₦airaland Forum

ok ok. tell me if Jenifa is better than saworiode. how many film makers have ever achieved the level of art direction that Oleku pulled off. can you compare the quality of Jenifa to hostages. i'm saying we are not improving our standard. the films people shout about dont make any sense again. i asked myself if people are shouting Jenifa is a great film and i saw a film that was very and i mean it very bad! i ask myself this question. "what did nollywood do to our people's taste that Jenifa has become the "blockbuster" to many" a film with bad art direction, bad casting (old women calling themselves jambite as if we didnt go to university in nigeria), bad acting, bad script. i think our people need to stop watching rubbish and get their taste back on track.
I dont have to make a movie to be able to criticise bad movies. over 90% of movie critics all over the world dont make any movie but they are feared by movie makers because they are the ones that will either tear down the films or praise it. we shut down our ears to critics like a dog that wants to get lost and decides not to hear the whistle of the hunter

Larayat pick a good old film made in the 90's and compare it to the ones being made now and tell me what you think.

I think i agree with veira that it should be a sketch show. there are some few funny village people like aderupoko and that suliat boyfriend . apart from that every other thing is rubbish.
holla

@ Larayat
check out the music video we made in the late 90's. compare the musc video to the ones we make now. even we are respected in Africa when it comes to music videos. our music are very good now. we even shoot on 35mm film that very few south africans can afford.

but talk about our films its still the quality of 15 years ago. infact the standard has dropped. AFTER 15 YEARS our film industry has not improved and we explain it away by saying we are still growing. no man we are not ready for change and we even fight change. thats why people like me get shut down when we say anything bad about the poor quality of nollywood.

i said we cos i still see myself as a nigerian film maker. i wont say cos i'm not in nigerian i no be naaija again. i have a film i'm writing for naija and when i'm done i will source for finance and shoot it in naija.

if there is any good anija film i do appreciate it. there are some old school naija film that i respect. take for example i fell keeping faith with RMD and this girl was good.

There is money in naija. its just that they dont want to spend on film cos the marketers buy it for ridiculous price. why will people like dbang come and spend millions of naira on 4 minutes music video and we cant spend that much on part 1, 2, 3 films that we make.

cheers

I will love to see the film and see Nollywood from an outsiders view. I have talked to many foreign nationals about nollywood and they all have one view-big film industry but poor quality film especially bad sound.

I hope one day a new set of film makers will emerge that will strive for excellence.

@ Larayat
I dont beef any of the Nollywood film makers. they are doing their thing and I'm doing mine. but if a film is bad. the truth must be said. a bad film is a bad film. I wont say its bad because i beef them and i wont say a film is good just because i'm a fan.
we need to challenge ourselves to strife for excellence. we are known for releasing lots of low budget films and big ups to nollywood for that. but we are not known for releasing good quality. none of our films has ever made it to any major film festival except for Nigerian making films abroad. nollywood standard is poor and we need to let those film producers and marketers know that they need to 'belt up' and , gosh! i'm talking too much.
cheers

i just love the twist of event in assasination of jesse james.

no country for old men also has an unexpected end.
how about natural born killer. crazy ending.

from when i was a kid i have never respected what guys see to be awesome. i'm not only going to cash in money over my knowledge of film. i'm already doing it over here in south africa cos i got my own video/film production company.

get this straight i dont envy any body if funke and other if they buy airbus from their film, good for them. no beefs but the truth must be said.

@ larayat
thanks for the education. but i think this is a tread for jenifa and i'm free to express why thought on the film and not just to praise it like funke's fan. i might not have an understanding of english like you madam but im sure i do understand film much more than you.
we are talking film and not english.

if i dont like a film i will criticise it and say whats bad about it. I WILL SAY IT AGAIN WHOEVER THINKS HE UNDERSTANDS FILM CAN CHALLENGE ME ON JENIFA AND WE WILL ANALYSE IT AND SHARE OUR VIEWS ABOUT IT. so if you dont understand what film is about why not talk about what you are an authority on. you know something like english.

you no serious o CGking. no be computer village them make am na for Alaba dem design am and patented for onitsha.

i will say it again we will never grow if we accept mediocrity as excellent. we need to challenge the standard.
This is not about hating its about standard. Our movies are of poor standard and there are some nigerians out there that wont settle for less so dont hate them for having a high standard. If Jenifa is a film of high standard for you, then good for you. but we that feel its of poor standard will air our views and dont axe us for having a good taste.
cheers

@ Toluwalomo
Are you saying that its so hard to find a Nollywood with an unpredictable ending. thats sad. I have watched less that 5% of Nollywood released and have not really found any.

You know the once i watched i can even predict the ending from the opening credit or even soundtrack . the soundtrack tells you the whole movie. you dont even need to watch it again cos you know the film is saying the girl being maltreated by her step mother will soon marry a rich guy from the US. gosh give me a break!

the machinist
the assassination of Jesse James. the ending blew me away.
yeah sixth sense ending is really good.
the number 23

so many films with unpredictable ending. hey, is there any Nollywood that has got a good plot twist, I mean a Nollywood with unpredictable ending. i'm still trying to find out. who know one? please suggest and i will check it out.

I saw it once and i think its a good film. its not everytime a film have to be fast paced. i like it because i wasnt spoon fed with info. the acting was convincing for me cos he really conveyed a man dying of guilt.
i believe the film borrowed somethings from the machinist starring Christian bale. I guess we all have different taste though.

@ Kingron.
no need to fight. since the inception of film there have been critics. why not check out www.rottentomatoes.com and see how they trash big budget hollywood films, they even have award for bad films, bad directing, bad acting etc. do you know thats one of the things that has helped them improve because they review what they make and they improve but for us in naija its a pity that we hate criticism. we fight it and tell critics to shut up. thats why our films have not gotten better from the days of violated when home video was just starting. our films has not improved, it only got worse. instead of saying hey! what are we doing wrong we tell critics to go and make their own movies. common man if you dont want to be criticized dont make any movie.

i asked a question but you didnt answer me. check out my last post and tell me what you use to measure if a film is a blockbuster or not. thanks.again this is not a fighting forum its a forum for us to discuss Jenifa.
cheers

thanks guys. but i'm not in Nigeria presently. I'm in South Africa. how can we work around this?

simster
thanks for the lecture on genre. I guess Jenifa is naija's definition of comedy-drama according simster. If thats comedy-drama then naijas comedy or drama is very bad.

and before you lecture on genre please go study it well ok. comedy is comedy, drama is drama. romamntic comedy dey, action dey. thriller dey. horror dey. which one be comedy-drama abeg. explain simster. thanks my girl.

Shezy
I have not seen any improvement. tell me films where the tech has really increased. tell me a film that the art direction is better than Oleku, a film with storyline like violated. with special effects. they have not been able to do a make belief gun shot some still use bangers.

shezy we need some help in nollywood. I'm not trying to feel too cool. I'm just concerned that no one is challenging the status quo. everybody is accepting bad quality and defending it. it worries me if all people have to say about Jenifa is "Suliat kan, Ayetoro kan". dont you think we are getting more "razz" than improving
Na wa for us o

Guys no need to fight please! but here is the issue before we use the word blockbuster we should go find the meaning first and again by whose standard do we judge movies and call it block buster. I guess we judge by Alaba Market standard and call films blockbuster. those films when they evaluate them in Dollars standard i doubt if any of them sold $1million so why call a film blockbuster when half of those film out there are pirated. Jaws was considered to be the film that ushered in the blockbuster era and it sold over $100 million and that was when hollywood knew alot of money could be made from film.

so to pureminded and kingron by what measurement did you judge Jenifa and call it Blockbuster. whats the criteria for judging nollywood films?

Popeye, please watch it and be objective. dont watch it with beefs and dont watch it as a fan. just be objective and tellme what you think

Its sad to see our music video improve so well but our home video has not improved from the days of Violated. Infact I will rather watch violated that J[b]enifa[/b]

In those days they have a story but now they dont. the worst part is that they have even run out of title. so they use human names as titles-Jenifa, sharon stone etc. I think there should be an association for nollywood script writers and the first requirement to join is IQ test. just kidding guys

There are comedy and there are comedy. Jenifa is not one. If i want to laugh a girl badly dressed isnt comedy. fake girls trying to teach a village girl how to be "hippy" isnt funny to me cos tell her not to say "yee" and say "ouch" is so stale. i have heard it over and over again from a friend of mine who tried to be funny.

If you want to see comedy go watch death at a funeral. thats a classic english comedy/farce. and if you want stupid but still funny then Mr. Ibu is one. I know you will disagree but its still funny to many. note: I'm not a Mr. Ibu fan but he is stupid and that makes it funny. Jenifa doesnt fall in comedy. and the way part one ends is so stupid. that pissed me off that i didnt want to see part 2 cos i know its gonna be a waste of time.

I like english comedy and i think one of my favourite is Death at a funeral
I'm not a fan of Jim Carrey. i prefer him in films where he is serious like number 23 and eternal sunshine of a spotless mind. I dislike ace venturer

and Austin power in goldmember too is nice

I like Chris Rock and Adam Sandler. check out Adam in Anger management. well i know many people dont like anger management but thats the film i came to like Adam Sandler's style of comedy

If Funke bought a boeing 747 after Jenifa, thank God for her. Its not about how much she made but about how good the film is.

And please what does the film teach you- not to try to blend in. I'm not from the village and I never at any point try to blend in. Its only village people that they can educate. what education is in fake girls teaching another fake girl to be an "aristo chic". so before people say its an educational film they should ask themselves what new in what Jenifa is saying. only village like Jenifa can say they learnt something new about trying to "blend in"

the story isnt new its just an old tale of village girl in the city told again!

wake up guys there is nothing new in the Jenifa story.

i agree that "the day the earth stood still had an expected end" it was boring

my favourite and the film i want to see re-made is Igodo. even though i think the guy stole some ideas from Armageddon. Another film that i like is keeping faith. i think its an Amaka Igwe film

the two films are old but those are the two films that stayed with me after many years.

I dont watch Nollywood films just because of the quality of film that are chunked into the market. But I have come to recognize that Nollywood is doing something right.

Nollywood is making films for the illiterate, semi-literate and educated illiterate. They also make movies for my grand mother who will never enjoy Hollywood films. so I say big-ups to Nollywood for catering for my grand mother.

But there are still some audience out there like me that Nollywood doesnt cater for cos of my taste. I look forward to the day Nollywood will cater for people like me.

Here is one of our problem. we dont have an industry. If we call nollywood an industry then its an industry that is not operating like one. i learnt movie marketers call the shots in the industry. that is wrong. people make films with their own money and sell it to the marketer (pirates) who go ahead and duplicate and distribute. where else in the world is that done except for our sweet nollywood

But I believe there will emerge a new generation of film makers that will make films for people intellectuals and not illiterate like my granny.

@Sonye
I personally feel Suliat's acting wasn't convincing for me. I have stated that that the only two people that made me laugh are Suliat's village boyfriend and Aderupoko (Suliat's dad).

Suliats acting wasnt convincing for me cos she sometimes forgets her role as a village girl and switches from the village accent to clean lagos accent. check out the scene where someone said her name and she said "thats a beautiful name" she forgot that she was supposed to be a village girl and she delivers that sentence like an educated city girl. I look at the little details people dont see.
Another is the scene where she visits Becky and decided to sleep at her door. when she came she never had a bag and she had changed clothes twice and bought cell phone, that tell me that she has a place to stay and she is ok. but the next minute she is sleeping at Becky's door. doesnt anybody see that.

Maybe I think about what I'm watching and I take it too seriously. But anyways I learnt it got the kudos its geting cos its still the best amongst the recent films from Nigeria.

hey Layi nice picture. you can express yourself and hook up with other photographer on www.shutterchance.com. there is a niaja guy there called Asiko. he is good.check him out.

Hey guys. I've been less busy lately and I've got sometime on my hand and want to go into After Effects cos I've only been working on Premiere up until now. I've got Adobe CS 2 and 3 and i need advice on how to get tutorial for beginners in After effect. Advice please and probably links to site where i can get simplified tutorials.

I agree with lakeside44 that by nollywood standard it gets a passmark but not by my own standard. the movie got lots of fans maybe because most of the movies that are being made is extra extra bad. so "oloju kan loba larin awon afoju" I have not seen a naija movies from beginning to the end for more than two years so i guess i expected something close to hollywood standard but was dissappointed by what i saw in Jenifa.
holla

Good to know that I'm not the only one that feels say jenifa na rubbish.

But can someone tell me why people hype that film that much. Is it a problem of visual intelligence/literacy that is degraded in the land. we need prayer and fasting o.

Kingron you should read what "buffhead wrote. she called me "Ode", idiot, fool. and i'm like what the hell is wrong with the girl? i'm just airing my own opinion and she takes it so personal.

and i will say it again whoever feels they can anylse movies should analyse Jenifa and tell me why its a great movie. its just another bad from nollywood.

i will still say it again. we Nairalanders shouldnt attack each other. we should be more civilised. every one has got his own opinion. If seant21 feels nollywood suck and he gives reason why he feel it suck then we should give him reason why we feel its good. we shouldnt attack each other for no reason.

I said jenifa is bad and gave reason why its bad and people attacked me and i asked them to anaylse the storyline and give me reasons why they feel its good and they cant give me any reason except "its hilarious". i find Jenifa with no meaningful storyline.

If we are educated and civilised let behave like one. Dialogue should prevail abeg!