Banana Island Ghost (B.I.G)

In Banana Island Ghost, the comedic Chigul (aka Chioma Omeruah) plays a desperate Banana Island resident in search of 18 million Naira. This N18million is how much is required for her to keep her father’s banana island home from being foreclosed by the bank. As she hustles to make this money, she meets a ghost who has been granted three extra days on earth from God to find and woo his soulmate.

Before we delve into anything obvious let’s first of all tackle all the things that were impressive. I was very impressed with the accident scene. Everything in the scene, from the shots to the fire truck, did enough to showcase the situation without being required to do more than the budget can handle. Then there were the fight scenes at the end and the gunshots that were actually pretty decently coordinated. The setting of the casino was also definitely something to note. They managed a fine balance between set, prop, music and cinematography to create the impression of rugged opulence.

And then there was Patrick Diabuah who plays the male lead, “Patrick”. He commanded the scene from the get go and all the way to the end. Even in the scenes where you see what they are going for but they don’t quite reach (like the casino scene where he screams on top of a table), you are more inclined to believe it because of how well he commands it. So hats off to him.

Having said that, let’s move on to the less impressive aspects of it.

For some reason, nollywood seems to equate comedy with leave-your-brain-behind. Otherwise, I’m hard pressed to explain many of the holes in this narrative. Holes like our reckless use of product placement. We are way past the point of shameless plugs here – I personally can’t wait until the date when nollywood begins to embrace subliminal advertising. Every other scene felt like it had one thing or the other they were plugging from that restaurant to that dishwashing soap then that ice-cream (I shan’t name names cos una no pay me). There was even a scene where a guy is drinking tea and we focus in on the lipton label? Really?… Lipton?

The real fun of the movie though is the comedy and it had an ample amount of hilarious moments. From the leads to all the supporting staff. Chigul was effortless as Ijeoma and Patrick Diabuah really creates an impression in his role as “Patrick”. In the scenes in which they were present, Makida, Saidi and Akah truly steal the show and each joke lands.

As a basic nollywood comedy, B.I.G will suffice. It reaches the standard that we have come to accept as “impressive” but my problem is that it stays solidly in its comfort zone. It doesn’t ever reach to do more or explore more like the supernatural angle. Granted, it does more than our typical movie does at least it shows off the ghost’s skills in that diarrhea scene. I will give them props though for not setting the conversation between the ghost and ‘God’ in the skies with both of them standing on clouds.

In the end it felt like skit to skit to skit without a lot of immersion; but then again…. it’s nollywood comedy.