MOVIE RUN By Shaibu Husseini

RETURN FROM EUROPE

Producer – Oragwam Edwin

Director – Reginald Ebere

Actors   - Nkem Owoh, Tony Akposheri, Monica Sibjyle and others.

Hard as he tried, Eluwa (Tony Akposheri) could not convince his kinsmen that Thomas (Nkem Owoh) his elder brother, who is in far away Bosnia was hale and hearty. Eluwa has up to the Easter of that year to produce Thomas or confirm the allegation that he may have conspired to use Thomas for rituals. He calls up Thomas who finally agreed to return home ‘loaded’ with dollars. Days later, Thomas returns with a Bosnian wife but without the anticipated ‘dollars’ and ‘goods’ which he claims are on the high sea. Unlike most returnees, Thomas soon turns a dependant to the chagrin of members of his immediate family and the entire community some of whom had made plans around his ‘load of dollars’.

Most people who opted to see this movie with a laundry list of faults did because they thought that like ‘Osoufia In London’ and because it starred Nkem Owoh, the lead actor in ‘Osoufia in London’ they were going to find it fascinating. But it turned out a disappointment- the central problem being that it lacks originality and it’s lined with some tasteless jokes. The fact that it even engaged one of the sectors most sought after comic actors Nkem Owoh couldn’t save it from its drabness. It couldn’t even make for the movies technical and artistic limitation. Hard as Owoh tried, he couldn’t just transform this into something mildly better. There was nothing to hold on to not even a fantastic moment that would make a discernable viewer root for it.

Indeed it was obvious from the story that the folks behind this went on location when they discovered that some other movies with a similar thematic thrust ‘were selling like pure water’ as they say in Moviedom. This, apart from coming through as a failed disguised representation of the successful comic flick ‘Osoufia in London’, reeked of amateurism particularly in the screenplay, dialogue, acting and photography.

LAGOS BABES

Producer – Peter Obiefuna, Maduka Okechukwu

Director   - Chico Ejiro

Actors      - Ashley Nwosu, Peter Bruno, Eucharia Ekwu, Collins Onwuchei and others

Night. Poorly lit scene. Benita played by Stephnora Falana nee Okere runs into a necking session between her fiancé Roland (Ashley Nwosu) and her arch rival Lisa played by the weighty actress Eucharia Ekwu nee Anunobi. Benita spits fire but Lisa is unperturbed. She vows instead to covet more of Benita’s “assets” just as she had done during their lewd sojourn in Port Harcourt and Abuja. Benita a self confessed shrewd business woman who later denies one Amanda of the man in her life, retreats and lays out a revenge plan. Lisa is arrested but eventually released. Lisa falls in again when she snuffs life out of one Rose whom she tried to lure into prostitution. She is jailed and the movie ends…that’s all to this story that was stretched beyond limits.

Anyway this consciousness raising effort that is tinged with violence and profanity is one good entertainment that lands fairly well. It pulled a rich cast and the pictures stayed bright and shining. But the movie, which carelessly leaped over plot holes, failed to make it to the lofty perch largely because it was stagy (and that’s because it’s a movie with so many storyline) and uneven. Sub-plots are broached and later disregarded – the problem with most movies here.

It is good. You might only be bothered if you thought very highly of it at first. The producers intended this as a moralistic campaign against prostitution. But this somewhat gratified it-the way it was resolved.