Barrio sin ley

Shanty town helps to offer an insight into the lives of the corrupt, with a plot that gives it a strong base. Filled with impeccable acting and nerve wracking moments. Shanty Town is a must see. It starts off fiery but is perfectly paced, as the show goes on you see that.

Each character has a reason for doing what they do and their personal goals and vendetta all collide. Episode one gives us a teaser of what is to come and the further episodes help to build on that in as much as the gore or nude scenes may not be too everyone's liking it is certainly a key component of the show as it helps us understand the world of Shanty Town.

This is one of those adequately budgeted, for-show Nigerian production that's supposed to represent the country in the international market. Unfortunately, this show is below par, maybe by nigerian movie standards it's a masterpiece but still, it is mediocre. The biggest culprit here is the writing, the writing is so poor and unable to produce a coherent storyline and good dialogue. The pacing both moves slow and fast. Characters are cliches almost to the point of caricatures. Most of them lack any depth. But one could say the saving grace here is the performances? But not all tho, Chidi Mokeme as Scar was sublime, inhabiting his character wholly and embracing his eccentricities. He was actually enjoyable to watched but was a bit one dimensional. His character wasn't given much to work with. Ini Edo is up for the task but more often than not she overacts and her character is also quite predictable. Nse Ikpe-Etim as Ene was one of the better performers, she was understated with her performance and played quite a bit complex character. An awful performance, however, comes from Peter Okoye who played Femi. Peter can't act to save his life, good singer but terrible actor! As for the technical aspects, I thought the cinematography was good; the lighting was well done but the editing could be better, at some point I thought I was a watching a music video; scenes jumped from one scene to other with no explanation. People sometimes magically appear in places they shouldn't be. There was an attempt for fight choreography which was partially enjoyable but also somewhat embarassing to watch given how poorly done it was. The practical effects in the opening sequence was however excellent and praiseworthy. The story was predictable and formulaic, there's also the incorporation of supernatural elements which was random and out-of-place for the realistic tone the show is going for. Some of the nudity and violence were gratuitous and serve no purpose to the story. The ending could be better, it tidied up quickly but also make sure to tease the audience of a second season. My advice? For the second season; hire good writers, a director that can be able to put everything together well, and a coherent storyline.

There are some key issues that prevent this series from accomplishing its goals and here they are broken down:

1, Action sequences They are baaad. One move somehow is chopped into 4 different cuts with outrageously bad sound effects. This would be find on its own but in the opening salvo there are literal anti-tank mines going off all over the place seemingly for no reason!

2, The premise It suffers from horrible character development and a lack of agency from any of the supposed leads. Instead of having one or two characters drive the story, you have a mess of underdeveloped would be protagonists all pulling in different directions. By the end you're as confused as you were when the E1 started.

3, Effects The sound doesn't work, if anything it irritates you and pulls you out of whatever engagement you're able to cultivate - but it pales in comparison to the mediocre visual effects. I will concede this is a Nollywood film so you're not exactly expecting much but even by those standards it manages to disappoint.

If you can get over those issues, which I had a hard time doing then you're in for literal torturous viewing.

Some of the worst writing I've seen in a Nigerian production. Aside from the Scar guy, there was nothing interesting about ShantyTown. Terrible acting, terrible dialogue, a well shot movie in places, with a story that confuses you and leaves you wondering just how far out of touch with reality the producers, directors and writers of this must be to think that it was a good idea to make this.

The movie reminded me of those old terrible Asaba made action movies where you know the producers are huge fans of foreign actions movies with no idea how to go about making one.

All in a truly terrible movie not worth the money it was made for or the time of anyone looking for something to watch.

Seeing that Shanty Town is a six-part series, one would have expected better character development and an ending that was worth it.

These and more were not gotten from the six-part series recently released to Netflix.

The series opens well, and I believed that I was in for a treat, but not really.

A combination of good makeup, mediocre sex scenes and ok vfx were this series selling points, because the story was riddled with plot holes.

Female extra characters are degraded and objectified, and the excuse of it being true to the story of the life of the average sex worker.

Chidi Mokeme was the stand out actor in this series, He brought his A-game and basically carried the series on his shoulders. The remainder of the main cast were giving what was expected. Peter Okoye's Yoruba accent... wow. He could have done with a trainer.

The plot of shanty town is shabby cacophony of stories that just lengthens the run time.

The ending was abrupt and totally unsatisfactory. For a six-part series.

The story could have used with a better ending but the producers had probably either run out of ideas or funding because the ending did nothing but add to already lingering bitter taste in our mouths.

In conclusion, the movie shanty town is a perfect example of having your heart in the right place but executing with the finesse of a toddler playing a piano.