Baby Oku In America

So… let me start with the obvious question on everyone’s mind “where on earth is the second part of this movie?”. You have got to be kidding me if I just sat through all that for that.

Baby Oku in America is a modern day (if I can use that phrase) attempt at remaking the classic Nollywood movie, “Osuofia In London”.  It stars a local Mercy Johnson, as Baby Oku, who has ‘luckily’ gotten herself impregnated by a man that lives in America, the unfortunate Chet Anekwe. She now moves to America and brings her ‘oku’ (heat) with her overseas.

The thing with remaking movies is that more than half of the time it doesn’t work out, and when it’s happening in Nollywood the odds of it working out are even slimmer. The original movie, Osuofia in London, is probably one of the only Nollywood comedies that I’ve watched… throughout… repeatedly… all parts. Which is huge for me because I can’t stand Nollywood comedies and there’s a reason.

It’s because they usually have no storyline, they just follow one character (be it Mr Ibu, Osuofia, Mama G or Aki and Pawpaw) as they do the same thing over and over to different individuals. Osuofia in London was great not only because it was hilarious, it was also relatable – because I have family members that would pull a stunt like that, it had a concrete storyline – the will storyline was an actual storyline, it had drama, it had… it had substance. This on the other hand is empty.

Baby Oku in America is like a donut, a very skinny donut with a huge hole in the middle. The substance of the movie is all that I’ve detailed in the synopsis and everything else is just hollow. There is no storyline, there is nothing tangible going on. I think the scriptwriter realizes this towards the end and then attempts to force a story on the movie by having the…. oh! I shall not ruin it for you.

Mercy Johnson on the other hand did try considering that the story already had no fabric, no content and no direction. She had her moments, she was funny occasionally but it does become annoying eventually and MJ does tend to overdo it.

Chet Anekwe gives me hope. He gives me hope for Nollywood USA seeing as he came from there and he just keeps getting better. His role on the other hand was just not it. The character was unreal! Correct me if I’m wrong but there is no man like that. There is no human being like that. He has no breaking point, no fuse ever gets short in his head, he is just a steady paced weakling. It is unrealistic, it doesn’t happen. However, I will say that Mr. Anekwe tried with the little he was given and some of his reactions to Baby Oku were priceless.

They are a lot of steals from “Osuofia in London” in this movie such as the funny dressing to the airport, the pda (public display of affection) argument, the grocery store brouhaha and so on but none of them were as great as in Osuofia in London. I hate to compare the productions but this movie might have its moments but it doesn’t even come close to Osuofia in London.

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