DVD REVIEWS: FAMILY NEXT DOOR 1 HAS A MESSAGE, IS ENTERTAINING AND SETS THE PACE FOR THE SERIES

Considering the likes of Stormy Seas, Secrets Of The Moment, The Spell, The Stranger, The Planting and the very recent House On Fire, one would see that Gloria Bamiloye has a thing for creating movies and TV series based on the home and everything between. Here she is again with a brand new TV series, Family Next Door, whose first installment is helmed by Mike Bamiloye (himself) and is in two languages, Yoruba (which is what I actually watched) and, of course, English.
 
As you might probably have figured from the title, the movie is centered on the lives of next door neighbours. In the first house we have Bisi, Titus and their children. They are believers, middle-class citizens. And the next house we have the lethal combination of an abrasive Seun and Ayo who’s a wife-beater, drunk and womanizer, oh he smokes too. They are ever warring. They have a son. Titus and wife try to help their neighbours up, but they could be found on the ground too, if care isn’t taken.
 
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The story’s central message is ‘let he who thinks he stands take heed lest he falls’, but there are other lessons in the movie too. I’d just drop two and leave you to find others while you enjoy the viewing.
 
You can’t fully know the worth of a woman until you know her maker.
Don’t say your wife isn’t submitting to you if you’re not submitting the Lord yourself.
 
The actors are all great with their roles. Omidiwura Richard and Omolara Ayoola understand that the comic part of the movie largely depends on their respective characters, Ayo and Seun, and they don’t fail in entertaining us. Jumoke Sasere and her co-star Omoniyi Adeoye show us all they need to as Bisi and Titus respectively and Gloria Bamiloye gives the right vibes as Ope’s Grandma.
 
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The flirting scenes are nothing short of real. The sound and picture quality are good, except that there are times when the camera goes in and out of focus.
 
The setting of the movie is supposed to be in Lagos, but when Seun flags down a cab for her Mum, it’s obviously an Ibadan micra with ‘IB NORTH’ written on it. There are times when the movement of the actors lips trails behind the sound of their voice. And in the last scene while the family prays, the daughter stares at her father like ‘what is this one doing?’. But I guess that is better than what is common to child actors in Nigerian movies, staring at the camera with the same question in their eyes.
 
The build till the climax is steady and the twist in the final act is difficult to predict and it takes one by surprise. I believe it would’ve been better if the movie just ended there. For all the work of tying up the ends that the last few scenes try to do, they could’ve been done without and the movie would be nothing less than what it is. If anything, those last few scenes sort of drop the tempo of the movie, they make the neck hair that the twist raise to fall back limply.
 
I can’t say for the English version, but the Yoruba lines are entertaining, the insults hurled back and forth between Ayo and wife, come with sauce and their attitude gives it spice.
 
Being the first installment of a new TV series, Family Next Door 1 starts off the series on the right foot.
 
Writer/Producer- Gloria Bamiloye
Director       – Mike Bamiloye
DOP          -Damilola Mike-Bamiloye
Sound         -Yomi Odusina
Make-up              – Nike Owah
Production manager    – Tunde Owah
Sound effects and original score  -Joshua Mike-Bamiloye             
 
 
 
 
 

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