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Intimidation
Story/ Screenplay – Ubong Bassey Nya
Director – Ikechukwu Onyeka
Producer – Arsenal Bruno, Henrey Ukpai, Ikechukwu Onyeka
Starring:
Kofi Adjorlolo – Murktar
Mike Ezuruonye – Ikenna
Ini Edo – Zainab
Tonto Dikeh – Aisha
Prince Eke – Ekene
Chukwuma Uchegbu – Deputy Governor
Pat Asore – Amina
Uche Ebere – Vivian
Ikechukwu Onyeka – Kola
Kennedy Kalu – Abiodun
Joseph Mike – Mike
Ikeh Kenneth – Gang
Emeka Osuji – Tutcha
Themes Explored:
Blackmail
Suicide
“Saving Face”
Reputation
Scandal
Jealousy
My Rating – 72%
Zainab is due a visit home and her friend Aisha is accompanying her. Despite her father making reservations for the both of them to fly into Abuja, Zainab is hell bent on driving instead, seeking “adventure.” Although at first Aisha refuses to join Zainab on the drive to Abuja, she relents and ends up joining her. Zainab definitely finds the adventure that she was looking for. At first they get lost and the car breaks down. They manage to get help with the help of a stranger but when sunset hits and the gas runs out they are left no option but to follow and intimidating stranger into the bush. It remains to be seen whether he is to be trusted or not.
*************SPOILERS************
Zainab is a damn fool. Your father owns an airline and you are there wanting to drive from Lagos (I think it was Lagos, if anyone remembers different let me know) to Abuja. What adventure could she possibly be looking for? Perhaps the adventure of getting robbed and shot? Nonsense. Nigeria is not the sort of place that you take road trips just for the fun of it.
It was ridiculous that Zainab was so insistent on driving, especially when Aisha told her that she would go on ahead and catch the flight without her to the point that she walked out of the door. Anyone with an ounce of common sense would just follow her friend as what is the point seeking adventure on the roads between Lagos and Abuja by yourself? It would have made more sense if Zainab had been running late and then decided to drive, but she was not even running late. It seemed like the girl was on a suicide mission.
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The Forest Scenes
Why does Zainab try and clobber the poor guy when they are in the woods after he has helped them so much. Is it because he is still in possession of her gun?
What sense did it make for Zainab to go and look for the stream to shower in the middle of nowhere, in the middle of the night? She was already mouthing off about how she would not cool or wash plates because it was her maids job so how realistic would it be that as prissy as she is she would want to go and wash in a stream. They had only been stranded 5 minutes.
It was in the forest scenes was when the tension really began to deepen. I never knew what was going to happen next, between Aisha licking her lips at the sight of the grunting stranger and Zainab attempting to clobber him every so often. So from trying to kill the guy Zainab now ends up spontaneously having sex with him up against a tree.
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Reputation… Scandal… Jealousy
Aisha’s reaction to her friend getting with Ikenna was borne out of jealousy although she tried to disguise it as concern. After catching them in the act she tells Zainab,
“Wait until your parents find out about this… Wait until the scandal breaks in all the newspapers in Abuja.”
Er love you are such a hater. How can any scandal break unless you are the one to break it? She is an adult how is it your business if she sleeps with one random guy in a forest. Na wa! Aisha was taking hateration to another level. It would have been fine if Aisha were simply disappointed because she liked the guy. That is a natural feeling, but ultimately she had no claims to the guy so she needed to suck it up. Aisha was acting like Zainab had just snatched her husband. She even said to Zainab, “I could never throw myself at a filthy low life like that.” Erm but you did!!! Cooing how “fine” he was and constantly eyeing him up.
Zainab tells Ikenna that he cannot set foot in Abuja because she doesn’t want him creating scandal for her. Is the city not big enough to contain them both? It was looking to me like her own friend was more of a threat to her in terms of ruining her reputation and creating a scandal. She does not even know where the guy is headed to when she warns him. He does not even know who she is and all her yabbering about scandals would only serve the purpose to plant the idea of creating a scandal into his head.
Ikenna’s hotel room came like it had a revolving door attached to it. We see Vivian coming through to flash her bribes of cash, fake passports and houses in California in order to get Ikenna to leave the country so that the fact that she unduly sent him to prison is not exposed. We see Zainab throwing her cheque around to try and make him leave Abuja in order to avoid embroiling herself in a scandal and we see Aisha simply turning up full of lust trying to force him to sleep with her. It is quite funny watching these women get so heated up, scared what Ikenna’s next move is going to be while he just lays back coolly.
The general wants to give Ikenna a job because there is “something I like about him” WHAT? You have barely spoken to him and when he came into the compound you looked at him in disgust. So at which point was it I wondered, that he began to like Ikenna? That scenario would have been more realistic if there had been some banter between them or commonality explored. In that case we would be able to see where this “like” had suddenly emerged from following the initial disgust. We also see Zainab’s mother stand by and approve of the guy after she had only just recently seen him in the supermarket with Zainab and whispered in her ear that she did not like the guy.
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Sound
When the girls hit the road in search of adventure the sound becomes appalling. A certain level of distortion is sound is inevitable when driving at high speeds with the wind interfering etc, however the sound was so terrible that you could barely hear the conversation between the two girls. At one point Zainab is driving at 120 MPH and Aisha panics and is told to shut up. Not only do we hear wind, static, and heavy vibrating noises but we hear loud orchestral dramatic music. It was overkill. The orchestral music was appropriate in some scenes in the film to heighten the tension but a lot of the time it was misplaced.
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Ini Edo and Tonto Dikeh gave stellar performances, performances last seen in a Native Son. They had great chemistry as close friends and the fear they had of the stranger called Ikenna was very believable. Mike Ezuruonye played the silent but deadly character effortlessly; he embodied the character and gave nothing away in his movement, expression or eyes, which added to his character’s mystery.
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Overall I really liked the movie, however I am getting annoyed about movies coming out and not finishing then you have to be waiting endlessly additional parts. What kinda buuuuuuuuuulsh… is that? It had its flaws as I have explored but after all the rubbish I have been watching lately I was so happy to actually watch something different and enjoyable. It kept me hooked to the screen wondering what was going to happen next. I just badly wish that more attention to detail had been paid in terms of realism in the story and script. If due care had been taken the movie could have been phenomenal. As it was it was simply just above average, but well worth watching. Watch Nigerian Movie Review Nollywood Production Nigerian Actress Actors
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