Native Fowl

The first half and a quarter of this movie is nothing new, in fact it specifically rehashes over 20 of Mercy Johnson’s past movies. However in the second part it started to get interesting and original. But nothing can save the old tired comedy troupe of angry Yoruba woman, and they over stretched it to its last breath.

The story of the Yoruba woman passing off as Igbo was hilarious and funny brought to life by Mercy Johnson in top form. But apart from that it was annoying and cliché, using a drunken man as a plot device. Very original (!) The characters were tired especially Abike, one we have seen countless of times before. It is properly subtitled, which is really a bonus because more than half is either in Igbo or Yoruba and it does have an authentic feel. All things considered it is not a bad story, just unoriginal and far too predictable. The ending is more than satisfactory , it just takes so long to get to the nitty gritty of it all.

The acting of course was superb. We all know that Mercy Johnson can deliver, but she needs to start delivering in other genres not only girl who is troublesome, fights a lot and loves her ill matched partner. Nuella Njubigboh was good as well, very convincing and funny but she might as well have been called Bitterleaf Cynthia for all the originality her character had. She had an amazing energy about the whole thing though. Clem Ohamazie, having long joined the ranks of older male actors who really should know themselves, was an interesting character as well as a good actor.

The settings were varied and engaging enough. The wardrobe did such a great job on Nuella Njubigboh because the change was marvellous. The soundtrack was one of those explain-everything ones that we haven’t seen in a while. It gave away the whole story at the beginning although that wasn’t a totally bad thing. After all without the sound track, no one would know that it has more going for it that an amalgamation of Dumebi the Dirty Girl, Baby Oku and countless others.

In conclusion, I would say watch when bored but not when you want to be challenged. It is an okay movie. Not particularly bad, but definitely not original enough to be termed as great.