ADEREMI'S NOTEBOOK

— This is Nollywood is a documentary on “Bond Emeruwa’s quest to make a feature-length action film in just 9 days”. (2)

— A beautiful review of the “King of Scotland” by Teju Cole. As always, well written. #

— Trailer: The Last King Of Scotland. Must see! #

Ruud Elmendorp and Rocketboom (0)

Everyone can’t stop talking about how or why Amanda Congdon quit Rocketboom.

As I searched through Rocketboom’s archives, I was intrigued to discover Ruud Elmendorp’s videoblog, currently reporting from various countries in Africa. Ruud has done a few reports for Rocketboom. His latest report was a piece on mobile phone booths in Narobi.

I recommend you bookmark his blog for updates.

Nollywood (6)

Nollywood “Nigeria’s brash young film industry” is raking in at least $200 million a year. Ok maybe it’s not as cool as Eddie Murphy living in Hollywood but it does come close. That figure makes it the third-largest box office in the world after the United States and India. Not bad at all considering the average production time is about a week, besides a blockbuster will only set you back $8,000. All you need to get started is handycam and you can probably shoot in any private home for free. There is also an increasing demand for films to be subtitled in french. Now that’s big!

The film industry in Nigeria is overcrowed. Film quality have dropped significantly and the titles (e.g Pure Water, Area Scatter) have become a joke, little thought goes into it. Yet the demand continues to grow, why? Recurring themes like “Love, romance, fidelity and family cohesiveness” observed in the movies is pulling the crowd in. Nigerians aboard also feel the need to stay abreast of the hottest titles further fuelling demand.

I find it hard to keep up and the thought of paying for nigerian movies is still a little foreign in my system. I rely on Ben TV and sometimes OBE (both on Sky) to provide the cimenatic experience. It is probably time for me to finally watch UKWA (1 & 2), I borrowed a year ago from Obinna.

— Cinema returns to Lagos;worth sharing #

Lost in Flying Daggers (7)

Last night I saw House of flying Daggers along with a few friends and managed to miss the first 15mins (in hindsight I didn’t miss much). My lateness also guaranteed a free entry into the VIP section (also called the gallery in UK) So there I was in my comfy leather seat gashing to be entertained and what did I get? Not entirely sure. I remember I wanted to get out of the cinema immediately the first dance and music scene came up (I am not a fan of musicals in films, I believe they are best left apart. Of course Sound of Music is a timeless exception). Eventually I convinced myself that it would be brief. My thoughts were right, in no time - some fighting action filled the screen - again I felt the fighting scene had lasted just too long.

Should I continue? Well, I love to run you through the commentary that played in my head for the entirety of the movie but it will be better for me not to relive the brutal torture of the boredom I experienced. More than 3 times, my friends proposed that we should leave the cinema but I felt some journeys just have to be completed. In the name of the twisting story lines to create suspense, instead they created an dragging effect of boredom. One positive thing, the flying daggers were pretty cool. Even the dude that works in the cinema said afterward, you should have known, what do u expect from a film called House of flying Daggers. (Don’t take my word that this film is bad, you must see it to decide.)

Often I wonder who writes film reviews (e.g Times, Filmthreat, Guardian ) - are they ordinary human beings like me or do they see something I can’t see. I feel tempted to go with the latter. I reckon they must have invisible eyes.

Oh I also recently saw Lost in Translation, don’t even get me started on that one. I am not even going rant about it but all I want to know is what was the point/message/gist of the film. Comments much appreciated.

The Notebook (6)

I remember picking up my first novel (ofcourse I had been forced to read ‘the Lion and Jewel’ by Wole Soyinka and ‘Time Changes Yesterday’ by some author I can’t remember for Literature Class) without any pressure.

I can’t even remember who recommended the book to me. The book was ‘The Notebook’ by Nicholas Sparks - if you hurry you could pick up a copy at amazon for 1p, not sure about delivery cost. Today I found that the novel has been made into a film and I can’t wait to see it. The preview trailer can be viewed at the official site. Apparently the film rights were sold when the book was released, at the latest we are talking 1997 here (fall of 1997 - the year I read a book - as you can see I am very proud of myself). I remember the story vaguely - someone was telling a story about love, something about how you always feel the need to go back to your first love no matter what. Anymore info would be classified as a spoiler. (This blog is obviously named after the book as you may have gathered).

Love Actually (3)

I saw Love Actually today and I was cracking up through the whole film. I love british actors, there is just something funnier about them in general. It is amazing and I am not sure I can express what I mean. For one, I think Huge Grant is one of funniest actors around. (Yes I liked Notting Hill). It seems he plays his part with little effort but manages to made it very entertaining.

100 films that simply deserve more love.