Im back whit another Nigerian movie review, last time i had a look at a movie whit a horror theme and now the time has come for a more action oriented movie, “Spade” which is the first in (i believe) a series of movies trying to introduce an African hero styled after the tough guys found in American action movies. I believe this is made by Oliver O Mbamara (and features well known actors like Prince Eke, Ichie Okuko and the director himself as Spade) the movie opens up in New York where a crime syndicate picks up a shipment of fresh Nigerian prostitutes and discusses their advances in the illegal artefact smuggling bussines.
We quickly moves on to Lagos, Nigeria where the rest of the movie takes place and is introduced to an historic artefact robbery gone wrong. An hostage situation apear and supercop Spade saves the day. It soons apear that there’s more to the case than meets the eye though and the gang responcible for the botched robbery are still very much set on getting the artefacts they originaly had their eyes on. They rescue the captured thugs and sets out to do their dirty bussiness. This is not Spades bussines however, he just had his last assignment and has resigned from the force and is about to get married. This quicly changes when the gang kidnaps his “wife-to-be” and forces Spade to once again face them but things has changed, this time it’s personal.
I know what youre thinking, this sounds very much like standard B-action fare and in a way i guess it is, Spade pretty much is an typical American action ovie whit an strong African touch to it. But i would also like to claim that this is a landmark Nigerian movie and Nollywood takes an huge leap forward whit this movie. It looks way more polished and have a faster tempo than anything iv’e seen in Nigerian cinema up to now (I have to admit though, i have not seen a lot of Nollywood movies). That is not to say it’s a perfect movie, at times it’s still a bit hard to hear what they are saying and it’s still a bit overlong in places.
But regardless of any minor flaws this movie might have I seriously enjoyed it and was very impressed, Spade raises the bars way up for Nollywood cinema and if future movies uses this as a stepping stone to acomplish even greater films then only the sky is the limit. An must see movie, I look forward to see what the future has in hold for this budding movie franchise, Spade rocks!!!!!!
By by Krikon
WWW.NIGERIAFILMS.COM