ahossam03 Reviews

The Treasure 2 (2019)

Cliched and okay at best just like the first part.

[5/10 · 25 November 2023]

The film is just like the first part. The same 3 disconnected stories that are supposed to tie up at the end with the same cliches and historical references.

First we begin with the story, written in the poorest way possible. The film cuts between the 3 stories way too quickly, you never get invested in any of them, you do not connect with the characters or feel anything towards them, you always end up checking your phone.

Secondly, the acting. Every actor / actress in the film is over acting (and that's the least to say about it) even big and talented names like Hend Sabry. Other performances are just terrible. The only descent performances are Mohamed Saad's just like the first part and Mohamed Ramadan's.

Thirdly, to be honest the production set is amazing. The scenes in Cairo's Mamluk and Ancient Egypt are amazing. But this shows an important thing, if the film only relies on big names with minimum acting skills, big production sets without a decent plot, the result will always be mediocre at best.

I really hope we start shifting from just having big names and cool action sequences to only make a film.

Kira & El Gin (2022)

Very Disappointing film by a supposed one of the best, if not the best director in Egypt at the moment.

[5/10 · 27 June 2023]

The last film I saw that was directed by Marwan Hamed and also written by Ahmed Mourad was the "The Blue Elephant 2", and I said that it was a good cinema experience with at least a decent story that can make me watch it on TV when it's on. However, Kira and El-Gin even lacks the decent story.

I am not going to talk about the graphics, the cinematography or the music score. All these things are amazing and probably the best in Egyptian cinema history. But, even if these aspects are wonderful and the story is bad, the film will be bad.

The story of Kira and El-Gen is horribly written. There supposed to be some "bromance" between the two lead characters but no matter how hard they try to force it down my throat I still can not swallow it. They barely have scenes together in the film and suddenly I am supposed to just imagine that El-Gen is the only one who can help Kira mentally when things go wrong in his life.

Outside the false "Bromance" that was given to us. The story mainly talks about the resistance against the British Occupation of Egypt during and after 1919 revolution. But the resistance wasn't only seven people, the lead group of the film. Not every crime committed by the occupation was related to them or every act of resistance in Egypt was done by them.

There's no main plot in this film. If you think it was fighting the occupation it's not, there is no story there, just some action sequences of blowing up camps and car chases in the old streets of Cairo, but why is that happening or how will this help fighting the occupation, you don't get these points, just random acts of patriotism.

If I wanted to see explosions, good CGI and minimum effort in the stroy that is supposed be cool, I would probably go for a Zack Snyder film. Because that was what Kira and El-Gen aspires to be and fails. Nearly 3 hours of a plot-less film just some talking between action sequences.

This film is huge set back on Marwan Hamed's filmography and clear indication that Ahmed Mourad cannot be a film writer on his own.

The Land (1970)

Ageless

[9/10 · 26 January 2023]

When people ask about Egypt's best film ever, the first film that comes to the mind is this one, and it's for a good reason.

How the story talks about the life in the Egyptian countryside during the colonial times and kingdom, is so amazing you feel like it was written by the people there themselves.

The story is so complex with a lot of side plots, that give you an exact idea about each character and how you expect them to act in the end. And with all these side plots you're never distracted from the main plot because they all feed it.

The choice for the actors is wonderful, unlike nowadays when they just get the main super stars even if they don't fit the characters at all, everyone in the cast looked, sounded and acted like a peasant perfectly, that sometimes you forget what the real actors looked like.

I am not even going to talk about the editing and the cinematography, this film has iconic shots and scenes that until now they are shared over social media because of how great they are. And this is what we expect from a Yousef Chahine film.

The music is one of the most famous ever in Egyptian cinema, people who haven't seen the film can recognize the music. This is enough to make it one of the greatest in Egyptian cinema as well.

All the reasons above make this film ageless and one of the pillars of The Egyptian Film Industry.

El-Mashbooh (1981)

A very underrated film.

[8/10 · 3 April 2020]

The Suspect (Al-Mashbouh) is one of the most underrated films ever. It has a very simple story that is reinforced by amazing performances by Soad Hosny, Adel Imam and Said Saleh. The music in the film is remarkable, very underrated too, if you watched the film just once before and hear the music anywhere, you would immediately recognize it. It's simply a classic 80s film and you can recognize (also enjoy) that from the set locations, sound editing, acting, directing and obviously the score.

I don't usually enjoy films from that era, but you can't hate this screen beauty. I totally recommend this film to any one born in the 90s or younger because the films in this era are totally erased from their minds.

Rumor of Love (1961)

An iconic romantic comedy

[9/10 · 25 August 2019]

A great cast assembled to make, probably the best romantic comedy in the history of the Egyptian cinema. The story is both fun and funny. The acting was amazing like Omar Sharif's simple facial expressions or Yusuf Wahbi's dialogues could make you smile easily. This film isn't just good, it's an iconic to Egyptian Cinema. It's like "The Apartment" for Western Cinema!

If any youngsters reading this review, please watch this film an enjoy the golden age of Egyptian cinema.

The Passage (2019)

Okay and just okay.

[6/10 · 23 August 2019]

The Passage was one of the most anticipated films of 2019, the film had so much hype especially because its Egypt's first war film in decades.

The film is not as great as it was anticipated, but it's not bad either.

The acting in the film was good but sometimes it felt a little bit over that it became cliched.

The action packed scenes were executed well, however they weren't the action scenes that you would see in a war film. The film is talking about a mission that was done by a group from the Egyptian Commandos so the film didn't require so much action packed scenes, like a Michael Bay film.

I won't talk about the music because Omar Khairat which means it was obviously great.

Let's talk about the story, which had so many flaws. There are two sides in a war, the patriotic side and the coward side who was just forced, there wasn't a single character that portrayed the bad side. There's nothing wrong with admitting that the bad side exists, what is really wrong is showing that it doesn't. I read the story of the "Group 39 Fighting" that the film is based on, and the film's main purpose wasn't to show their story but it was to show how much explosions they could make using their story. Also there is always something that bothered me about war films, the target is always "The biggest weapons supply the enemy has", "The biggest war camp in enemy army", etc and the film didn't avoid that cliche at all. Small victories matter too, like the victories this group had accomplished.

I am a little let down because I hoped that this film would change this typical stereo typing about the Military, especially with foreign films not afraid of admitting that, "Dunkirk" is a film about the biggest retreat in the war and they showed it like a victory without any shame because it led to a victory but I still would say that I enjoyed the film.

I would obviously recommend this film, so others could join the debate and also because they would enjoy the film.

The Blue Elephant 2 (2019)

A great cinema experience!

[7/10 · 4 August 2019]

It has become a trend in modern cinema that every good film must at least have a sequel or two, and it's no surprise that The Blue Elephant followed this trend.

The Blue Elephant 2 is a good film, the story is quite the same as the first film, even the plot twists are not surprising. However, you wouldn't care about that, because the film has made it clear from the first scene that it intends to blow your mind by the music, editing and the graphics.

The film's score is excellent, it's very loud, kind of derived from the first part but this is not a bad thing, it has become kind of a signature for The Blue Elephant films, the second you hear the music, you immediately know what film it is. Hats off to Hesham Nazih.

The editing is spectacular, probably the film's best feature. The way it cuts from one scene to another, it feels like a flow of beauty. Amazing. As for the graphics, they were really good but sometimes it kind of felt like the CGI animal aliens that were added to the Star Wars original trilogy. It's still a big achievement for the Egyptian cinema though.

Overall performances by the actors and actresses were great, it's surprising that Marwan Hamed has pulled these performances out of them in a horror summer blockbuster like that, this is why he is one of the best directors in Egypt at the moment.

Blue Elephant 2 is a great cinema experience that I enjoyed very much, but I would only watch it whenever there isn't anything better on the television!

Ismail Yasin fi el-Ustool (1957)

The definition of a family film

[7/10 · 18 November 2018]

Ismael Yassine is the Charlie Chaplin of the Egyptian cinema, his gestures, facial expressions and way of acting make him unique, remarkable and iconic. This is the kind of film you watch when you want to relax, clear your mind and have good laugh, without having cheap comedy or offensive jokes. This film is the definition of a family that all its members can watch and enjoy. The film became a little sexist at the end, this is its only draw back. Totally recommended!

Photocopy (2017)

How to live

[8/10 · 30 September 2018]

Photocopy is film that revolves around an old man "Mahmoud Photocopy" who has an empty life and deals with the society that he has seen evolve around him. The story shows the real meaning of life and ironically how an old man can make the most out of it.

The film is very touching and easy to relate to no matter how old you are, the performances are all great excluding none. the music and the set locations are remarkable.

It's sad to know that such a meaningful film is not getting much recognition in the modern Egyptian cinema.

The Treasure (2017)

Very cliched

[5/10 · 25 August 2018]

The film has four different stories that should be connected but it felt just the opposite, each story barely progressed and they all felt like they were heading nowhere. The plot was driven by cliches which just made some scenes very "cheesy" and the film ended up being a big insult to all the remarkable eras in Egyptian history.

The production set of the film is good which is exceptional for Egyptian cinema. It was great to see Mohamed Saad try a serious role which he portrayed well, all other performances in the film were just terrible. Mohamed Ramadan was doing another typical Mohamed Ramadan role just in a different era, not good at all.

Action scenes were very random, they would do anything just to make a character look cool which were poorly choreographed and the output would probably make the audience laugh.

The film tried so hard to be a blockbuster but it backfired miserably and the output was just disappointing with an inconclusive ending.

Cairo 678 (2010)

The ugly truth

[8/10 · 24 August 2018]

This is one of the very few films that talks about the sexual harassment that women suffer in Egypt or the middle east.

The plot of this film is so good, the way it talks about different kinds of women and how they react to such incidents and how the others around them including their husbands, siblings, friends and parents are affected too.

The performances in this film are outstanding from all the cast especially Bushra, the directing is good and this film was one of the main reasons I follow Mohamed Diab.

It's sad to see such a movie not getting so much recognition from the public in Egypt as other movies but it definitely has its own place between critically acclaimed films of all time here in the middle east.

The Blue Elephant (2014)

A change in the Egyptian cinema

[8/10 · 24 August 2018]

This film is probably different than any Egyptian film ever made, it was a bald move but a good one though.

The plot is intriguing until the last minute, the performance by all the actors is good. The music is just great, it puts you right in to the climate of the film. The cinematography and film editing are good which is really surprising for an Egyptian film.

I recommend this film to any Egyptian who stopped following Egyptian film as its quality had dropped drastically.

Diamond Dust (2018)

Marwan Hamed and Ahmed Mourad combo

[8/10 · 24 August 2018]

Diamond Dust feels like a two hour episode of Breaking Bad which is a great thing. The plot is very good, it's not often that you see an Egyptian film that relies more on acting and the plot more than action packed scenes or offensive comedies. There is only one part in the story that just seemed forced to keep it going which was kind of disappointing.

Menna Shalabi's performance is just amazing. The music seems a little derived from Dunkirk's ticking clock but it still was good.

This film can change how modern people view Egyptian film making industry again.

Taymour and Shafika (2007)

Very sexist

[1/10 · 24 August 2018]

The protagonist of the movie undermines the female independent existence in every possible way and the script actually makes him look cool. The movie had an action packed finale in what should have been a romantic comedy which just seemed forced because Ahmed El Saka is the star. Mona Zaki's acting was probably the only good thing about the film.