By Mava John Joshua
The movie, ‘Passport’ begins with “big boy” Oscar played by Nollywood veteran, Jim Iyke, celebrating his girlfriend, Queen’s birthday, with lots of friend in an expansive nite club in Lagos.
The Passport is an assumed storyline of a comedy about a man who wants to get back to his base in London. Oscar needs to get home to London, but was stuck in Nigeria due to his passport that was stolen in his bag. The incident happened while the car taking him to the airport driven by his uncle (Jide Kosoko) had a flat tire in an area infested with thugs and ghetto lifestyle. Oscar has to align with Kopiko (Mercy Johnson), an aspiring chairwoman to the community leadership; to search for the missing travel document.
Oscar’s family knows him to be a spendthrift and are sick and tired of his antics, partying and his irresponsible behavior and someone who is not true to his word, so they don’t believe him when he tells them that his passport was stolen from him.
Despite parading an A list cast, the conversations and dialogue in ‘Passport’ are entirely not convincing, and the sequences of events aren’t exactly believable either.
The plots have logical lapses and wouldn’t hold up. Some of the acts feel rushed, many lines of dialogue are stumbled over, and characters spend too much time questioning other characters.
The story is thin as well. Oscar seems to be inept and can’t get back to London, nor does he know how to get another passport on time. With the help of his uncle, he enlists the help of a woman who is absolutely incentive and has her own issues (a sick mother and the quest to become the community Chairwoman) she is contending with, to help him.
Furthermore the movie is assumed to be a comedy but unfortunately, there isn’t any issue to laugh about.
Directed by Vincent Okonkwo and written by Abosi Ogba, ‘Passport’ appears to have no sense of direction. The plot of the film is walking in a straight path assuming that whatever they’re making is a watch-worthy content when in reality, it is like an extended daily immature elongated skit where you can predict the outcome of the movie from the first scene.
The actors have done an average job.
Mercy Johnson in the role of Kopiko has overdone her part. The amount of energy she has out in her role is too much that it can be called overacting. The aggression was hyper exhibited.
A viewer, Ọmọ́níkẹ̀ẹ́ Adéòtí has this to say about the movie: “The movie, ‘Passport’, does not deserve to be in a cinema or on any streaming service. It would have sufficed as a ten-minute YouTube skit. It was a total waste of time and energy. The plot is watery with holes and has barely any form of drama or conflict. Even the most pedestrian of comedy is missing from this movie.
Why is Jim Iyke still playing the role of a 30-year-old juvenile bachelor? Mercy Johnson was completely unbelievable as a lout; she was not a good cast for the role. Every actor in the movie is either over-acting or under-acting, and the whole thing leaves you wondering what the point is.”
Another movie buff who pleaded anonymity said the introduction of Lateef Adedimeji(top Yoruba movie star) was unnecessary. “For an actor of his calibre and experience, playing a role that is just a little above an extra in a movie does no good for his reputation. Zubby Michael has become pigeonholed and stereotyped as a gangster, but with each movie he features in, it appears his heart is not in the acting.
Movies need sponsors, and this is why there is product placement, but product placements are artistically done to fit into the movie. In ‘Passport’, the actors are actually holding the product and reading out the jingle. This is not product placement. It is really distasteful.”
