movie does a beautiful job in highlighting these hardships in a manner that’s easy to empathize with and relate to.

Funke Akindele was definitely the pillar of this movie. I won’t say she held the movie together because the story does a pretty decent job of holding its own, however, she was the force in this movie. She was phenomenal. I am tempted to say she killed it, but she murdered it, ripped it apart and served it on a beautiful platter of art.

The experience of watching Funke was less like an act and more like she was living it and there just happened to be a camera that streamed to my house. The experience was occasionally broken though whenever the little Kashi played by Ayomide Abatti came on screen. Ayomide vocally had the energy and the conviction, he was just incapable of emoting every now and then. However, it is a commendable performance by a child actor.

The question ofcourse comes in with Wole Ojo. Looking at this actor from fresh lenses since his AMBO time, I’m not certain if this movie really is anything to judge his acting by as the role didn’t really require much from him until the confrontation scene with Olumide Bakare. Fortunately he handled that scene quite tactfully, however, I don’t know if I can say the same about the rest of his scenes. Then again, not much was required of him, it was just a series of moping scenes so one really can’t tell.

There were a couple weak actors here and there, the story doesn’t strike you as ‘great’ from the beginning but it picks up pace, there are a lot of moments in this movie that are very endearing, you get the feeling that something’s missing in the movie but overall maami was a simple delight to watch.

Facade is an upcoming movie directed by No-Dash, starring AMBO winner Wole Ojo and Super-Story star, Kehinde Bankole alongside David McKenzie

SYNOPSIS: A civil servant desires to make a change for himself and his society, is faced with a lot of challenges.The odds were against him. He struggled all the same, succeeded and then he finds out that things are not what they seem.

In a time where most home videos in Nollywood are evenly split between ‘runz films’ and ‘royal stories’ a return to the original Nollywood movie formula is more than welcome.

The movie ‘Birth of Evil’ tells the story of a family plagued by a series of deaths. I would love to recommend the movie for others, however, it’s unfortunate that about one-fifth of the film is in igbo without subtitles. Regardless, still watch it, you might miss most of the jabs but the experience is still the same.

Ofcourse we wish it wasn’t so predictable, of course we wish the ghosts weren’t drenched in white powder and awkwardly limping around the place, but none of these things take away from the movie. Birth of Evil is a family movie of the likes that modern day Nollywood has forgotten. It’s that dated appeal of sitting through a story and feeling like you are in the story, interacting with the characters like they are your family, feeling their pains like they’re your own and joys as well.

The villain in the movie is very obvious from the start, however, watching all four hours of it to get an official acknowledgment from the villain or reason behind the evil is completely worth it. Patience Ozokwor is just effortless and I hear she’s not from Imo but she definitely had that Imo state igbo-dialect on lock.

Impressive is an understatement in regards to Queen Nwokoye. The lady is fluid, the lady is talented, the lady is natural and her igbo… ah! The casting director couldn’t have possibly done a better job from Uche to Emeka to Ken and Halima it was amazingly done. Halima was beyond impressive especially considering that she is not igbo herself.

I must commend the newcomer that plays Obinna, in the person of Prince Ononiwu. He is not only stunningly drop dead beautiful, but could actually hold his own. As soon as he appears on screen my first thoughts are ‘oh this boy is beautiful, he probably won’t be able to act’. And who can blame me? Beauty without talent seems to be a recurring motif in modern day Nollywood. However, Prince was the exception, his delivery was beautiful and I hear he’s also in Adaure? Maybe I should watch that movie now?

Even though ‘Birth of Evil’ makes use of the same old Nollywood formula, it has improved upon the formula. Ofcourse it’s still a couple ways from perfection but it has done away with the same old exaggerated motifs, overly prolonged and redundant scenes and created something that most people would be willing to watch with the family. The question in Birth of Evil is not ‘who-dunnit’ but ‘why’, and the why is where the originality comes in

Hello everyone, welcome to the new month and ‘happy monday’ if there is such a thing. Last week everyone got the Guess Who right, guess it’s time to make it a bit more difficult lol

However, a big congratulations to Emmanuel Jaunty Stephens on facebook for being the first to get it right. Find out who it was HERE

CAN YOU GUESS WHO THE LADY IS?

This week’s guess who was once a runner up in the MBGN pageant, a three time nominee for ‘Best Leading Actress’ at AMAA and an actress and director.

Queen Nwokoye is a Nollywood actress who debuted in 2004 with the comedy film, ‘Nna Men’. Since then she has been in a number of Nollywood features and has become a household name to some and just a familiar face to others.

The peak of her popularity came around 2011-2, after she featured in the igbo movie ‘Adaure’ after which the world began to take notice of her talent.

Queen Nwokoye has starred in popular home videos like Ladies Men, Hottest Boys, Mirror of life, and Heart of a slave. Hopefully, her cinematic debut is not far off.

In the spotlight is a feature segment on NR that highlights hidden talents in Nollywood. If you have a suggestion for future I.T.S posts, please leave a comment.