Midnight Whispers
Ini Edo, Clems Ohameze, Ime Bishop Umoh, Ginnefine Kanu, Morris Sesay
A married couple are on the brink of estrangement but feel compelled to stay together because of the mutual societal benefits that they gain from their union. The strained relationship takes a destructive path after the hiring of a strange new maid
"Oh no I'm not talking to you, I'm talking to Mahatma Gandhi" - Ini Edo
Midnight Whispers part 1
Desmond Elliot
Emem Isong, Ginnefine Kanu, Morris Sesay
Felix Odion
2012
-Story: [2 out of 5] Before anything else, irokotv claims that this is a 2012 movie, yet the picture on the left (which is a clip from the movie) clearly says 2008. Do I take that as a prop mishap or is irokotv falsely advertising? #FoodForThought… on to matter. There’s something I’ve brought up in a couple reviews in the past called “the lazy man’s ending”. Now there are two basic lazy man endings to Nollywood movies that I’ve noticed since I started blogging and they are: 1) Do like Nelly and say ‘it was only just a dream’ or just stop the movie. That’s it! Stop the movie right there. Whether the point you ended at is reasonable or not just stop when you’re tired as if you ran out of film. Now, I won’t tell you which this movie employs so as not to ruin it, but it employs one. But unlike most other movies, and contrary to popular opinion, the ‘lazy man’s ending’ was actually suitable for the movie.
-Originality: [1 out of 5] This movie had a striking resemblance to (what may or may not have been) Mercy Johnson’s breakout movie “The Maid” starring Eucharia Anunobi alongside Clem Ohameze again. The same basic motifs with a couple new twists.
-Predictability: [2 out of 5] Did I see the ‘lazy man’s ending’ coming? No! But did I see everything else coming? Yes! (well… for the most part)
-Directing/Editing: [3 out of 5] There has been constant debate on the comments about Desmond’s directing capabilities (which at times led to name slurring and unnecessary threats – hence the reason all comments on NR are now moderated). In the course of the argument, someone made a very valid point which was simply that Desmond only recently started directing and should not be compared to other well established/great directors. Give him time to make his mistakes and learn from it. I’d say that I think Oga Des is making slow and steady improvements. However, for the last couple of scenes, I felt like Moses Inwang would have done a better job directing them (especially after seeing “Private Enemy“) especially if the original intent was for it to be a scary movie
-Acting quality: [2 out of 5] I was stumbling on exactly how many points this movie should get for acting quality because on the one hand we have Ini, Clem and Bishop killing it and on the other hand we have Ginnefine and Morris doing ‘whatever they want to call what it was they were doing’. So is it a 4 or a 3? Are Ini, Clem and Bishop’s strong acting skills strong enough to compensate for the lack of skills in the other actors. Or do the strengths of the good actors and the weaknesses of the bad cancel each other out (Yes! This really is all the thought that goes into picking a single number). Eventually I concluded that there are about 5 actors in this movie and there are 5 points available so… I did the most natural thing lol. Many a times in this movie did I feel like calling it quits and continuing tomorrow (which would probably never happen as is evidenced by the long list of movies I have started and still haven’t finished) but Bishop’s character kept me going. The guy is just a marvelous dunce that keeps you going all the way. Oh the hilarity!… Why o why won’t anyone just realize that Morris Sesay no sabi act? Please stay put behind the cameras. I was even about to adjust my position with him after the first few scenes of the movie (in which his role was not that pronounced) but when the camera now came and focused specifically on him? The actor that he’s not came to the surface and it was back to square one. Why do they keep pairing old people with young people is what I don’t understand? Isn’t Clem old enough to be Ini’s father? Anywho… Clem and Ini did a good job. Ginnefine? Uhm… more work is needed is all I can say.
-Setting: [3 out of 5] I just now realized that this movie had only one set. Impressive!
-Costume/Make-Up: [2 out of 5] Generally on point. Not really impressed by Gineffine’s witch makeup (like somebody just recently discovered the black eye shadow on the palette)
-Props and Graphics: [3 out of 5] I think one fabulous thing about this movie is how they used style style to insult the institution of baba alawos. Everything from the supposed Native Doctor’s demands (13 shells of tortoise? 13 guords of palmwine?) to his incantations was just an obvious mockery of the idea, which I applaud.(by the way, NUND – Nigerian Union of Native Doctors – has informed of your actions, RAA, and are coming to get you for degrading their occupation)
-Video Quality: [3 out of 5] Randomly ‘sepias’ in some scenes.
-Audio Quality [1 out of 5] I don’t know if it’s just irokotv but mine seemed to mute at some scenes. That coupled with changing timbres and up and down audio is equivalent to the score you see
-Soundtrack: [3 out of 5] Ok
-Musical Score: [3 out of 5] Not bad
Pot of Life
King Akabueze
NR well from what am seeing its an Okay Movie,Plix this Morris guy No comment but someone should advice him on his acting skill,i like Ini sha anyday
Yeah it wasn’t that bad.
Nne even I don’t understand. I refuse to believe that he does not realize how bad he is.
Flint ,u now sound like a broken Record,Guy grow up naaaa,we don hear,u are the best Director,why dont u get other things to say than just talk about desmond,mehhnnnn i tire for some people oo,always Nagging,i pity who u are married to or will marry,its too much ,leave Desmond he has his fans,if u dont like him u have said it enough keep it to urself
why is is that people see criticism as hating on someone,ok let me put it this way so that u will know that i am not the only one critizing desmond on his directing,go googled up the review of his other movies and see for urselve, people should learn the difference between objective and subjective opinions, in this case u are not being objective, u are being subjective(as a fan)in ur opinion about desmond’s directing, in hollywood filmmakers get highly criticized for their movies when it isn’t good, now does that mean such critics hate such filmmakers, michael bay gets alot of criticism for his movies, does that mean that they hate him. look lets all be honest here and call a spade a spade, at this point of emem isong’s career, she should be making movies in the league of what izu,kunle, leila etc produce but so far working with desmond hasn’t achieved that for her,in all honesty don’t we expect emem to produce such movies instead of what she has produced so far,i want to ask a very specific question here and i want everyone reading this here to be the judge,which teacher has a student’s interest at heart, is it the one that gives the students freehand by not making them work hard or the teacher that is constantly keeping the student on check by working them hard, if u can answer this question honestly u will know that i am the one that wants desmond to progress better not people who praise him even when he is not doing much right, i don’t care if i sound like a broken record, as a matter of fact i also criticize other directors like frank rajah and phil efe benard, u might ask why is it that so far i have only criticized three directors, well that is because the three i have criticized show the zeal to be ambitious, the rest(the usual alaba directors)i don’t have time for them because the choose not to improve rather the are bent on making the money not quality films so why do i have to bother about them.one important thing to note is that one doesn’t have to be an award winning director to critique a movie. anonymous u always like to play the it is alright game which i am sorry to say won’t work too well for u in the real world.
i definitely beleive desmond will get better with time, like i sujested in my other comments, emem should be giving him her lower budget films, in this way he will gain and get more experienced and sharpen his directorial skills, where i seem to differ is the idea of emem giving him big budget movies like i will take my chances, holding hope, and weekend getaway to direct at the expense of the quality of her brand when she could higher much better and experienced director to do a better job, i know desmond started not too long ago in directing but there is nothing bad in criticizing his work, what do u expect when u are working on an emem isong production, had he been working with some of these alaba producers that make crappy movies, who would bother, but eye brows will be raised when u go to work on productions headed by the likes of emem, kunle,tunde,leila, spielberg, cameron etc and as a result of this, average isn’t good enough, u really have to bring ur “A” game.