mokhatib's Reviews

Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016)

8/10

The Superhero genre gets the psychological treatment

9 April 2016

Chris Terrio and David S. Goyer have written a rather convincing and credible superhero story enveloped in a political thriller context that builds up beautifully into the conflict between two of Marvel's most popular superhero icons. The audience is introduced right away and involved in a world where there is controversy surrounding both the Man of Steel after causing massive destruction as a result of his fight with Zod and the faithful son of Gotham in his new style or 'brand' of justice. The story reflects successfully the psychological and moral conflicts that Batman and Superman struggle with in terms of how they view each other, how each one views himself and how the society around them views them.

Zack Snyder this time creates a bleaker and darker vision than Man of Steel and purposefully so because this story is not about the triumphs of Batman and Superman in their battles against evil of any form but the circumstances that focus not only on their physical powers but basically their inner most weaknesses too.

A strong cast holds the story together quite well and pushes it forward into the conclusive intent on bringing hope and justice in Justice League part one. This movie is definitely not for the avid fun-seeking superhero fans but to the open-minded ones that are ready to accept fallible humanized superheroes and support them in the good and the bad.

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Spectre (I) (2015)

7/10

A spectre-acle without any sparks

29 February 2016

Warning: Spoilers

First, the opening sequence is the most uninteresting opening sequence of all the Daniel Craig Bond movies with James merely walking, cat-walking, and fighting with a bad guy in a helicopter like two brothers fighting in their parents' car on a road trip with not much physical skills on Daniel's part in comparison with his hand-to-hand combat in Casino Royale, Quantum of Solace, and Skyfall.

Second, the infamous Spectre organization does not have much to show for accept some big guys lingering around the evil mastermind Blofeld and the intervention of the latest recruit Hinx (Bautista) auditioning by killing a guy in a few moves, chasing Bond in his car, producing one of the most boring chases ever comprising of empty streets, funny bumps, fired-up gadgets, and Bond landing in an ejected parachute gracefully on the streets of Rome again looking like a model, making this whole chase look like a car commercial.

Third, I can't seem to fathom what exactly is Blofeld's motive in the movie, is he an evil guy out to destroy the word,or does he want to destroy Bond? What was the relevancy of having Bond be like a stepbrother to Blofeld? So is Blofeld mad at the world and becomes evil because he is jealous because his dad took care of Bond? How silly is that? And yet I am still confused, Blofeld has built this evil empire and recruited all the previous bad guys such as Le Chifre, Mr. Green, and Silva to hurt Bond? Third, I found the action set-pieces rather dull accept for the train fight which to me is the best thing in the movie and one of the greatest Craig-Bond fights ever and makes me forgive the comedic kissing scene that came after brilliantly expressed in "What do we do now?" HAHHAHAHAH seriously?! Fourth, a Bond can't be a Bond movie without the cliché evil tour given by Blofeld where he also in a cliché way explains his master evil plan to have this scene end with Bond being punctured in the brain twice and still manage to blow Blofeld 's evil abode to smithereens with his watch bomb oooooooooo!!!!!! And some gun shots while whisking away his beloved, holding her hand gimme a break! Fifth and last, we arrive at the very weak ending of Bond running around the ex MI6 headquarter building absurdly marked by pictures of M, Vesper, Mr. Green, Silva, and Le Chiffre, so he can save his girlfriend in the nick of time and escape the explosion like a scene from SAN ANDREAS and then shoot the Blofeld's helicopter down with his small gun, OMG how silly!

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Extreme Prejudice (1987)

8/10

A beautiful modernised western

25 February 2016

Warning: Spoilers

(SPOILERS ALERT)

A beautiful western-inspired and influenced story of Good vs. Evil set in Texas where Banteen plays a local Texas Ranger on the good side of the law trying to complicate things for Bailey's drug trafficking business, adding to the mix is a secret army operation with more than just money on its mind. I liked the premise of good against evil as a result of human choices and not supernatural or paranormal ones, and what makes this story more humanly-conditioned is the fact that back in the days Banteen and Bailey were best friends both on the wrong side of the law, and at some point one has made a choice to lead a righteous straight path and the other just stuck to his evil ways. Major Paul Hackett (Ironside) surely commits to a choice of his own in leading a group of highly trained military men of different backgrounds to rob the bank where Bailey holds his money and other conspicuous documents supposedly for the purpose of weakening Bailey's business, and that turns out in the end to be just a total cover up and lie manufactured by the Major himself.

Setting this story particularly in Texas adds more western feel to the movie especially in the use of that type of shotguns and Nolte's stern yet vulnerable portrayal of a man trying his best to do the right thing yet is often faced by his dark past. The action direction is quite fitting on behalf of Hill which has been his trademark in many hit movies like The Warriors, Another 8 hrs., Red Heat ,etc..

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Dying of the Light (2014)

CAGE... the best thing about this movie

25 February 2016

Warning: Spoilers

(SPOILERS ALERT)

Schrader is best remembered and known for helmeting classics the likes of Cat People and American Gigolo as well as scripting numerous famous movies, Taxi Driver and Raging Bull, and Scorsese's Bringing Out the Dead. Schrader's story revolves around America's tenacious fight against terrorism and in USA's dictionary Terrorism is only linked to Islam, but from a psychological angle portraying the

psychological damage the war has brought on Cage's character externally and internally and his obsession to nail and capture the terrorist, Mohamed Banir, who caused his ordeal. Both Lake's and the terrorist's illnesses play nicely into the story in heightening the dramatic suspense and tension as both race against time, one to get the bad guy, and the bad guy to get his medication. Facing another obstacle, Lake is forced to retirement after spending his last days working a desk job as a CIA intelligence analyst, and thus is compelled to go on his own by the aid of another CIA operative Milton (Yelchin). Milton's involvement gives the story a light of generational hope in the young, that somewhere out there there will always good fellows who are willing to fight the good cause for the right reasons and challenge all odds, and that is certainly reflected in Milton risking his job to help Lake.

Schrader makes sure to incorporate some criticism against the CIA in his story, represented by Lake's grudge, accusing the CIA in letting go of the American values and caring for their own private benefits.

I felt the premise was quite nice but rather weakly written especially towards the end when Lake faces Banir, it was not really clear what exactly was the point in making Lake's illness prevent him from killing Banir only to come back the next day to finish the job just because as Lake puts it: "it's my friend you shot back there", referring to Milton. So which is it? Was it the disease, his conscience, or both that made him up and leave the bad guy? Perhaps Schrader wanted to squeeze in another action scene before the final killing of Banir. I felt Lake's crave to kill Banir was all that was left of the American values, according to Lake, although the real value would have been in capturing Banir and not murdering him. So Lake's actions in the end are a mere mix of revenge and emotional justice, nothing more. so I guess violence adds another victim to its long list, the American value.

Directorially, Schrader opted for a more documentary hand-held like style, playing the scenes out more realistically. Lake is by far Cage's most beautifully acted character so far in 2014. Anton Yelchin gives a great performance as well with his constrained wisdom and care for Lake and his cause.

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Cash Flow (2012)

6/10

An Americanised Lebanese story

25 February 2016

Warning: Spoilers

First of all, allow me to congratulate any and all Lebanese effort, skill, and talent in all major entertainment fields, specifically TV and film, of course Ms. Nadine Labaki's beautiful "Where Do We Go Now?" and the funny yet mediocre "Cash Flow". I already expressed my feedback, opinion, and critique of Ms. Labaki's second feature so I will skip that and communicate what I thought about "Cash Flow". On a positive notion, Sami did a very good directorial job with his comedic feel in framing the shots, the montage, and the choice and use of music but I felt the movie lacked many elements, starting with pace and climax. The movie's rhythm was rather monotonous and boring, the movie history and our exposition to it has taught us well that once you introduce the characters, the story, and the conflict, the tempo of the movie has to increase and become faster until a climax is reached and after that a resolve or the conclusion, the movie stayed the same from beginning to end. As far as characters, they were flat and one-dimensional, we don't even know what the main role works, we just see him sitting behind a desk in the office; there was weak and poor acting skills, I felt the only good acting was executed by Carlos Azar . . .period, I can understand and agree that we have A class acting, B-class acting, etc.. so I can't bring a non-actor and judge his acting because he or she is not an actor or an actress in the first place, so why cast a non-actor? I tell you why, because the name is big and popular, that I don't understand, come on people, when are we ever going to change??? I don't want to name the characters or the actors respectively, some of the acting in this movie crossed the ridiculous line. Bad acting generates weak credibility.

Story, story, story! Okay Sami said once in an interview that this movie is simple, not complicated, funny, and anyone would enjoy it or something of that nature, great, the movie is simple but simple does not mean empty and void of any themes, even the silliest American comedies have a theme(s), take for example American Pie, yes American Pie has a theme, what is the theme of this movie? What is this movie, a comedy, social, thriller, all together?!!!!

My biggest problem with this movie is the fact that we are we still trying to 'westernize' our ideas, the characters, the settings of some scenes are clearly influenced by American movies, characters like the cop or detective with his coat and poses in front of the board full of pictures, did you ever see a Lebanese detective like that?? The bad idiot guys portrayed by Hisham Haddad and that other unknown actor, and the Lebanese "SWAT" team in the beginning of the movie, etc I just hope next time Sami Koujan can make better use of his ideas and directorial skills in making a true Lebanese movie and giving the writing task to a more qualified talent instead of writing the script himself and I do hope and wish to God that he casts real actors.

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The Guest (I) (2014)

6/10

it's nice to have something original and different from time to time

25 February 2016

Warning: Spoilers

A good cast, good performances throughout especially by not much known actors and actresses, I liked the reversal of the usual story formula from having a hero or heroes facing a conflict and the bad guy or guys and the hero or heroes win at the end, here we have a story that manipulates the viewer into rooting for the seemingly good guy David Collins (Stevens) who turns out to be the bad guy with only Anna (Maika Munroe) and her brother Luke (Brendan Meyer) as brief protagonists towards the end of the movie when they try to escape Collins and eventually attempt at killing him. This whole turn on the convention is quite nice, this new psychological way of giving the audience a choice who to root for even if it is for the bad guy, maybe some might think David Collins was perhaps the victim of a government experiment and the family he took care of and the people responsible for his situation paid the price, maybe other people saw Collins as a psycho who should be punished.

A subplot is noticed of the negative atmosphere an absent father or father figure might leave behind in a family and that's where Dave's involvement and help touches on the violent, illegal, and straight out creepy. All in all it was a rather dull movie until David kills the arms dealer and his friend where the story picks up a bit with the ambiance of a cool 80's kind of soundtrack, awesome direction, and a handsome strong actor, ending up saving the movie just a bit.

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The Canal (2014)

7/10

a modern "the shining"

25 February 2016

Warning: Spoilers

The Shining is a sure inspiration and influence on the story, we have also a married couple with a male child moving into a haunted home where a terrible murder once took place by a husband who killed his cheating wife and kids. David (Evans) gets the same taste of poison when he finds out his wife Claire is cheating on him and then she ends up dead in the canal, supposedly drowned. We get a fair share of psychological horror mixed with bits of a ghost story ala The Ring with some elements of found footage but in this case, David shoots those footages and imagines the ghosts.

Subtle direction on Kavanagh's part with creepy and eerie slow zoom ins and just plain fixed shots for an extended time and exquisite compositions layered with nice color schemes of blue, gold, and red and flavored with insane and psychotic violin music.

Constrained chills and scares are scattered well throughout the movie until the story goes full throttle towards the end with thrilling scenes especially in the canal where his abhorrent-faced wife Claire covered with mud and sewer stuff all over gives birth and chases David with his son in his arms.

The sharp editing and sound editing especially where they are used as transitions between scenes add to a lot of effect to the movie replacing the clichéd sudden jerks and bangs and appearances of certain things that is usually found and incorporated in horror movies.

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Starry Eyes (2014)

9/10

a nice mix of psychological and graphic horror

25 February 2016

Warning: Spoilers

I love it when we get a classy piece of psychological horror set up against a good human situation premise with more practical effects than CG effects if there was at all. This is a great mix of Rosemary's baby and the Slasher genre.just bloody beautiful, from the opening bloody red 80's type of credits as well as an 80's-like soundtrack to the stand out finale. Definitely 'less is more' works charms in this movie with the subtle direction and vulnerable acting on behalf of the fresh Alex Essoe as Sarah who resents her pathetic life and loser friends so much that she sells herself to the Devil in order to achieve fame and be a big super star. Paying the price for her transformation besides herself is her friends whom she ends up killing all and that plays as an extreme exaggeration of how she felt for her friends or more specifically her roommate's friends who never done anything helpful for her, one is always a bitch to her, always cunning and envious, and Danny who is constantly changing his mind about making her the lead role of his movie or choosing Erin whose always jealous of Alex and patronises her, and one time you feel he is emotionally interested in her than you see him in bed with Erin.

Stand out scenes are the second audition scene executed with very nice editing, the night pool scene, and amazingly Alex's rebirth scene, a bit reminiscent of Night of the Living Dead with her hands sticking out the muddy earth, against the backdrop of the city, and concluding that scene with a red packaged gift with a small HAPPY BIRTHDAY card is a nice touch.

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Nightcrawler (2014)

9/10

a great piece of social satire

25 February 2016

Warning: Spoilers

I guess night time is a perfect time of day to set this story up, the darkness in all of us comes out at night, not to mention Bloom's loner character who realizes a legitimate and more lucrative career path of taping people's misfortunes and selling it to the highest bidding news station, Channel 6, aided by Head of the News, Nina (Russo). Soon enough Bloom's new job becomes an obsession where he is not only doing it for the money but however enjoying his work and never really learning anything about his background story except maybe that he is a witty fellow who is tenacious at anything he learns doing, and does it well plays well to focus on not only how empty his life is but also how empty he is that he becomes his work, maybe for the first time he is actually doing something people like and are willing to pay money for, for him it never gets better than that, and that obsession progresses on to the point of manipulating some crime scenes he shoots to make them more enjoyable and watchable by the viewer and hence gets him more money for it.

More money, new car, new video equipment, new police scanner, Bloom becomes a full-fledged business man who will stop at nothing to become big. Underlying Bloom's business wittiness and sharp business mind is his sarcasm that is majorly emphasized in his rather long fast monologues which project smartness and messages criticizing maybe the actual employment world nowadays, when he cynically shows his good hardworking manners and attitude towards working his way up and learning and being a good employee and that should get him success, he is actually mocking the conventional way or what this world is trying to convince us with and saying no, you won't get anywhere with an education , education won't get you money, but being an asshole with no heart and giving people what they want at all costs, gets you success, and his success story is the perfect example and proof of that.

Selling people what they want brings me to another theme portrayed beautifully by the towering satellite poles we see throughout the movie even contrasted with 'small' –shot towers for they are the controllers of people's mind today, the media, TV, radio, movies, it's what controls their minds and desires so Gilroy shoots them low to give them power and domination, like some horror movie Gothic castles up on some mountain and particularly in one scene they are drowned with fog which gives them the appearance of stationed alien spaceships who have invaded our lives and minds and won't let go.

The story definitely employs psychological themes of viewers liking to watch real life tragedies while the media at the same time manipulates it with the editing and order of shots and music, clearly evident in the scene introducing Russo's character, Nina working with the editor on some piece of news. Gilroy has certainly upped his stories after the hearty Real Steel and the action-packed The Bourne Legacy with a raw, biting, social life commentary on media and how it affects our lives. Gyllenhal graces us with another remarkable performance which adds beautifully to his list of great performances the likes of Donnie Darko, Jarhead, and Prisoners.

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Friday the 13th (2009)

5/10

Good production, weak story

25 February 2016

Warning: Spoilers

The protagonist faces some difficulties and runs into a new fresh group of boys and girls, his new friends end up for about 15 minutes or more precisely during three kills that take place in or around the house,standing there like idiots doing nothing and all Clay summons up to say is :" DO YOU HAVE A PHONE?", and gives the address , and then says : THE KILLER IS OUT THERE, HE KILLED ALL THE LIGHT!! how cowardly did he sound??? So let's dwell on that point, the scriptwriters managed to introduce this new heroine strong male character who seems tenacious in finding his sister but ends up in one scene standing there cowardly, and doing nothing??? that's number one! Number two,It took Clay and Danielle more film time to go through the woods and their hike and check out the cabins then it took them to find it while escaping from Jason at the end of movie in about 30 to 40 minutes of film time, that's just sillyand even sillier is the fact they did not even find Jason's house. how come they could not find it before when they had more time and they were not running for their lives? And Clay's character who found out when he saw Jason carrying those dead bodies that he might have killed or hurt his sister, he decides to run like a chicken instead of facing him and finding out what happened to his sister, all this does not make any sense at all. If the producers and scriptwriters wanted to introduce a heroine, a leader, to help those kids or even try to help them and try to find his sister, wouldn't you at least give him some balls??? !!! If u think of it more, what was the real clear purpose of creating such a character and still have the kids end up dying and oh how cliché, he finds his sister??!!

Three, Jason kills all the light, they call the cops, good, a cop shows, gets killed at the doorstep, they escape, but they don't find the keys to his car??? seriously? Lol and also unfortunately Clay loses his motorbike keys, OMG! In addition to those nonsensical things, is Whitney being tied up in a ragged up hellhole with all metal stuff around her, and all she needs is a broken GPS device so she can take a small part to unscrew her hand lock???? Come on!

Four, I am sure the audience wondered just like I did why the hell did Jason keep the sister, why not kill her? It would be safe to assume that cus maybe she looks. Like.his mom! Okay good, I can swallow that but we should not assume, the producers and writers should have reinstated that , enforced that, or played on it throughout or at some point in the movie, not only in the beginning where the sister's boyfriend remarks that she looks like the woman in the locket, and the end, in the final confrontation scene where she tricks Jason into letting her brother go and maybe he might think she is his mom, which brings me to the character of the sister, she has more balls in escaping and killing Jason than her brother has in the whole movie.

Five, Michael Bay's influence is quite clear in the way he for the second time in producing classic horror remakes since Texas chainsaw massacre, he ages his characters in comparison to the original and makes super handsome and beautiful, like models, accept for the dorky tech freak in the first group in the movie and again there is another dorky Chinese guy in the second group. Another Michael Bay influence which is clear and taken from his own take on The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is the fact they make Jason run, think, plan, and set up traps, and build underway tunnels, and especially the scene where Jason is working underground and Whitney is tied up, all of that scene looks like Texas Chainsaw Massacre scenes.

Six, I feel the movie is too lit and colored for a horror movie, two main colors dominate the movie, blue and fire-y yellow, I feel it is too much for a horror movie, these colors and this mood suits more a superhero movie, not a slasher horror movie. Also the make-up of Jason is too beautiful and nicely done, it over the top, not really realistic, I compare this to the idea of bringing model-like characters versus down-to-earth looking cast.

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Gone Girl (2014)

9/10

wow

25 February 2016

Warning: Spoilers

WOWand nothing short of. Let me start with this, this a romance/mystery suspense/thriller/who- dunnit/ conspiracy/drama movie. OH MY GOD! What a beautiful piece of work by the hands and imagination of Gillian Flynn and a standing ovation and credit for the producers in asking Flynn to write the script based on her own novel, a step I thought was pure genius. To create different-genred stories woven into one whole story was breathtaking, it was like watching three or movies in one, all in a package of two and half never-boring hours. The story was so smartly written that while watching the movie you can kind of predict or guess two or more different scenarios this story could go to and I bet you might just get close to one, you think the story is going in a certain direction that it just completely goes in the opposite or just another way, and then just when you think oh okay it's going this way now, it changes again.

Fincher's marvelous work strides in parallel between a loose method in the romantic scenes and the good old days in the lives of Nick (Affleck) and Amy (Pike) and the more strict, sharp, and abrupt direction and editing in the troubled times that Nick faces, which is even evident in the opening credits, just as soon as any name filters in, it fades out. Fincher keeps up with his style of dark, not-so-lit, dry colored scenes, even the paparazzi and TV show scenes don't look glamorous and that is just one of the themes of the movie, how media destroys your life. "Marriage is hard work", is another important theme, when Amy thought their fairytale love story did not need hard work and was not hard work, how wrong was she? Nick cheated on her, abused her with his spending, and simply got lazy after being laid off from work, not only lazy with his professional life but lazy with his love life as well, on the other hand, she too was an uppity snobbish woman who controlled Nick's life, and this caused the major imperfection of their marriage which in turn kick-started this whole conspiracy thing on behalf of Amy to the point of the ridiculous and silly. Nick passes through a humiliating phase, from an employed man who got married to the love of his life to a media circus freak, she goes from a rich woman to a disguised country girl, having to hide out in some motel, conspiring to get her cheating husband not only punished but executed, that is one sick revenge ploy, hehe! which brings me to the most beautiful twist of all to me, the endingspecifically the end scene where Nick and Amy are on that TV show presumably faking their intentions and lives and pretending all is okay, but at the same time, for the very first time since their troubled times, you actually see that they both have matured throughout this horrendous ordeal and journey, they both have stuck around to commit to their responsibilities towards one another as partners and lovers, for the first time we see them after a long tiring and excruciating journey of 'working hard', his responsibility is for the baby on the way and his wife who killed her ex-boyfriend to save him from the inevitable death row and her responsibility for the man whom she still obviously loves. In the end, they both paid pricey and costly for their mistakes for ruining each other's lives, for

not being responsible for not putting the effort to work on their relationship. He certainly paid his due with surviving the circus that the media has turned his life into and she paid hers by killing another man to order save the life of the man she loves, Amy: "I had to fight my way back to you". Ultimately they became better people but by all the wrong means.

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Labor Day (2013)

8/10

a great tragic love story

25 February 2016

Warning: Spoilers

A single mom Adele (Winslet) with son Henry are forced to harbor a fugitive Frank (Brolin) at their

own home. An unexpected relationship develops among the three.

A beautiful story with a great cast including the super talented Gattlin Griffith as Henry. A very sensual, delicate, and rather natural direction on the hands of Jason Reitman (Up in the Air, Juno). Jason scripted this movie based on the novel by Joyce Maynard. Jason did a terrific job in interpreting Adele's yearning for male attention and care, in brief a man around the house in every aspect, especially in the scene where Frank wraps his arm around her waist and when we see her face turning towards him, I and I am sure a lot of the audience expected a kiss but what do you knowWinslet beautifully and vulnerably lays her face on his shoulder.. absolutely mesmerizing!

Another scene stands out for me how Reitman plays down and tones down the sexual relationship between Frank and Adele by suggestive scenes for example, when Henry does not find Frank on the couch where he was usually sleeps but hears him in his mom's bedroom and another scene where he opens the bathroom door to find her brushing her teeth with her under gown on with Frank there with her, but then in the movie's most vulnerable scene, we just get a single passionate kiss between Frank and Adele.

I loved the use of sunlight throughout the movie right about when Frank arrives at Adel and Henry's house and starts affecting and impacting their lives, which to me is rather symbolic for light of hope that is shed on them, a second chance for a normal and loving family life, for them and for Frank as well, clearly evident in the final scenes when upon telling him about her problematic pregnancy life , she tells him:" I can't give you a family.", he replies: " you have". I loved the clash of two unfortunate characters who lost love and regained it under the most unfortunate circumstances and their love conquered and endured all times and survived.

You got to give praise to how Reitman in script and direction, sprinkled more than four dramatic tension points that could result in the capture of Frank, Henry's rebel girlfriend, Henry's letter to his Dad and mentioning at dinner that there is a man around his house, Bary the mentally handicapped kid who visits them and meets Frank, but the wow factor, is how all these did not play any part in Frank's final capture.

Turning my attention to the script and as much as I loved it, a few things bothered me and caught

my attention as weak and incredible as far as plot and characterization. Starting with Bary's visit and Frank's okay with that, how could a character like Frank who was cold and cautious from the beginning in order to protect himself, let a mentally retarded kid see him? What did he think it was okay? What was he going to say? He turned out rather shouting his name, how contradictory is that? Add to that, Reitman making Bary conveniently watch the news broadcast where for maybe the 20th time they show Frank's young prison pic and for the first time in the movie, they put an adult pic of him next to it, come on how convenient and corny is that? Also keeping with Frank's character motif , why would someone like him on the day he was all alone in the house and knowing from before that Adele's neighbors and friends barge in and pop in unexpectedly not to mention rudely like Bary's mom, and while standing conveniently in direct vision of anyone coming through the main door, leave it unlocked??? Hehe..

Of all the days they could have gathered their stuff and escape to Canada, they picked Henry's first day of school to do it, and where everybody in the movie made a point of it, that's just silly. Obviously it was added to create dramatic tension and suspense but to a weak effect and result.

I will end my comments with the corny ending of the movie, we understand that Frank takes a lot of the

credit for the fine upbringing and how a fine man Henry turned out to be, but it was rather commercial

and clichéd for Reitman to actually show us Henry doing exactly the same things Frank taught him, changing a tire while with his girlfriend, cooking and baking a pie for his mom, playing baseball etc and the corniest of them all, Henry becoming a pie chef and opening a famous restaurant, that ending was just too hollywoody and I imagine every scene that comes after Frank's second arrest is rather made for commercial box office reasons, come on would you rather have this ending or just maybe see Henry cooking for his mom, and being with his girlfriend? I know your pick.

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Contagion (2011)

8/10

Fear Fear Itself

18 December 2011

Warning: Spoilers

CONTAGION (2011)

"Don't touch anyone, don't talk to anyone" is basically what Contagion warns you of once you are done watching this movie, it does and it will do to you what "Jaws" did to people especially swimmers and beach lovers back in 1975. This is a gripping medical thriller in the likes of Outbreak (1995) and The Andromeda Strain (1971). The plot revolves around a lethal epidemic and the fear it spreads among doctors and people alike.

A solid directorial effort by Steven Soderbergh (Ocean's Thirteen, Traffic, The Informant) where most of his movies have this sort of realism in the way they are shot and directed that brings the audience more into the stories and makes them more credible and the list of stars keep coming, joined by a stellar cast and superb performances, Gwenyth Paltrow, Matt Damon, Lawrence Fishburne, Jude Law, and Kate Winslet.

After watching this, I felt that the title Contagion is not only relevant to the disease the film talks about but more the contagion and spread of fear amongst people all around the world because of this disease and how it affects their behavior, judgment, and ethics. A father (Damon) who has just lost his wife and son to the disease becomes protective and aggressive around his daughter, a doctor (Fishburne) tries to do what's good and right and ends up being investigated, a cunning journalist (Law) tries to deceive the people and make money off this epidemic while falsely prophesizing a conspiracy by the government and the medical officials to cover up this matter for financial and military means. Scott Z. Burns (The Bourne Ultimatum, The Informant) did a beautiful job writing the script for this where he not only tapped into our instinctual fears but also brought out the worst in some people, showing how this disease makes us not only physically sick but also sick with greed, selfishness, and lust for power. Complementing the sense of fear, thriller, and suspense is the amazing soundtrack or score by Randy Miller that echoes of electronic sounds and ominous and mysterious beats so creepy that it brings you more into the horror of the situation.

If you want to take a break from all the slew of supernatural thrillers and horror movies with no genuine story and essence and watch a real serious thriller treat, get infected and watch Contagion.

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Where Do We Go Now? (2011)

7/10

nice movie, nothing new

16 December 2011

I am a big fan of Nadine Labaki's work, whether in music videos (that's what they are called, not "video clip", and it is "making of" not "making off", as most music videos write in their credits) acting, or movies. Sikar Banet a.k.a Caramel or vice versa was a beautiful directorial debut by Labaki that enveloped many interesting realistic themes into one coherent body of work.

After watching Where Do We Go Now? I could not help but notice the same thing I observed when I watched Caramel that again Nadine tried to cram many themes into one movie without really dwelling on one theme resulting in my opinion in those themes missing further depths and exploration and being nothing but presentations of certain ideas and messages, explicitly the theme of Sectarianism and implicitly themes of Western interference suggested by the Ukrainian girls coming in to divert the men's fueled up hatred and anger towards their fellow man of a different religion than their own, and drug use suggested by the use of sedative medications and other drugs being mixed with the food presented to those men, etc.

It was a bit annoying to me that throughout the movie we see glimpses of a potential relationship between a Muslim and a Christian Amale (Labaki) but without really delivering anything about it in the end other than they fight in the café where Amale kicks her love interest out and scorns both sides for fighting over silly issues and insulting one another, so what was really the point behind all those eye contacts and the dance in the café? If the point was just to show that their love was to symbolize and stress that there is no difference between Muslims and Christians and yes they could fall in love despite all the odds and differences, then that point was loud and clear from the first eye contact that takes place between Amale and her man, there was no need to keep on repeating it. Speaking of the differences between Muslims and Christians, the writers are clearly telling us that hey people wake up there is no difference between us, One God created us all equal on this earth to live in peace, love, and harmony, okay we as Lebanese people already know that, there is no disagreement about it, so the writers presented us with no new idea but a potential solution and that in order to make a difference we should start with ourselves, even that solution seems to be as a given and a fact hence nothing really new about it.

The main plot of the story is that women of different religions living in one village come up with schemes to divert their men's attention from the fights going on the city between Muslims and Christians and the religious tension between them, I found that idea to be really interesting especially that it could be carry humor and lighthearted actions about a very serious matter without being really too blunt and aggressive, an approach I felt was very smart on Labaki and the other writers' behalf, in other words they come up with a story and script that was easy on the viewer's eyes to watch, whether that viewer is strictly religious, moderately religious, or not religious at all and I think that's what impressed the audience and made them enjoy this movie so much and got it those excellent reviews and feedback. As for me and for my own taste, I found this approach or those schemes to be too theatrical, too convenient, and too ideal and I don't believe that story could ever happen anywhere in the world, but still any movie does not need to be an exact mirror of life, it could be an exaggerated reflection in order to get the point across, so I guess if it works, it works.

Another matter that bothered me is the use of extremes by Nadine and the writers, where they present us with all the Muslim women characters or roles wearing the veil or 'hijab', not all Muslim women are veiled, are we to think that visually or content wise we can't be convinced of any Muslim female character unless she was veiled? The Muslim family in Caramel was properly justified concerning the sensitivity of the premarital sex issue but what was the point of it in this movie? There could have been at least one female unveiled Muslim role, which brings me to the accent used by some of the Muslim characters in the movie especially the role of Hammoudi and his mom, they spoke with a pure Beiruty accent, not ever Muslim Sunni has a beiruty accent, and speaking of accents, Hammoudi's accent changes throughout the movie especially in the scene where he stands outside's Nassim's room.

(THIS PART CONTAINS SPOILERS)in one scenes we see a female Christian woman wearing black and veiled praying on the prayer carpet and then at the end of the prayer she turns her head sideways from left to right where it should be from right to left, if that was intentional on Nadine and the writers' behalf since the character is Christian she does not know exactly how to pray, then I believe that is a contradictory story mistake since the Christian ought to have learned right the way to pray from his fellow Muslim in accordance to their original plan which was to switch religions; however if that was not intentional, then I guess that was just a simple error committed by the writers in researching the details of the Muslim praying.

All in all it is a fun and inspiring movie by an inspiring and rising director star and I as a Lebanese am mighty proud of Nadine and her work, keep up the great work.

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The Thing (I) (2011)

8/10

'the thing' to watch!

16 December 2011

Warning: Spoilers

The Thing (2011)

I am not ashamed and afraid to admit that the first reason I watched this flick was I am such a die-hard fan of the original back in 1982, second reason I am a big horror freak, and third I just admire so much director John Carpenter's work. Amidst an ocean of horror sequels, prequels, and remakes, I say it from the top of a mountain that this is one of the best if not the best horror prequel/remake that Hollywood has produced so far, " it is one of the better efforts, considerably stronger than Friday the 13th, A Nightmare On Elm Street, The Hitcher, The Last House On The Left and Rupert Wainwright's god awful remake of Carpenter's The Fog" says Jamie Graham of Total Film review. This movies has a very good cast, a tight script, great direction by Dutch first-time director Matthijs van Heijningen, and super CG effects that really impress more than repel and a truly loyal and tribute-like to the gory effects and splatter imagination that were present in the original motion picture that were beautifully executed by Rob Bottin. The only thing this movie lacked was a sense of suspense, clearly evident in Carpenter's version is utter tension from the first scene of the helicopter chasing the dog, this one however just strolled right through the butter of the story and showed it like it is, the events of the story, the creatures, the pure horror kind could truly please any horror fan but surely it will distract the audience from the lack of suspense.

If you're in for a horror night, this picture serves up a nice junky horror treat. Enjoy!

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Immortals (2011)

7/10

great potential, poor delivery

16 December 2011

Warning: Spoilers

Let's start off on a positive vibe, the movie's direction, cinematography, and soundtrack promise a treat of epic proportions with Singh's superb and artistic direction, a 300-ish soundtrack enticing the viewer with warrior feelings and passion, and art direction and production design to-die-for; however, I feel that all these plus elements and factors are not enough to make a great movie throughout, story-wise it seems Singh has dwelled too much on artistry that he forgot about the story. " Singh allowed his elaborate design to take precedence over story, character, and forward momentum"- as Total Film review has stated. Speaking of "forward momentum", the battles are super great in this flick but the parts in between are super boring, literally that I fell asleep during some parts of the movie, the script and editing could have used some tightening especially between the battle scenes.

As for the character department, Henry Cavill's portrayal of Theseus (his unrelenting love for his mom and eagerness to avenge her death) throughout seemed to be a big warm up and excitement to something that does not really deliver, I felt the movie ended and I did not really feel Theseus's build-up potential. King Hyperion (Rourke) on the other hand stays the same from the beginning to the end, and finally Stephen Dorff, he plays a cynical thief alright but surely not of that era, he seems too much like a thief from the city especially with the way he carried his body, his body language seemed too modern and don't let me mention his costume (clearly not his fault J), he looks like he came out of a bad MC Hammer music video, lol.

Must every epic story or Hollywood script contain a love scene, whether it is love declaration or making love? My answer would be no, the love scene in this movie was a commercial addition to spice up the movie only to be weakly justified in the end by the birth of Theseus's son (do I smell a sequel here? . . . Duhhhhhh: PJ and the proclamation of a war in heaven and am I really to believe that the virgin oracle, who apparently has been a virgin for far too long to be actually called the Virgin Oracle, lol, has waited all this time just to end up giving her cherry to this particular warrior in an era full of mighty, strong, muscled, and brave warriors all around?

Now we come to the story, all these epic battles in the beginning and all through the movie, all this build-up for it to end in a boxing/wrestling match, come on J gimme a break !!! All in all it is an average action/adventure film that could be an eye candy in some parts and a sleeping pill in other. I say watch it for the direction, cinematography, and music and forget about the rest.

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Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol (2011)

9/10

A roller coaster thrill ride !!!!

16 December 2011

Power, adrenaline, thrill, rush, are many of the pure ingredients of Tom Cruise's formula for Mission-Impossible-Ghost Protocol. Well I can assure you MIGP will take you for the roller coaster ride of your life and you will just wish the movie never ended.

Tom Cruise returns as Agent Ethan Hunt thrown into a plot not related to the third installment. I am not going to spoil the movie since not a lot of people have watched it yet but it is more than safe to say that the acting performances are superb, a solid script, Cruise is 'the' super action star, Jeremy Renner is a magnificent action addition to this cast, the female touch in this story is both sexy and lethal as portrayed by Paula Patton, Simon Pegg does a wonderful job with his subtle comedy without overdoing or exaggerating it and yet being serious and responsible when need be.

It is clearly evident that the writers this time relied heavily on lesser action scenes, or lesser action in the suspenseful scenes especially lesser fight scenes, in comparison with the previous three parts, in favor of more wit, suspense, and gut-wrenching challenging twists and turns in the plot that persistently and truly make this mission for Ethan and his team impossible to accomplish and this is obvious in the final scene when Ethan says:" the only thing that functioned in this mission is this team".

Two things did not really sit right with me about this movie, one, I found that the first scene in this movie, the prison scene, action and suspense wise was not up to par in comparison with the commencing scenes of the first three parts, I guess the writers introduced the new "less action, more wit and suspense" formula from the beginning of the movie and carried it along, I think they should have begun with the old formula and then kicked in the new mode after the credits. Two, the first thing that comes to my mind and I am assure to a lot of people's minds when the name Dubai is mentioned, is images of beautiful and spacious landscapes full of extravagant buildings, constructions, and towers yet the writers decided to introduce Dubai in the movie with desert and camels ?!!!!!???!?!?!? As an Arab and a Lebanese I found that to be insulting, especially when Ethan swerves off in his car to avoid hitting a group of camels walking in the middle of the road; two elements here caught my attention the camels and the road, reflecting to me the idea of regression and primitiveness that some Arab people are still using camels to get to their destinations, and again the Western's and especially the American's image and idea about the Arab people associated with camels and desert is repeated here and I feel the color of the sand of these deserts was exaggerated or increased to give it more an oriental desert look and not the usual color you would see in other non-Arab countries, I lived in Dubai for one whole year and never in those days, as far as I can remember, have I seen so much camels, if any at all, like I saw in this movie, and this is not the right color of sand found in the UAE, it is much lighter in tone. Still in general I enjoyed this movie a whole lot, I had a childish smile on my face throughout and got the occasional goose bumps from time to time.

MIGP is an intensifying, action-thriller, watch it or miss out on the ride of your life.

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