By Ali Baylay

EXECUTIVE IMAGE MOVIES & FRANCO FILMS presents Emeka Ike, Uche Jombo, Uche Elendu, Queen Nwokoye, Emeka Enyiocha, Adoara Okoh; Story: Collins Chidebe; Production Manager: Solomon Apeti; Associate Producer: Uche Elendu; Director: Mac-Collins Chidebe;  129 mins. 2008

Screenwriter, Nkem Alu’s use of a clever motif (oversize picture of a naked man placed at a focal point in the primary location of the movie) quite justifies its theme: nestfull of not-too-young-spinsters, whose biological clocks are out of whack,  laying in their nest awaiting vulnerable bachelors and cheating husbands. Koko Babes is a farce with poor production by a large measure. In some cases it touches on serious themes like serial killings and four-one-nines with no serious outcomes to affect the advancement of the story.

Digressions and subplots aside, Koko Babes is a story of four spinsters (Princess/Uche Elendu; Esther/Uche Jombo; Halima/Queen Nwokoye; Titi/Udora Ukoh) each out to get one guy they admire , a local star (DJ/Emeka Ike) and to get him in bed.

At the beginning of the film, Princess runs upon promoters putting up fliers about a local celebrity’s upcoming musical appearance at a local night club. She grabs some of the fliers, gets back into her car and runs home to her nest, their nest (spinsters) and lies that her boyfriend DJ, will be performing at a local club in town. Though the gang did not buy into the lie outright, they half convince and with envy, that there must be element of truth in Princess’s claim. Now, with the exception of Halima, Esther and Titi too want DJ for themselves. From thereon, is Esther and Titi versus Princess, and altercations after altercations, stand offs after stand offs, and near-fight after near-fight ensue.

Writer Nkem Alu builds a little dramatic tension here to the climax, when all the girls and even Halima look to the day of DJ appearance at the club. Not much ado in this scene but it surprises viewers when DJ falls for innocent Halima, and the story ends.

Half of Koko Babes’part one doesn’t in any way contributes to the story except the expositions about killing cheating husbands in hotel rooms and making away with lot of loots. Part two has meaning, tension and direction.

If I could guess one essence of this movie, is that stardom in both Nollywood and Gollywood has taken off in the same way the western world views their celebrities: Do whatever it takes to get closer to the stars, and don’t mind losing your soul in the process. If the writer’s intended objective was to write humor, the incidental killings in part one would not have been done on a serious note. But these incidents really injured our viewing pleasure of this half-baked humor.

By DAVID AJIBOYE.

Nollywood star actress Thelma Okoduwa took a bold step recently and walked down the aisle with her long time boyfriend, Onya Ojiji. The white wedding took place at the Blue Island Event Centre in Lekki, Lagos. Thelma who is well-loved by her Nollywood colleagues had fellow actress Rita Dominic as her Maid of Honour while various Nollywood stars including Uche Jombo and Genevieve Nnaji were in attendance. Their guests danced into the night away with the couple as they celebrated the blissful union.

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• By Ali Baylay

Strength of Faith: Producer: Sunshine Movies Limited, Director: Ikechukwa Onyeka. Cast: Van Vicker, Uche Jombo, Tonto Dikeh.

Strength to Strength: Producer: Solomon Apete, Director: Ugezu J. Ugezu, Prod. Mgm: Ifeanyi Udoku, Exec. Prod: Ezenwa Collins Chinedu. Cast: Patience Ozorkwo, Mike Ezuruonye, Mercy Johnson, Tonto Dike.

I do not know how these two identical title of movies ended up on my desk but for some reason they were there, and I kept looking away because the titles in themselves are not eye catching or meaningful. However, I got curious at one point, and my critical mind forced me to watch them, simultaneously.

One thing about Strength of Faith and Strength to Strength production processes don’t sit well with me. I don’t know about you, but for me  the titles are too close for comfort. I can’t imagine two seperate productions would have so close a title and so close a theme. It seems Nollywood is running short of story ideas and titles.

If I could work up some similarity traits between the two movies, both are produced in 2008 and marketed in America. Strength of Faith, by Black Star Entertainment , 3832 White Plains Road, Bronx, New York 10467; Strength to Strength, by Executive Image African Movies, 2811 White Plains Road, Bronx, New York 10467. Both these companies live next door to each other.

The casts are either compromised or borrowed from one set to another. The notorious mother-in-law of Nick ( Mike Ezuruonye) in Strength to Strength, commonly known in the film as Nick’s mom (Camilla Mgbrekpe), is also Mama(Camela Mberekpe)  who plays the evil mother of Van Vicker in Strength of Faith. Then enters Tonto Dike, (Chekwube) in Strength of Faith, and (Angela) in Strength to Strength, and in both films she plays the tragic character who ends dead before the end credits roll. Oh, one more thing about these two flicks that stand out as similar is, they both explore marriage themes in reference to in-laws: The aggrandizing mother (Patience Ozokwor) of Jane (Mercy Johnson) in (Strength to Strength) who would like to sell Jane to the highest bidder, versus Nick’s Mom (Camilla Mgbereka) who could stop at nothing but to get her son a woman who would give her a grandchild. In Stregth of Faith, the mother-in-law bewitches Chekwube for the mere heck of the fact that she hates her.

The only difference found between the two movies is that while one explores (Strength to Strength), the biblical plot of Jacob marrying Rachel and her sister Leah, but deviates and takes on a plot curve from there, ending the story with the death of the younger sister, Angela (Tonto Dike) in labor; In  the use of  of in the title of Strength of Faith, I find a difference, and poetic justice in the story: Devil worshipping works, as equally as belief in the holy ghost’s fire depending on the strength of faith like we find in both factions responsible for the death of Chekwube (Tonto Dike) and Mama (Camela Mberekpe), respectively.

The reason why Hollywood uses working titles during production of a movie is, by the time of premier their movie must have been christened a title unique to it and to it alone. In today’s age of  google keywording, your movie with a similar title to the production next door,  in the same market, can easily get lost in the laybrinth. Are we getting short of titles in Nollywood?