Movie Review: “Don’t Get Mad, Get Even”

I must say that I had loads of expectations for this new movie when I saw the trailer and the cast on the poster. Although they didn’t have loads of publicity, I felt that it would be nice to run and see this new movie. I must say that I wasn’t so impressed and I got so tired I almost stood up to take a walk half-way. I guess I had to summon more courage to stay till the very end. This almost 3 hours movie almost got me strangled, I kept asking myself what I was doing there, but then I had to be patient till the very end to tell you the entire story and convince you on whether to go watch it or not.

It reminded me so much of many foreign movies. It looked like what we had seen before but then twisted with the Nigerian feel. I just wasn’t impressed at all. I felt they could have done better, made the scenes shorter and the entire movie way shorter.

The movie is Wale Ojo’s directorial debut. It was shot in Cotonou. The cinematography was excellent. I thought it was shot in Nigeria, till I probed further. Not bad at all for a first movie. I must say, well done Wale; but try harder next time. He featured some nice A-list actors and my guy, Femi Branch from “The Meeting” was in it too.

The film had its problems. While the production was superb and the cast came with their A-game, there was a lot left to be desired. I didn’t like some of the costumes and the makeup of a few of the actresses, as I felt they weren’t appropriate. The scenes were just too many and some dragged on for too long. They could have been a bit shorter. Some scenes were absolutely unnecessary; they looked like fillers meant to take up space. That wasn’t cool at all. I felt they should have paid attention to more details to avoid errors being seen from critics like me.

“Don’t Get Mad Get Even” told a very simple story of how a player Femi Jacobs known as “Juwon” in the movie found his match and how he met his waterloo. Jaiye and Juwon were siblings, their parents had just the two of them, but they were so different in the lifestyle and paths chosen. Jaiye was very intelligent and went further to become a professor, while his brother Juwon dropped out of school and went into music. His parents and brother abandoned him because of his chosen music career, little did they know that he will be very successful in life. He went on to become a very wealthy music producer, this put a strain on the relationship between him and his brother, until one day his elder brother lost everything, even his house and decided to move in. He was so surprised at how wealthy his brother had become and couldn’t understand why his brother lived such a wayward life of drinking, smoking and changing women on a daily basis. He never wanted to settle down, he felt so arrogant with himself because of his wealth so he treated every woman badly.

Suddenly one day at the car park he bumps into a pretty damsel and that was when his world came crumbling. He loved her so much he was willing to change and give up everything for her, even to dumping the mother of his son. You will need to see the entire movie to see how she dealt with him, she showed him as Nigerians would say “Pepper” one he would never forget in his small life.

Cast: Femi Jacob, Deyemi Okanlanwon, Kenneth Okolie, Toyin Abraham, Patience Ozonkwor, Jide Kosoko, Nancy Isieme, Ayo Adesanya, Jumoke George, Yemi Solade

Genre: Drama, Family,

Director: Wale Ojo

Ratings: R15

Runtime: 153 minutes

Studio: STV Distribution

Release Date: October 4th 2019

To my verdict I would rate this movie 5/10, sincerely they put a good show but didn’t entirely convince or impress me. They had some nice things going for them, but then I just felt they could have done better, made the scenes a bit more shorter and precise, and could have made it to the end in less than 153mins. The story wasn’t new or original to them but then they did try to add a bit of Naija twist to it at the end. If you do like drama, family and romantic movies, you could give this new movie a try and do not forget to tell me what you think about it.

Send film reviews (no more than 400 words) to linda@arbiterz.com. If we use the review, we will give tickets to watch any film you like.

Linda is a digital marketing analyst. She became a film buff while studying for a Master’s Degree in 2009 at the University of Surrey and was going to the cinema almost every day. She has written over 150 movie reviews in the past 3 years.

@lindaochugbua