When I saw AY’s 30 Days In Atlanta at the cinema, I came in a bit late and I missed some opening scenes. But last night, I decided to watch the movie all over again in DVD and I was surprised to see the silly mistakes that were made in the high grossing and multiple awards winning movie that no one talked about – so silly that I had to stop midway and switched to Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip.
If I had started the movie with the Lekki Gardens raffle draw scene, I would have been bored till the end of the movie because of the crude way they went about the ad placement. They need to go and learn and the art of sensible product placement. So many things did not make sense in the scene and I was just praying that the scene would end as soon as possible – then I was made to know that AY and Ramsey Nouah would be playing brothers/cousins.
“Are you filming kidding? What the film! AY and Ramsey Nuoah are like light and darkness – they don’t look remotely alike,” I screamed in the ears of my bewildered wife who attempted to pacify my rage.
The radio station tour too was equally annoying considering the fact that there are numerous raffle draws in Nigeria today and very few of them take the winners from one radio station to another. If they had wanted to really talk about Lekki Gardens and showcase Cool FM, they could have just done the raffle draw on-air as a live broadcast on Cool FM and Wazobia FM, they could then mention Lekki Gardens as the sponsor. Chikena!
And there was something that no one has mentioned yet (at least to the best of my knowledge). It is AY and Nouah’s characters’ arrival in the United States. They used the domestic wing of an airport instead of the international wing, and they showed us even as AY was ‘unfunningly’ screaming ‘Warri’ and ‘Their father’ at high decibels.
There were also several overacting that got annoying at some point. You wouldn’t know whether Akpos could speak English language well or not. And talking of Akpos, I personally believe it shouldn’t have been AY that would play the role. Just imagine Akpororo playing that character.
While there some really good scenes and lines in AY’s 30 Days in Atlanta, the fact remained that the widely acclaimed movie could still be described as a typical Nollywood production and this is why I’m worried – Nollywood has become synonymous with mediocrity and IQ-lowering productions.
Even though very few African countries can compete with Nigerian movies in terms of quality (I couldn’t believe it either until I visited some African countries and saw their movies… I will still choose AY’s movie over theirs anyday), there is a demand for higher quality from Nigerian movie industry especially with the rejuvenation of the cinema culture. If I will be paying N1,500 to see a movie, it better be good or that will be the last time I will be seeing local movies.
Go to any Nigerian cinema and ask the moviegoers which movies they are seeing. Very few, mostly the ladies, (yes, I said it), will line up to watch Nollywood movies. But it doesn’t in any way suggest that there are no good stories for Nigerian men to watch. I saw October 1st and I loved it!
Nollywood moviemakers should stop acting like local champions competing with the movie industry in Rwanda. If they can be bold enough to ask moviegoers to pay the same thing they paid for Fast and Furious 7 for their movies, then they shouldn’t compromise on the quality and shouldn’t tell us that the industry is just growing. They can do better; we deserve better.
