Death Certificate

Review

Stephanie Okereke (Linus) returns to our screens in this Nollywood action drama. The movie also stars two of the actors that we’ve come to associate with action in Nollywood’s 2010s, and as the 2000s had Saint Obi and JT Tom West, the 2010s have ChaCha Eke and Sylvester Madu.

From ‘go’, Stephanie reminds us exactly why she’s a seasoned actress. The ease… the ease… the absolute ease with which she goes through the scenes, so effortless. And the effortlessness reflects on the screen from scene to scene. Watching her act, watching her portray a character doesn’t seem like watching a movie, it’s more like watching a reality show because you never get the feeling that she’s acting… that’s how good the lady is. She does it so naturally that you forget this is a movie.

The movie was a splendid action movie, you don’t get very many watchable Nollywood action flicks these days (The last one I saw was Bank Job which pales in comparison). Ifeanyi Ikpoenyi’s (or whoever the casting director) stroke of genius was in adding Sylvester Madu to the cast line up, seeing as he is one of the only Nollywood actors who can actually hold a gun.

Speaking of Mr. Hollywood (Ifeanyi Ikpoenyi), the last of his works that I saw was “The Kingdom” starring Van Vicker and Eucharia Anunobi, and that movie was nothing if not grand: grand sets, grand costumes, grand dialogues, even grand spoken English. And some of that grandness extended to ‘Death Certificate’ mainly in the cast and the sets.

As regards its grandness in cast, how else do you explain getting Stephanie Linus in her first movie since only God knows when (we’re going to completely ignore ‘Doctor Bello‘ abeg). And the grandness in sets? See the movie and you can’t deny it.

Death Certificate is one of those movies where the audience is rooting for the bad guys even though Yul Edochie and Solomon Akiyesi are the good guys, which I consider in itself an achievement. How do you get an audience (which is probably predominantly female) to root for the bad guys when Yul Edochie is leading the team of good guys? (and when he looks so good in a police uniform?)

This review would be more than incomplete if Chacha Eke is not mentioned. Earlier on in Chacha’s career I was her biggest fan, she was impressive from movie to movie, from shot to shot and from line to line. Then somewhere along the line something happened (doesn’t it always?) and the Chacha I was seeing in the movies was not the Chacha we knew. There was too much fake, too much unnecessary accents and just too much gragra coming from her on screen. But the beauty of this movie is that it somehow managed to bring back the old Chacha. Chacha was impressive and flawless in this movie. Her rendition of her character was convincing and believable.

Now ofcourse the movie is not without her flaws but they mainly had to do with cos
tumes and makeup. For instance, why is Sylvester Madu wearing shades indoors in every other scene? And what exactly is that thing that he is wearing sef? And how exactly does one get shot on the back whilst wearing a red shirt, stumble and fall, yet the shirt is still as white as Ariel advert?

Trailer

Sylvester Madu’s Costume