Director – Ikechukwu Onyeka
Written By– Ifeanyi Azodo
Starring– Mercy Johnson, Chet Anekwe, Ani Amatosero
Genre– Drama.
Run time– 1:20:45
I recall when I told friends I wanted to review Nigerian films, aka nollywood movies, asides the ones who literally laughed out loud, I got advice to add other stuff to the mix like gossip and the craziest of them all was the fact that I wanted to get headache from watching the movies.
Let me just say, it hasn’t been an easy feat watching them, considering the fact that I am used to foreign movies but since inception of xplorenollywood, I have focused mainly on well packaged nollywood movies, which basically means a single part on DVD, as well as those proper movie covers.
So, I decided to break that norm, and review a film produced by Amaco Investment Ltd and Gabriel Moses
Baby Oku in America stars Mercy Johnson, a village champion girl who gets knocked up by Okey, who is visiting from America. As the village champion, she is obnoxious, troublesome and basically a wrestler. Okey decides to do the right thing to avoid his mom being outcast from society and have his baby mama over to the states and this causes an elevation of her village ways and a basic screw up of his life.
At first watch, it was a complete waste of my time and to my mind, totally below what an actresses like Mercy Johnson should be playing. The script was a no brainier, I am guessing Ifeanyi’s intention was to churn out a comedic movie but it turned out to be long, lacking focus and totaling annoying one.
In terms of acting, the main character Mercy did not require any unique skill since there was nothing major or challenging in her role especially when you are trying to portray a local village girl. I must hand it to Mercy Johnson though as she was pregnant when she acted this role and I was also surprised by her Igbo intonation and her ability to speak the language, but after part one and an unnecessary part two, I realized, she was saying the same thing over and over again, totally ingenious.
After viewing a part 1 & 2 of Baby Oku, I was disappointed at its lack of any creativity (not sure what I was expecting really) whatsoever, its long winded plot and unnecessary scenes. The movie gets an F and I would like to suggest a more engaging and creative script and a creatively dramatic cast, but what do I expect from an Amaco Investment Ltd and the likes, not sure if that tops their list!!!
