I'm gonna be reviewing Crazy Scandals starring Nadia Buari, Frank Artus, Prince David Osei, Juliet Ibrahim. It was directed by Ken Steve Anuka and produced by Ndiribe Desmond Uchenna.
Here is the trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X1g-MTYasn8
The story is about Jeff, played by Frank Artus, and Samantha, played by Nadia. On their wedding day, right before taking his vows, Jeff leaves Samantha because as he says, he was not in love with her, just infatuated. Everybody is pissed at him, Samantha keeps calling, wanting to know why he left her, and after he decides he can't take it anymore, he decides to leave town. Immediately he gets to his new location, he meets Nicole (Juliet Ibrahim), and on their first date, they both declare their love for each other and soon, they're engaged, (Africans don't waste time, thaz all I can say). Nicole's friend, Christina, can't be the maid of honor because she has to leave to London due to some, ahem, circumstances unknown to Nicole.
Nicole randomly bumps into her very good old friend, Samantha, and asks Samantha to be her maid of honor. At this time, Samantha is seeing Kay, (Prince David) who is quite hot in his own right. He knows she went through a hard breakup but doesn't know who the guy was. When she finds out who Nicole's fiance is, she is determined that Jeff leave Nicole and be with her. She is obsessed with having him back despite his numerous refusals, and everyone starts to get affected. She even jilts Kay on her wedding day and starts stalking Jeff and Nicole on their honeymoon
Spoiler Alert!!!!!
Storyline
The story is not excitingly original, but it was a bit different. I mean we've seen this same obsessed theme used a lot in recent African movies. Nadia's role here is quite similar to her role in Checkmate where she was obsessed with a married man. But I did like the twists though.
So, Jeff has been dating Sam for one year and he realized he didn't love her. Then he sees Nicole and on their first date, he declares love and they get engaged right after. K.O.! *I comment my reserve*
Everyone in this movie seemed to be obsessed about someone else. Samantha was obsessed with Jeff. Kay was obsessed with Samantha; and Christina was obsessed with Jeff and Kay.
The movie is in 3 parts, and while I can understand the need to make profit, for me that really weakened it. Because they were some redundant themes, like Samantha always offering herself to Jeff. In Part 3, I was really losing interest because I think that part was so unnecessary. Her holding a gun, always threatening to kill Jeff and Nicole.
Hmmmm, so it would be nice if they made the shooting scenes a bit more realistic. Sam shot Nicole and there's no bullet hole but a pool of blood is there? I thought we had gotten past this level. I was rather surprised because it was so obvious there was a mistake.
Character Development
This was pretty poor.
We kinda assume Jeff has money because of his nice car but how can he move to a new city and be living in a big mansion. It makes no sense since we are not told what his job is that he can afford such a huge house or even if he came from Old Money. They could have definitely made that more specific.
Samantha, I think that one does not do anything but sit, be pretty and plan the wedding. This seemed to be the case for all the women, and it was just weird for me, having them so jobless.
Acting
Nadia Buari gave a good performance. She fit the role of the obsessed pretty easily but I think she might have carried it to far a couple of times to the point of unbelievable.
Frank Artus was pretty good fitting the role of the confused and tired being blackmailed emotionally. There was a scene were he was telling his friend why he jilted Sam at the altar and he sees her, the look in his face, like sorry and tired. I was like awwwwww. I would say that he should try to pronounce his words better though. Once, he was trying to say 'insinuating' and he said 'incinerating'. Also, he sweats a lot ohhh.
Juliet Ibrahim was believable. As opposed to extravagant mannerisms, she was toned down here and in a good way.
Prince David. i first saw him in Sin of the Soul, where I thought, 'Oh boy oh girl, another yankee accent forcing extra. But I saw him again in I sing of a Well, and then here and I'll say his acting has definitely improved. He was a little wooden in some scenes and there was just no passion or click with Nadia but I will say I did not cringe as much. The scene where he was asking Sam to marry him, he looked like he was asking her what her favorite color was. But, and forgive me, he's gbona feli feli bi amala to jina gan gan (he's hot like cooked food). He has this strong voice and he definitely has future, just needs to tone it up a bit.
Fair Skinned Actors
I heard recently that Majid said he wasn't gonna be doing Nigerian movies again because of the death threats he's been getting, which is really sad. Personally, I'm not against using fair skinned actors if they actually have the talent, but if you are using them just because you feel they'll attract a bigger audience, that's really not fair. There were 3 main ladies in the film and they were all half cast. The lady playing Christina was not even all that good and I feel there's probably other people that could have done better jobs and it would have been nice to explore that area.
Names
I don't like being a hater but Come On! Not a single lead actor or actress here had an African name: Jeff, Nicole, Xtina, Samantha. It would be nice to hear a couple of Kwame's, Naa's and Oluwafeyikemi's. Please I know we are all trying to be westernized but I'm begging, some authenticity would be nice.
Conclusion
I enjoyed the movie. There were funny scenes and those that kept you at the edge. One time, when Jeff and Nicole were on their honeymoon, Jeff kept changing their hotels because Sam kept following them and Nicole was lost and confused, it was quite funny.
I would recommend it, because the drama was interesting but it had it's fair share of plot holes and problems. But a definite A for effort.
Till next blog entry, see ya, catsh ya, larer.
later lovelies! <3
Reference
www.nollywoodforever.com
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