Movie review: Why ‘I come Lagos’ is the last Elvis Chuks film I will be seeing

by Wilfred Okichie

 

Lagos-Ng

 

I come Lagos is the latest in a line of steady misadventures

 

One of the perils of being a movie critic is having no control over the sort of movies one is expected to see. All is fair and contractual obligations dictate that every film that makes it to widescreen release deserves to be viewed on its own merits. While this is not always a downside, -one tends to stumble on hidden gems that may not have gotten the deserved attention- it is a reality that critics are forced to see countless movies they would rather avoid..

The name Elvis Chuks on a film is bad news and has come to be associated with disaster. For the film goer and for the actors who agree to star in his films.

In the last few years, Mr Chuks as a producer and director has made the following films, True Citizens, Victims of justice, A Wish, and most recently, Honeymoon hotel, each one worse than the one before. They all have the same components in common; an attractive, talented cast, dismal acting, zero plotting, cringe-inducing writing and non-existent directing. Most times it is just credible actors lazying around idly on screen for a limited amount of time.

I come Lagos is the latest in a line of steady misadventures. Nse-Ikpe Etim who can currently be seen in the fantastic Devil in the detail is cast in the lead role here as a country bumkin from Akwa Ibom state who arrives the big city on the goodwill of a friend and gets up in everybody’s business, moving from one hare-brained scheme to the other in a quest to hit it big.

There is nothing to cheer about here, no one to get carried away by. One gets the feeling some of Etim’s character’s antics were written on paper to elicit chuckles. None elicited. The film is grating and gets on the viewers’ every last nerve. Nse IKpe-Etim who is usually a formidable screen presence (again see Devil in the detail) is a shadow of her screen self and almost damages every modicum of credibility she has amassed by agreeing to carry this mess. She sports an engaging native Ibibio accent but that is about the only positive visible on screen. Her role is a cliché, her performance, a caricature. She is stranded with an odious script and terrible actors to play off against.

As is usual with Mr Chuks’ films, there is no plot. The heroine just jumps from one scenario to the other with hardly any thought to continuity. The scenes are badly lit, badly shot, badly acted.

For some reason, the stars have a hard time saying no to Mr Chuks and he attracts Mercy Johnson and AMAA winner Clarion Chukwura this time, to add to the foolishness on screen.

The whole affair comes to an end soon enough with no pretence at all at arriving at a resolution. Which is just as well, as even the most patient of viewers would have walked out if the torture had lasted a moment longer.

This is the last Elvis Chuks film this critic will be seeing.

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Op-ed pieces and contributions are the opinions of the writers only and do not represent the opinions of Y!/YNaija.

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