The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (2013)

I've waited a year, a whole year to watch this movie, I expected great things from it, and oh boy did it deliver. It surpassed my expectations, the wait is finally over and the reward was incredible. I just got back from watching The Desolation of Smaug like an hour ago, and I couldn't stop talking about it, it's actually one of the best films I've watched this year. It takes off directly-ish after the events of the first movie and it continues the story of Bilbo Baggins and his Dwarve companions' quest to reclaim the Lonely Mountain from Smaug. 

The movie was 2 hours and 40 minutes long, but I was so engaged and absorbed in the movie that I actually forgot about time itself! I did not want it to end. I felt like I was in another world, it was that amazing. I could not take my eyes off the screen, I was hooked, filled with suspense and excitement at every scene.  It was definitely better than the first movie, but that's not a bad thing to say, that gives us a good sign of things to come with the third installation. 

As usual, the visuals in the movie were beyond epic, I still can't comprehend the fact that there are locations like this on our planet. The action scenes were fast paced, intense, and satisfying. The CGI was extremely convincing. And Smaug! Smaug was fantastic! Just the way I imagined him to be from the way he looks to the way he speaks and moves.  We also see returning characters such as Legolas from the Lord Of The Rings Trilogy, oh and even Gimli gets mentioned!! Oh damn I forgot to mention, Sauron (Not the eye of Sauron, but Sauron himself) has a cameo, which just puts the icing on the cake really!!  It was a really satisfying movie, but the ending was kind of a pisser, you'll know what I'm talking about when you watch it. (Fuckin' Cliffhangers)

Smaug, the greatest dragon I've see in a movie

If I could summarise The Desolation of Smaug in one sentence, it would be something like: "A brilliant combination of romance, action, suspense, horror, and comedy all tied together with brilliant acting, amazing directing and execution, engaging storyline, and a wonderful cast." And don't forget that the book was a little over 300 pages long, and director Peter Jackson managed to stretch that into three movies, now that takes skill and a lot of imagination. Kudos Sir Peter!

Is it better than the Lord of the Rings Trilogy, to be honest, with the direction it's going and with my expectations, I think it's gonna be really close. I won't even complain about the run time because I was so wrapped up in it that It didn't feel like 2 hours and 40 minutes passed. I urge everyone who enjoys movies to watch The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug right now! Would I ever recommend a bad movie to you guys? NEVER! (get the reference all you Metallica fans out there) 

Sauron's cameo, best cameo of 2013

"I am fire...I am Death"

Ahmed Almatrook

Runner, Runner (2013)

Greetings fellow readers, it has been a while since I wrote here. I've been super busy after my Pulp Fiction review. Trust me, senior year ain't as easy as people say it is, it's HELL! But anyways, in the midst of all the late nights I spent studying and the slow paced school weeks, I actually manged to go to the cinema! I know, it may sound stupid, but you wouldn't know how relaxing it was for me to go to the theater and forget about life for almost 2 hours. So yeah, I watched Runner, Runner  the other day starring Justin Timberlake, the incredibly gorgeous Gamma Arterton, and Ben Affleck. The story is basically about a man named Richie Furst (Justin Timberlake) who gets cheated in an online poker game, so he decides to go meet the biggest face in online poker, Ivan Block (Ben Affleck) to get his money back. Instead he gets a job offer from Block himself, little does he know that he is gonna get into a world of trouble...

Until this moment, I don't know how to feel about this movie. Was my mind tricked into all the glamour and galore of the movie that it overlooked all it's mistakes? Well, no. But truth be told, I did like the fact that the movie reminded me of the summer for some reason. All the glamour and the beautiful scenery made me remember the amazing times I had in the summer of 2013. That's about the only good thing I can say about this movie. Oh and Deadmau5 made a cameo, which was awesome!

The thing is, Runner Runner just fails to please me. It's high life, tropical feel is just a mask behind a VERY faulty movie. Ben Affleck was horrible in the movie, seriously, this is not what I expected to witness when I entered the theater; I'm not saying that my expectations were high in the first place, but they weren't set to "horrible" too. It's literally like seeing a totally different person act, I have my doubts that that was actually Ben Affleck, what a disappointment. Runner Runner is a great example of when a studio has some spare money on hand and contracts with some big actors/actresses, they just make a movie for the sake of making a movie. And the plot was so fucking predictable contained no twists whatsoever. Moreover, it felt extremely rushed and poorly executed, it's like they wrote the script a week before filming and they shot everything in one take. That's not how you make a movie man!

I've seen much better movies in my day. Runner Runner is a movie that comes and goes without anyone paying much attention to it. I should be raining fire on this shit-fest, but I'm writing this with my eyes half closed, so pardon me. It goes without saying that I WAS DECEIVED!! I spent my hard earned money on a movie that's supposed to be rented and watched over the weekend, yes, that's how bad it is. It got the "rent" stamp.

Ahmed Almatrook

Pulp Fiction (1994)

I can't believe I haven't written a review on Pulp Fiction yet! How could I overlook one of my all time favorite movies? WHAT WAS I THINKING!! But, after a long break from movie reviewing, I am happy to announce that I'm back in full force this time.  Released on October 14th 1994, Pulp Fiction was a box office and critical hit. I won't ruin the story for you but it basically involves 7 sequence of events and throughout the film we witness how they are tied together.

The acting in Pulp Fiction was on point. Vincent Vega (John Travolta) and Jules Winnfield (Samuel L. Jackson) have such an extraordinary on-screen chemistry together it's actually unbelievable, it's like they were born to be partners in this movie. The script was fantastic and the dialogue in the movie was so smooth and natural and John Travolta's improvised line "I shot Marvin in the face" has to be one of the best improvised lines I've ever heard.  Not to mention the one liners were fantastic.

Pulp Fiction is pure genius, the technique used to tie together events that seem so random is just extraordinary. Another thing I loved about this movie was the joyful atmosphere it creates. The movie is almost 2 and a half hours long but truth be told, It didn't even feel like two hours because of the lively atmosphere. I was so hooked to the movie first time watching it that I couldn't even pause it, it's that powerful. Not to mention, the soundtrack was amazing, it matched the movie like toast matches butter.

So what are you waiting for? Grab that Royale with Cheese in one hand and that glass of beer in another and fill your fries with mayonnaise, because you're about to watch one of the greatest movies ever made. I strongly recommend watching this film because it's one of those films that revolutionized the modern movie industry in my opinion. So I hope you have fun watching it, and leave your feedback on the comment section.

You know what they call a Quarter Pounder with cheese in Paris?

 "Say What Again!"
Ahmed

Miami Vice (2006)

Miami Vice is really one of those movies that I really looked forward to watching for a long time. I bought the DVD but I kept stalling and stalling. But I forced myself to watch it today, which was....a mistake *sigh*. Jamie Foxx and Colin Farrell, Miami, drug busts, and flashy sports cars. What could go wrong? Well, my hopes for a great movie crash landed and burned so badly that I could feel the heat in my insides. It ruined my day, yes it was that bad. The plot tells us the story of two Miami police detectives who go undercover as drug smugglers in order to combat drug trafficking. What sounds like a potentially good plot is in fact killed by some horrible acting, bad camerawork, and an awful romantic sub-plot.

I never watched the series from the 80's, but I'm not here to compare. Now, was this movie shot with a camcorder bought form amazon.com? Or a mobile camera, hmmm. It sure felt like it. Although they were using a Digital Movie Camera, which captures movies as digital images, it just failed badly in my opinion.Why didn't they just use a normal movie camera, that would've worked. The camerawork is so bad. It doesn't even feel like a proper motion picture, I honestly felt like I was watching an undercover drug bust documentary on The National Geographic Channel, seriously. Miami Vice had a budget of over 100 million Dollars, and they didn't have the decency to employ a proper cameraman?

Gong Li, the lady that portrayed Isabella, just pissed me off so badly. She was horrendous. She projects no emotion when talking. She was like a robot, just reciting what she read in the script, no emotion, no change of tone, just the same rhythm throughout the movie. It doesn't feel natural, it feels like its been recorded and she was just lip syncing. The romantic sub-plot with her and Sonny (Colin Farrell) was catastrophic. There was barely any chemistry between the two characters.

Nope, It just didn't work.

There are a few good points about the movie though. For instance the chemistry between Jamie Foxx and Colin Farrell was actually pretty decent. And I really enjoyed the bittersweet ending, because I didn't see that coming. I always thought that it would be a happy ending. But seriously, Don't watch the movie. Unless you're REALLY bored. Its totally not worth wasting your time on. I was shocked, I never expected it to be that bad.

"I'm a disco guy"
Ahmed 

Disordered (Short Film Review)

Disordered is a short 10 minute film that was featured in a competition amongst two other films in the Kingdom of Bahrain. The films were shown in the largest cinema in the country (I'm talking huge here), in which they were judged by a panel of three theater experts. The story is about a gangster who's wife was murdered, in his quest to find the killer, he starts to question reality from fantasy, hence the title: "Disordered".

I actually just got the chance to watch Disordered now, Its been like five minutes since I finished watching it. Just to get this out of the way, although my cousin is the main actor in this film, I am not letting this fact influence my opinion on the movie. Now that that's clear, let's get this show on the road shall we?

Ok so the movie starts out and I immediately get the impression that something bad is gonna happen, which is good because anticipation induces suspense, I liked that. I'll be honest, I clapped when my cousin said his first lines. It's definitely not lacking intensity, I mean throughout the 10 minutes, I actually was kinda biting my nails. The music, although a bit too loud, complemented the movie really well. The acting was convincing. The last scene in the movie was intense, and overall it was not that bad a movie actually. For a short film, the character development for the main character, Al Bash (Hassan Ahmed), wasn't detailed, but it was satisfying.

Now we move on to the negative points. I didn't like the dialogue in the movie, I felt like it was something that they just read and recited, it didn't feel natural, there wasn't much emotion. The ending, although containing a twist, disappointed me; it was very abrupt, and not in a good way. Moreover, the film did have some acting "errors" if I may say so. Like the smile in the final scene, although I would've just overlooked it, but you never know when mistakes can be repeated.

But let's not forget, this is a first time effort, and I'm impressed. The directing and editing were fantastic. I'm really happy with the outcome, I just wanna say to the team that made the movie, Bravo. I mean you did a good job. It's not easy to make a movie, trust me it's not a walk in the park. So I hope you take my points to heart, because without criticism, you can never learn.  Good luck in any future projects.

"Ain't nothing, but a thang"
Ahmed 

Training Day (2001)

I honestly lost count of how many times I watched this movie, it's actually pretty ridiculous because every time I watch it I feel like it's my first time seeing it. It's one of those movies that you just can't get enough of. After watching this film, my respect and admiration for both Ethan Hawke and Denzel Washington reached sky high. The story is basically about a man named Jake (Ethan Hawke) being evaluated by a respected narcotics detective Alonso Harris (Denzel Washington) throughout a 24 hour period. as the story unfolds, we find out that in order to be a narcotics officer, you need to bend some rules, and we also discover a dark secret about Alonso.

What I admired about this move is that, unlike many other films, it depicts L.A  in a way that's I felt was always hidden in films. It shows the real L.A that people know, not the one that's mostly depicted in films, and I respected that very much. I think there is no doubt that the real star in this movie is most definitely Denzel Washington. That guy impressed the hell out of me, his acting was right on point and he made it look so natural and smooth, you'd think that he'd actually been a narcotics officer before. Everything from his body language, his style of talking, all the way up to the way he dresses. In fact he nailed the part so well that he got an Academy Award for Best Actor, you can't argue with that. What I also liked about his character was the fact that you never know if he was good or bad until the end, you can never tell, and to be honest not many people can pull that off as convincingly as he did in my opinion.

Ethan Hawke also did a fantastic job portraying Jake, in fact he did such a brilliant job that he was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. The soundtrack was pretty awesome, the setting was on point, the story was intriguing, and the cast was fantastic. I definitely recommend this movie because it's one of those movie that you just have to watch without any excuse. Trust me you won't be disappointed.

"Do you wanna go home or do you wanna go to jail?"
Ahmed

Disordered (Short Film Preview)

Hey Guys! I'm officially a high school senior at school and let me tell you, it WAS NOT an easy year, academically and socially. Anyways I'm very excited to say that I have the whole summer to write on this blog, It'll be raining reviews soon! I'm also extremely happy to announce that my cousin, Hassan Ahmed Janahi, is starring in his first movie, as the main character! It's a short film called "Disordered", I'll hopefully review it when it gets released on the 2nd of July. I watched it's trailer the other day and I was really impressed (my cousin is the guy that gives a death stare). I was supposed to have a cameo in the movie as a garage mechanic, but my part was taken (CURSES!!).  I'm very happy for him and I hope this will be the first of many more films to come. If you are indeed in Bahrain, come and watch it at the Bahrain City Center cinema on July the 2nd, I'll DEFINITELY be there.