aktowfik Reviews

Grace (III) (2009)

Silly, stupid and pretentious

[3/10 · 16 October 2009]

On the contrary to most people, I usually find something good in every horror movie I see. Here I failed entirely to find anything good. It's very slow and has a complicated plot that never delivers. Obviously the writer/director is sick with serious trouble towards motherhood and breasts. Lesbian wife, horny mother in law, vampire infant, corrupt Doctor, severed tits and sticky flies. Nothing makes sense. It's horror for the hell of it and it never gives U any scares, just disgust and shock for how far these people can go. This is a dedication to bloody nipples and vaginal bleeding. Nothing more. I feel pity for the infant they tortured in this sick hell. They should be all sent to asylum.

Slumdog Millionaire (2008)

a Real MasterPiece That will last long time after the movie..

[10/10 · 27 February 2009]

when I first heard about the buzz the movie made, I felt that it was another ordinary movie with an interesting story. That's what made me watch it in first place ..After 2 hours of non stop entertainment and emotions that will make you live in the slums with their childhood and adventures ..It's a realistic picture of the slums so I think it's one of the best motion picters of all time, and it makes me know the power of destiny and hope ..so nice work Danny Boyle and the rest of the crew who made one hell of a movie ..and for the people who didn't watch this movie I can assure you that you won't be disappointed..I give it 10/10 ..

Zayy el-Nahardah (2008)

A real decent movie

[9/10 · 29 December 2008]

Due to financial restraint, Egyptian Cinema has a very narrow range of choices. Most films focus on attracting youth to regain the expenses spent on filming, namely making action movies and comedy. This is one of very few films in Egyptian film history that explore the world of metaphysics. With a shoe string budget, the director manages to make a very well credible and respectable picture. He has a great sense of light, many obsessions related to time and streams of storytelling, and he knows how to direct his actors. Amr Salama is one of the few auteurs in Egyptian Cinema, and he wrote the film, edited and directed it. If he was in America he would have become a famous indie director or another Christopher Nolan. This is a movie you should see if you are able to find, for it shows how art can create beauty even in the absence of big names, CGI or big scenes. Just humans acting naturally .. For foreign cine goers, this film gives you a very good Panorama about drug problem among Egyptian youth . all done very beautifully ..

Alexandria... Why? (1979)

Egyptian Fellini.. Do we need one ?

[7/10 · 3 December 2007]

Yussef is one of the masters of Egyptian Cinema, and I think he got himself a good reputation abroad, specially in France and Russia. He was always criminally ignored by Hollywood, though he studied Cine art in NY. However, he developed this Fellini complex recently. He keeps talking about his youth, his sexual complexes, his relations with parents, his study of Cinema, conflicts with the totalitarian governments.. etc. Yussef comes from a very marginal society in Alexandria, being Catholic (most of Egyptian Christians are Orthodox), from a fairly rich family, being educated at Victoria college. Till now his Arabic language is not perfect. From this marginal area he tries to give us a very complex panorama of the Egyptian society during WW II, when Germans were about to conquer Alexandria, and the British were about to flee. Some Egyptians thought that Romel would be their liberator from the British occupation. Here, you find a complete mess from Egyptian Islamists (Muslim brothers), Jews, communists, aristocrats, Catholics, British soldiers, Nazis ... etc... Very complex that U spend 1 hour trying to figure anything... U got only 3 seconds for every character to understand his attitude and problem. Then, in the second hour, things get better and U begin to appreciate this director. The movie gets emotion and U care for characters...

The final shot shows Miss Liberty while the young man stands on board on his way to US to study Cine art. Then we see Miss Liberty's face closer and we discover it's the face of a prostitute heavily covered with make-up, and she laughs loudly and obscenely. This summarizes his memories about his USA experience. Americans won't like this scene, but they will like it in East Europe and Russia. My opinion is that Mr Shahin is a genius film director, but is a very bad script writer. However, it's impossible to convince him otherwise because he has always done what he thought was right, and he is 80 now ... No hope for change !

The Illusionist (2006)

Unnecessary twist at all..

[8/10 · 18 July 2007]

Why the hell should be a twist ?.. This is the new epidemic of today's movies that every film should have a crazy twist, which is, most of the time, totally contrived and irrelevant. Think twice.. The movie was a masterpiece in plot, characters, acting and photography, till the last 5 minutes when the script writer got possessed by the "Twist demon". He ruined everything. We have been recruited emotionally for nothing, for the crown prince was innocent. There are many holes in here:

1- WHY ? .. Why did the wizard plot such a thing when he could easily escape with the Duchess ?. 2- She wasn't dead, but what about her burial ? How did she escape the sermons ? 3- Where was she hidden all this time ? what if the prince didn't commit suicide ?.. Would she remain hidden for ever ? 4- And above all... How did the inspector know all this and make these conclusions while the train was departing ?.. give me the pieces of the puzzle he connected. He had nothing at all except the wizard was on the train.. 5- So all this was a matter of stage play, so please gimme an explanation for the apparitions we saw, and Norton's disappearance from the stage.

Frankly, if the film ended when the train left the station, it would be much powerful. This twist weakened everything like what happened with "Identity".

The Night God Screamed (1971)

Great underrated movie

[10/10 · 21 June 2007]

There are certain films that are really well written and very scary, but they are totally unlucky. I recall "Let's scare Jessica to death", which is a very very creepy movie, and you just hope this tension would end, at mean time you hope it would never end. Nobody talks about "Let's scare Jessica to death", and you can't find a DVD or data about it, or even watch it on TV. The same is applicable to "The night God scream", which is a very well written movie, that captures the real essence of horror. There are no zombies or special effects. No bowels or beheading and certainly no rotten corpses, but it's a hell of a movie that makes your blood freeze. You breathe with difficulty and you sit at the edge of the chair. Nobody really understands what the real horror is.. What you see in "Saw", "Van helsing" and "Scream" is just gore. I am not amazed that there was only one comment about such a great movie, because it was born unlucky like "Let's scare Jessica...". If you are not into gore and rotten corpses, and you think that apprehension is the real essence of horror, then do yourself a favor and go find this movie.

Necronomicon: Book of Dead (1993)

Not very successful, but who can succeed with Lovecraft ?

[7/10 · 8 June 2007]

The wraparound story and the first story are really successful in creating the familiar apprehension of H.P. Lovecraft's works. The atmosphere is menacing and foreboding. Then everything goes wrong... Necronomicon is supposed to contain the secrets of the universe, and Lovecraft really believed in it. I think if he was born in the East, he would be considered a prophet, but the unlucky writer was born in USA where he became nothing more than a horror writer!. Now, don't try convincing me that "The secrets of the universe' contained in the book are nothing but three average horror stories !.. It's not worth all that effort. Trying to convince me that Lovecraft, who is a real person with established biography, was very good in sneaking to secret books and fighting angry priests was a little bit silly. Makes me remember another silly movie where H.G. Wells invents the time machine and meets Jack the ripper. The photography is excellent. The special effects and make up are far convincing and.. hell!... very offensive !... Gore lovers will have a very good treat here. I think the third story is the weakest, but it has a lot of gore, and it's not definitely suitable for those with weak stomach. What about the time period of stories ?.. The wraparound story takes place in the thirties, but the other three take place in the nineties. This cannot be a mistake unless they are totally moron.. It's deliberate, but what on earth does this mean ? This film is not a masterpiece but don't miss it by any means. The problem with Lovecraft is that NO ADAPTATION WILL EVER SATAISFY WHAT YOU IMAGINED AND EXPECTED WHILE YOU READ. This is inevitable even if you assigned Hitchcock, Romero, Carpenter and Ridley Scott to work together.

Caged Heat 3000 (1995)

And they say Ed Wood is bad ...

[1/10 · 26 March 2007]

I have always wandered how could Ed Wood win some title like 'worst director ever". This s too ambitious. This movie makers can earn the title comfortably. Here you are in a sick world of nudity, rape, S&M and masturbation, and the problem is you don't care or give a damn. This flick has no intention but to show ample nudity, and to arouse sick thoughts in the minds of audience. Well.. It failed to do so !.. It's not funny.. It's not erotic.. It's not amusing... I have seen some porn flicks that deserve Academy awards when compared to this movie.

Woman prison flicks are out dated and should be stopped. They have only one theme, and we know all keys of the game... I recommend U save your hard earned money and time. Watching the news on CNN can be far amusing...

Pulp Fiction (1994)

Godfather of the 90's

[10/10 · 22 March 2007]

Perhaps I am the last one on planet Earth to see this film. I used to think that Tarantino is arrogant and over-rated, but after seeing this I regret all I said. This film is a masterpiece. Like Godfather, it's very rare to find a gangster movie script that puts all this concentration on characters and not the plot. The characters are alive.. full of controversies.. They r real life people. The girl who commits an armed robbery feels desire to pee.. The hit men talking about Hamburger on their way to the kill.. the finding that U have to wash a car with detergents after blowing the brains of a man... The hustle U cause for a drug dealer when trying to inject intra-cardiac adrenaline. This is charming. U don't give a damn about the plot.. Who cares ?... the dialog should be taught in film schools since U can't miss a single word .. They talk about milk shake and Ice cream, but U feel it's more interesting than talking about cocaine and dead gangsters. Everybody is superb.. U can never forget Thurman, Travolta or Jackson.. Even Tarantino's role is very amusing. This genre is a genuine mixture between film Noir and comedy.. I think I must see "Kill Bill" once more, for I didn't like it at first time.

Borat (2006)

A lesson in bad taste

[2/10 · 19 March 2007]

I have no backgrounds about this TV show, so I watched this movie with a virgin mind. I daresay it hit the bottom of silly and toilet humor that Monty Python and even John Waters could never dream of. U get a nice message about Kazakhstan from the early minutes of the movie: He kisses his sister with passion in her lips and says she's the best whore in town. He is a racist who hates Jews. He is a sex maniac who defecates and masturbates in public, and brings his excreta and his whore to decent American people sitting on dinner table. He thinks the elevator is his hotel room, and travels with a chicken in his bag. I hate to know what the Kazakh people thought about the movie, but it can't be compared to the infamous Indian supper scene in Temple of Doom. I think it's more like this racist impression of Amazon people in Cannibal Holocaust. There is a naked wrestling scene between two men that marks a new era of debauchery in Cine history. Anything for a laugh (I admit U laugh many times, but U lose ur self respect all the time). Borat is in fact the only ugly racist in the whole movie... All Americans are nice friendly guys, even the black gang he meets only taught him how to speak and dress like rappers. If he was pretending he exposed America, then he is a total failue.. He only exposed and humiliated Kazakhstan. National anthem is a sacred emblem that should be respected everywhere.. Nobody dared before use the national anthem of a nation in the manner we saw at the end of the movie, with lyrics like "our prostitutes" etc.... Since Kazakhstan' s religion is mainly Islam, we can assume we're talking about a Muslim in USA post 11-9 era. This s no propaganda, but every Muslim knows that Jewish food is Halal. It's at least safer than Christian food, so no Muslim will get this phobia when a friendly Jewish woman offers him dinner. He even tries to flirt some red necks by wishing that Iraq becomes a parking lot. The message of the film is clear: It's mockery.. Mockery .. and nothing else.

My Super Ex-Girlfriend (2006)

Nice entertainment

[8/10 · 5 March 2007]

To summarize: this is Superman meets Play Misty For Me. The film is really funny and witty. Uma Thurman is great in her neurotic fanatic role, playing all the keys between delicacy, in-confidence, anger and utter madness. The film could have been very suitable for kids if not for some very explicit jokes and hints. If U are anticipating Fellini, then this is not the film for you. If U wanna spend sometime laughing and having a good time then back home, remembering nothing at all, then go see it asap. What I still can't swallow about this plot is how this super girl fell madly in love with a man that all ordinary girls refused. The script gave no explanation for this point at all.

Saw III (2006)

Too much gore

[4/10 · 1 March 2007]

What the hell were these guys trying to do when they made this movie ?..They are entirely sick and sadistic, never mind how clever they are. I liked Saw I very much, but for God's sake, these guys don't know the difference between terror, horror and gore. Seeing a trephine done with elementary tools; or a man drowned in pig juice; or a throat cut by a saw is not horror..it's simply disgusting. If you want gore and shock, then any clip from Iraq showing the real slaughtering of a prisoner can do better. The make-up guys did everything possible to prove they earned their buck, and they did it well. My impression is that they made this film as a catalogue documentary for what they can do, so they can make contracts with other production companies. The thrills are childish, like a school kid trying to scare the hell out of the chicks by eating frogs or removing his decayed tooth in front of them. This is disgusting.. It ought to bring some screams , but this is not cinema ..this is not horror. We used to think Lucio Fulci was sick.. Now we know he was a romantic film maker. Apart from that, I can't accept this plot anymore. I can't believe 2 persons are able to design all these satanic demonic shows. This would have taken an army of technicians. The only good thing about this movie is Shawnee Smith... She scared the hell out of me, and everything about her acting was legendary as usual.You can never believe she's not really insane. Her eyes were scary.. Her skin was scary.. her voice was scary... This lady is the most gifted and most underrated actress in Cine business today....

Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom (1975)

Overrated work

[3/10 · 9 February 2007]

I've seen this film lately, and I totally think it means nothing at all. The makers had their own sexual complexes and hidden perversions, and they couldn't achieve them in real life, so they decided to make a movie !. Just as an excuse to show all these perversions, they talked about Fascism. This could convince audience everywhere that this is some "political" highly cultural movie, and not just an S&M, B&D, scatological, submission porno flick. In that age everything coming from Europe was considered genius. Any Italian shooting his grandmother's big toe for 3 hours would have been considered a masterpiece maker in America. I think these movies should be put in their right place by now.. They R Nonsense. They can only be fun to watch especially for those who care about these fetishes and perversions. Even if U r normal, still this is a strange thing... STRANGE... Only ..Like watching a dead cat hit by a car on the road. U never enjoy it or feel it's a masterpiece of art.. It's just curious and U simply have to look at it.

Cars (2006)

Something wrong....

[5/10 · 6 February 2007]

I liked this movie and I think it's a masterpiece as far as animation movies are concerned. The problem is that I have observed about 20 children of varying ages in random circumstances watching it.. There is something wrong with this movie. kids lose interest in it after the first 15 minutes and they never seem to follow anything. The same children didn't blink or go to the bathroom during "polar Express", "Finding Nemo" or "Ice age". My humble interpretation is that this movie is OK for adults, but it failed to capture the eluding magic that catches children's attention. Perhaps cars are not interesting like people, animals or fish. That's why I give it 5 on a score of 10. If it was intended for adult audience only it could have scored 8 or 9.

Scary Movie 4 (2006)

The elusive charm of spoof

[5/10 · 24 October 2006]

I am a real admirer for Spoofs and silly humor. I think it's a genre of comedy that should be weighed by its own measures. Then comes this movie......... Dunno how to describe it, but there is a very tiny line that separates really funny spoofs (which is the kingdom of Zuckers) and a lame collection of parodies. Here, Zucker can't find a plot that drives the movie forwards.. He just stitches some sketches that may be funny by themselves, but U feel there r 3 or 4 movies happening at the same time. I fell asleep in many sequences, and the movie gets sometimes horribly boring. Zucker was never a fan for toilet humor but we have two disgusting crude scenes in this movie (bathing a paralyzed woman with urine and a blind woman defecating in the church with rich sound effects U could smell !). U can't ignore the cruelty of making fun from handicapped people twice. I liked Scary movie 1 much though it has the same bad taste.. I liked SM 3 .. But frankly I think they should bury this franchise by now.

Monsieur Ibrahim (2003)

Is is legal ?

[7/10 · 23 August 2006]

Great movie, but the big question here is: Is it legal to involve the kid protagonist in a relatively sexually explicit scene with Anne Suarez ?.. In Exorcist, there was a body double for Linda Blair in her explicit scenes, but there is no such thing here. As regards the movie, I feel it is the same tune of Zorpa the Greek played in another form. Being Muslim, I think the script writer knows nothing about Quran and Islam. Omar Sheriff talks more like a Buddhist monk than a Muslim Sheikh. However, such errors don't deny the great beauty and the great tolerance message delivered by the movie. It gives U enough time to think and meditate.

Dog Soldiers (2002)

Back to atmospheric horror

[9/10 · 29 June 2006]

This movie uses a commonly used theme in horror: The birds - The night of the living dead. Here they are in their last stand, hiding in a house surrounded by werewolves, and the usual sequences occur: Attack from upstairs - Trying to start the car - The danger can be among us - etc.... However, the movie deals with this premise in a fresh way, trying to avoid all those Hollywood archetypes. U really feel scared, and U do care for the characters and identify with them. Gosh !.. These guys know how to build the atmospheric horror. The most important point here is that there r no CGI effects at all. I hate CGI creatures. They move strangely as though they have no weight, like shadows. As Barry Sonnefield said about MIB-1:" Those CGI guys are very professional in computer, but they know nothing about life". That's why he used animatronics in most of MIB-1. That's why I liked "Howling" and "Dog soldiers" very much, while I loathed "Under world" and "Van Helsing". Here, werewolves are huge, hairy and scary. U really believe them. Actors are excellent. As a whole, if U haven't seen this movie before, I promise U will spend a very rewarding evening. The gore is excessive and nauseating so watch it with empty stomach.

The Village (2004)

Forget about the plot.. Who cares ?

[9/10 · 2 June 2006]

I don't care about the plot of this movie. I knew from the beginning that there will be a big twist. My 11 YO son foresaw it after 10 minutes, and I don't claim he's a genius. What remains from the works of Mr MNS is THE ATMOSPHERE. He can build the atmosphere of fear and apprehension perfectly in ALL his works. Watch "The village" alone at 2 am and U will admit that. The jungle surrounded by torch flames, the kids playing courage games, the apprehension and the anticipation. This s fun.. This s real cinema. MNS is a genius, and I daresay he outdid Hitchcok in creation of suspense. Anyway, the curse of Sixth Sense will haunt him forever. He started from the summit .. Nowhere else to go but down.. Being the genius he is he kept struggling and he kept there, but people keep awaiting his fall eagerly.

Saw (2004)

Great plot but.....

[8/10 · 4 June 2005]

This is a hell of a plot. One of the few genius ..most genuine ideas that still exist in the world. Acting is perfect. I have this weak point towards Shawnee Smith and I think her short role was legendary as usual. Photography is great. No cheap thrills of the "Scream type". The problem is the same that I felt after seeing "Identity". The ending is too contrived .. too odd.. less credible than the whole movie. I think the makers of these movies try to outwit this silly talkative know-it-all guy sitting among the audience; by making the most unexpected ending. This blows the whole logic of the movie.. I have million questions about things I couldn't accept comfortably; but I can't ask any here because they r real spoilers. Anyway, this is one of the best 5 horror movies I saw in the last ten years, and I highly recommend it.

From Hell (2001)

Not that bad

[9/10 · 25 January 2005]

I think this movie is a real masterpiece. Everything is fabulous and quite convincing. I think nobody showed London like this with the blue fog (It was really blue not white as mistakingly thought), that you could smell the dirt and tremble for cold. I think evaluation of movies depends on mood very much. You can watch the same movie twice, feeling it's a masterpiece on first time, then feeling it's lousy second time, all depending on your state of mind. I can say I watched this movie in my best mental and physical condition and I insist it's a masterpiece. What I hated most was those funny large contact lenses that the killer wears during killing. This is no supernatural horror I guess, so no basis for shape changes. Is there a historical basis for queen Victoria being involved in masonic rites, and Prince Albert getting married to a prostitute ? If not, then It's a crime specially for foreigners like me, who may learn history from movies.

Days of El-Sadat (2001)

A very long documentary

[26 July 2001]

This movie is a fairly good production, but the real problem is in the script. Films based on true characters should focus on an important period of the character. Unfortunately, this movie was too ambitious trying to tell everything about Sadat in 3 hours (from birth till grave). That's why it showed a lot of twists in rhythm and story flow. It makes you think of a very long documentary. Besides, no perfect character movie can depend entirely on the autobiography of this character. Depending on "Quest for One's Self" the famous Sadat book, was a fatal mistake. That's why the film shows only one face of Sadat, there are no grey zones and no depth. Ahmed Zaki is great as usual and photography (Tarek Telmesany) is superb. This is a movie which is not a masterpiece but no one dares miss it !

The Witches of Eastwick (1987)

A piece of magic for an evening

[17 September 2000]

George Miller really holds all the keys for a very perfect horror/comedy. He created the "atmosphere of horror", and this is very different from horror itself. You always expect something scary to happen and it s better than seeing it happening. Here Jack Nicholson plays one of his favorite roles, the flamboyant seductive irresistible charmer, who enters the lives of three lonely neurotic women. First he is repulsive and weird but soon they become his real salves and "One big happy family". As you might anticipate, Nicholson is the real dynamo of the movie, and u feel that every moment he is off screen is a waste of time. The movie is very good and I think it was underrated by both critics and audience. There is no reason why this movie didn't become one of the horror classics.

Stuart Little (1999)

The usual family film

[8 June 2000]

Indeed, you can hear the phone call between script writer and director: "Let's make another Disney-like family movie..Hmmm !.. A mouse.. CGI generated of course.. A love needing case...Great !.. OK.. and a gang of backstreet wild cats that talk like gangesters.. A boat race.. you know every family film should have a race..A child and a loving mom and the usual dad..I know.. I know it looks like all other movies but we can't risk the budget. Children will love the mouse and CGI will fill the gaps in the story.. OK.. great.. let's start the damn thing tomorrow !..bye bye..

Fatal Instinct (1993)

A night of laughter

[7 March 1999]

The fine touch of comedy mixed with the charm of the three actressess. Assante is great and has a real sense of humour as the famous detective/lawyer who defends his arrests in the courts. The film has many touches of famous movies as "Sleeping with the enemy", Cape fear" and many movies that I may haven't seen yet.

Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992)

The final word in the myth..

[16 February 1999]

No wonder that such a great director has made this movie. What hew did was simply magic. He brought horror to new horizons of poetry. The cine language is very rich and every shot is worth seeing many times. The cast is perfect but, on the contrary to many people, I think that Anthony Hopkins's acting is over, exaggerated and convulsive somehow.