MOVIE RUN By Shaibu Husseini

THE CARTEL (LONDON BABES)

Producer- Chico Ejiro

Director – Chico Ejiro

Actors- Lilian Bach, Shola Shobowale, Bukky Wright, Saidi Balogun, Shan George Nwosisi, Lanre Falana and others.

There are two things that may be responsible when actors take certain actions or decisions in a movie without a motivation for them. It’s either that they were under rehearsed or that, that aspect of the movie was not scripted. That’s the lot of this glossily sheened and plausibly told story whose other biggest plus is the fact that it boasts of some of Nollywood’s steaming actors who seem to be at home with improvisation. But for their versatility and depth of character interpretation this would have been somewhat story less.

But The Cartel is the story of one Elvis (Saidi Balogun) who dumps his first love Nkechi for the returnee Tonia (Lilian Bach) who is a member of a cartel in London, a group of single women who survive on prostitution. They both elope to England. Weeks after, Elvis is reduced to shreds. He is made to wash dishes and the under pants of his benefactors. Tired, he decides to return to Nigeria. ‘I cannot become a modern day slave’ he soliloquizes. He truly returns, finds the now heavily pregnant Nkechi out and reunites with her. They embrace and the movie ends.

This yawns a bit but its certainly compelling. Nothing in the story is new but it appears riveting enough to hold attention. Indeed it represents one movie that is worthy of consideration in spite of its glaring limitations. We quarreled with the fact that there are no time in-between scenes. Also apart from the fact that the Director of photography (DOP) was not swift with the camera and didn’t achieve precision with shots he fumbled most times with the camera. There were a number of headroom difficulties that showed that the DOP’s was having his first feel as a cameraman. Interestingly the credit line gives the director of the movie credit for photography. But he proved here that his hands as a cameraman are still tentative. Me think he would have concentrated on his directing prolificacy. The lanky actress Lillian Bach was surprisingly capable as Tonia. She combined so well with the watch able actress Bukky Wright and the immensely talented Shola Shobowale to make this resemble a great adventure. But that actor who played George (George Nwosisi) obviously needs some lesson in acting.

Find this to watch. But to be sure that some aspect of this movie was not scripted, see the making of the flick at the tail end of the movie. See that scene where the director says ‘tell her that you would see her later and walk back to the car’ to Tobi at the point where they (Tobi and Tonia) discovered that Martins was double dating. Again a teardrop from Nkechi would have made a lot of difference in that re-unification scene. And how come a guy is shot on a busy street in London and no one raises an alarm? Details. That’s what adds to making a movie more believable.

I WANT YOUR WIFE

Producer – Ephraim Okoye

Director – Ernest Obi

Actors – Richard Damijo, Emeka Ike, Oge Okoye, Jim Lawson, Thelma Nwosu and others

Edward (Richard Mofe Damijo) is not happy that the super rich Jude (Emeka Ike) is still after his wife Lara (Oge Okoye) despite his many attempts to get Jude off Lara’s back. Edward wants Lara to stay away from Jude completely. The story is that Edward and Jude were once in love with Lara. Though Jude was hoping that he would have the last laugh, Lara falls for Edward. Disappointed, Jude fights back hoping though that he would win Lara over. The movie ends and we are told to watch out for the sequel.

This movie yawned greatly and it showed that not much work went into the screen play and art direction. Besides it didn’t seem as if it was confidently shot. Fair enough, it possesses a set up that held a lot of promise at the start but as it played out, it gave a rough suggestion of a movie that was going to be a boring reality; the poor visuals, lighting, grating flashbacks and terrible supporting players like the younger Jude and Edward contributing in making it so. Thought the casting director did his best to pull some good actors on set, he got them all trapped in one of the most unoriginal dramatization of a story of one girl, two suitors in a battle of wit.

If you happen to find this to watch, you are likely to find that it is tasty at first, but again you are most likely to wait for so long to catch some of the thrills. Not only were the scenes saying the same thing, the flash backs were grating and the actions therein under directed.