“THE TRAIN” movie review by Ajibare Abioye
By Ajibare Abioye
First of all, I think we should appreciate Damilola Mike-Bamiloye for the way he wrote the screenplay of this movie. Despite the fact that the story in itself is powerful, a poor screenplay might have made it less glorious; so, it should not be taken for granted that this story was brilliantly written and shot. One part I love so much is the the transition into the wedding scene, accompanied by nice music; that place was just really cool.
A lot of time, energy, resources, money and materials must have gone into this project to make it a success. I’m sure that the costume, make-up and set designers must have had a lot of work on their hands to do. All the attires, hairstyles, houses, the props – I’m talking about the shoes, plates, telephone, lanterns, radios, TVs, even the currency – all were from that latter part of the late 20th century.
All the actors put in very good performances, even the children actors. A few people definitely had to learn the Ijesa dialect of the Yoruba language. I can’t begin to mention how each person played their roles wonderfully: 8-year old Abayomi was a character to watch; Lara Ayoola played Mike Bamiloye’s elder sister so well and we understand why he regards her as his mother. Sister Sola’s Mama did well; Bro Rotimi had such delivery of humorous lines and expressed raw emotion when the sacrifice required of him felt too much to pay. Wole Olaleye’s performance was short but memorable; Tolulope Mike-Bamiloye really, really portrayed Mummy Gloria so well, and then Seun Adejumobi as Mike Bamiloye…I can’t commend them all enough. It was very good acting by everyone involved.
The choice of using chapters in this movie was perfect. This made the story easier to follow. For me, the story got more interesting with each chapter; so, among Chapter 5,6 and 7, it’s a bit difficult for me to point to one as my favourite. There’s a good deal of humour in the story as a whole and a lot of genuine laugh-out-loud moments. One scene that always gets me laughing when I think about it is when a sacrifice was required for his destiny and Abayomi said it was a balloon he wanted. The balloon meant to salvage his destiny burst eventually. Thank God Jesus eventually saved his soul. Also, there are a lot of catch-phrases that will bless you in this movie.
For your interest to be sustained in a film that is almost three hours long, there would have to be a lot of elements that would make it happen. In that regard, the music played its part. There was a variety of tunes which kept the mood going for the entire runtime of the movie. There were easter egg references to songs already known with early Mount Zion movies. For example, the Agbara nla tune was used in the trailer, while there was also an acoustic version of a soundtrack used in Ultimate Power Part 4, which had already been resung by Jay-Mikee. The music coordination was really well done.
The movie showed Mike Bamiloye having a lot of guardians. His guardians loved him and took him as their own. However, I think it would have been better if we had been made to know what those people’s relationships were with the Bamiloye family. Nonetheless, he faced a lot of challenges and oppositions but God saw him through and here he is today.
Going through each chapter, we’d notice that God always placed people around him who would instruct him in the right way. Even as a child, seeds of righteousness were being sown in him, even though they didn’t manifest until he was a teenager. We also see that he committed himself to the work of God and there were tough decisions he had to make along the way. But the testimony is there for all to see today: that family and everyone in that ministry are blessed. I strongly believe that this movie has really great potential for encouraging many people; also, the focus of many will be redirected to God, many will receive instructions for their lives, many will begin to understand how important it is to get married to the right person, and many will see how important vision is and not material things. This movie, in Evangelist Mike Bamiloye’s words on his instagram post the morning of the movie’s release, is a gift from God to everyone who watches it. And indeed it is.
To watch the movie, click below:
https://youtu.be/5mFvb62VMkc
