Straight Outta Compton (2015)

I've never once expected that Straight Outta Compton (let's call it SOC) would be the movie that I would go out of my way to watch. I mean to be honest, I wasn't really anticipating it, I didn't even know about it until I watched the trailer on YouTube. All of a sudden I find myself getting so excited about this flick, I couldn't wait for it to be released in Bahrain...oh wait. Of course Cineco will not release the movie, what was I thinking, they just stick to releasing shitty, generic, boring, piece of shit hour and a half movies. It's not a "explicit" movie you know, in fact it's not as explicit as I thought it would be, it's certainly not as explicit as The Wolf Of Wall Street, which Cineco gladly released (even though they cut a whole HOUR from the film). But nooo, SOC is apparently two scenes away from being a porno in their eyes (sarcasm), so they're not gonna release the cut version, they're not gonna release the movie at all...get your shit together Cineco.

Alright, now that we've got that out of the way, let's shift our focus to the movie. What can I say, I'm blown away, I mean the movie was near flawless. The acting was spot on man, the chemistry that they had was so strong and so real, my monitor almost corroded (hahaha...anyone...anyone?). It was like they were born for these roles, they were just so convincing, you'd forget that they were actors. And that's the beauty of this movie, the dialogue is natural, it's free flowing, and the whole vibe of the film just seemed so real. But the man that shined, the man that took it one step above the others, the man that was like a reincarnation of his character.....JASON MITCHELL. Yep that's the guy who played Eazy-E, don't get me wrong, all the actors did a brilliant job, but this guy took it to another level. He was so into his character, just driven to make his performance as real as possible, and he hit it out of the park. Oh and O'Shea Jackson Jr. (that's Ice Cube's son) resembles his dad in his younger years so much, it would've been taboo to bring in another actor.

The movie is a thrill ride man, like I was really enjoying it, and that does not happen to me with a lot of movies. I was immersed, that's the beauty of it, that's when you know that you got a good film in your hands. Oh and the concert scenes, damn those were really good, I was just singing along with every song (oh that rhymed). There's one thing that I really appreciate about this movie, that it sort of rekindled the fire in me. I wasn't always all heavy metal, I used to listen to rap believe it or not, yeah then came heavy metal and that changed everything. But I always had respect for rap music because in a way, it's similar to heavy metal, very similar in fact. All this excitement with the movie and stuff, I went back to listening to rap (of course I didn't abandon Heavy Metal...no way in hell), and it's just been really good. Old school rap, really angry, straightforward, social commentary. Like Ice Cube said "Our art is a reflection of our reality". And just like how it rekindled the fire in me, I hope the next the generation will start listening to old school rap, and abandon this mainstream bullshit that everyone else is listening to.

The resemblance is scary 

There's so little movies nowadays that really send a message. SOC is a biopic no doubt, but it does have a relevancy to today's events. That's what I liked about it, it could've been just some biopic, but it didn't, It showed that life in some communities now is not so different from back then. It really captures the impact that N.W.A had back when they released their first album. It showcased their bravery for releasing that album, with the boldest track ever, in times when African Americans were (quite honestly) being hunted down. This was not a group motivated by money, or luxury or whatever, they just wanted to express things like they were, no sugarcoating. SOC brings a whole new perspective on N.W.A's music, which was thought to have been nothing but a bunch of tracks glorifying gang violence and what not. Also, a lot of people say that their "beef" wasn't highlighted in the movie, now I'm not gonna go around and explain the beef to you guys, look it up, its pretty interesting. But let me say this, the beef seemed personal, but at it's core it was all business, and the main reason N.W.A were planning a reunion was because they realized that. One thing though, I loved how they made Suge Knight look bad, because that man is horrible, I really believe that he was behind the murder of Eazy, Biggie, and Pac. Speaking of Pac, yeah he has a cameo and it's pretty cool as well. There are a lot of cameos in this film, I really liked Snoop's cameo, especially when he started singing the lyrics to "Nuthin But a G thang", thought that was pretty cool.

*SPOILERS*So obviously at the end, Eazy dies (technically that's not a spoiler) and oh my god towards the end the movie got really emotional. It really highlighted the beauty of the bond that these guys had, they were brothers. It was really sad to see that just when things were getting better, Eazy finds out that he's dying.*SPOILERS END HERE* I won't lie, it brought a tear to my eye (another rhyme...hmm), perfect ending to a perfect movie, what more could you ask for?

Legend

So overall, definitely worth watching, in a cinema if you could. I didn't have that privilege because....ugh don't even get me started, so I had to watched a cheap filmed version, meh it was okay I guess. Definitely my favorite movie so far this year, I say that cause we still got Star Wars, and definitely an Oscar contender. I would be really pissed off if it didn't win anything, because it deserves to win. So go ahead and watch it, you know my recommendations are good.

" Crusin' down the street in ma Six Fo' "

Ahmed J. Almatrook 

Watchmen (2009)

 With the amount of superhero movies being released these days, I'm noticing a certain dilution of the charm that the superhero genre has. And to be honest, superhero movies nowadays seem very repetitive. I've heard about Watchmen since the day it came out, but I never paid much attention to it because I wasn't really a movie nut back in those days and to be very honest, my taste in movies wasn't so refined. So when I came by it in Virgin Megastore Dubai, I finally realized that it's about time I checked it out. Plus the price was unbelievable, so that's a win-win right there. Once I got back from Dubai, I popped that sucker into the DVD and watched the hell out of it.

You know something, it's always a pleasure when you watch a movie and then it suddenly becomes one of your all time favorites, that is actually a great feeling. I think it's the shock that got to me, you have to understand that I had no interest in this movie at all, but once I watched, holy shit; it was all that I was talking about. So the story is about the "Watchmen", a group of superheroes who come out of a retirement to uncover a plot that can not only kill them, but humanity as a whole. The movie is set in an alternate 1985 at the height of the Cold War.

I think a very strong point that Watchmen has is the fact that a lot of people like it because it is not your conventional superhero film. I honestly haven't heard anyone say anything bad about it, because truth be told, people are bored of the same old "I will start strong, then have a weakness in the middle, yet i'll still finish off on a very high note" typical superhero bullshit, they wanna see something different. And that's exactly what Watchmen gives them, something different.

I have honestly never seen such brilliant character development in a superhero flick like I've seen in Watchmen. You get to know each superhero, they don't miss out on the details, and believe me it's not an easy job to develop a one character in a movie, let alone six! Let's talk about the characters now, I think that we can all agree that Jackie Earl Haley's performance as Rorschach was captivating as hell. So captivating in fact that he's now my second favorite superhero (behind Batman), I mean he stole the show, he was just born to play Rorschach. Although Rorschach was a fucking star, In my opinion, the character that I really appreciated was The Comedian. *SPOILER ALERT* Although he dies in the beginning, The Comedian made as much of an impact (if not more) to the movie as the others did.*SPOILERS END HERE* To me, The Comedian was very symbolic in a sense that he was a character that represented mankind's primal and savage nature. He was, in all honesty, one of the most sincere characters I've ever seen in any movie. He doesn't sugarcoat it, he gives it you straight.

The soundtrack of the movie was just too good, I mean you know you're in for a treat when the opening credits play "The Times They Are A' Changin'" by Bob Dylan. Let me get one thing straight, Watchmen is not a kid's movie, got that? Nope, it's not Iron man, not Thor, not the Incredible fucking Hulk; you do not wanna show this movie to children. Because the movie is very gory (no problem with me), which is also something you don't see in many hero flicks. Also, the ending of the movie made me weep, I don't wanna spoil it for you but you gotta watch it to understand why it did that, especially towards the last 20 minutes or so. And I mean any movie that fucks with your emotions tends to be a very good movie (unless you go full on rage on that shit, then that's a different case). I think the only complaint that I have is the fact that the lighting isn't very good, I found the movie to be quite dark at times, and sometimes I couldn't even see anything. and I'm a perfect 20/20!

In conclusion, Watchmen is a blast from start to finish. I highly recommend it if you're a superhero movie fan or if you just appreciate good movies. It's really unique and I haven't seen anything like it. All in all, it's just a real treat and I would pop that sucker into the DVD any day.

Legend

"Never compromise, not even in the face of Armageddon."

Ahmed J. Almatrook 

Interstellar (2014)

Being the moviegoer that I am, I was quite disappointed that I didn't catch Interstellar when it first came out. But alas, I caught it today, just before our oh so perfect cinema company (Cineco) removed it from its theaters. And let me tell you, I was mentally prepared to wait three months until it's released on Blu-Ray so I could get the chance to watch it, but today's plan was delightfully spontaneous. The story is about a team of astronauts who discover a wormhole in space (obviously) that connects them to potentially inhabitable planets in another galaxy, they have to make the journey because planet earth is basically dead. It sounds cliche, but trust me it's not, the movie is incredible.

I just wanna say that one thing before I get into the review. Watching the movie in theater was amazing, but I swear to god I had half a mind to go and choke the shit out of four 13 year olds that were sitting in the row in front of me. If any of you dumbasses are reading this, know that you were a nuisance to everyone in the cinema, and not every movie that has a picture of an astronaut is necessarily gonna be some Call of Duty type of bullshit that you guys worship. And the fact that you left the theater halfway through the movie was a sigh of relief. So please, you're kids, go watch a cartoon or something.

Aaaaaanyways, back to the movie. I've noticed that in space themed movies are actually booming these days, like Gravity and Interstellar. I mean if the quality of these movies are an indication of things to come, sign me up, cause its already looking very promising. There is no doubt that Mathew McConaughey was a goddamn star in this film, I mean he's always been one of my favorites, he caught my attention in A Time to Kill, won my heart in Dallas Buyers Club, and engraved his name on my top actors list with his performance in Interstellar. In fact, all the actors were brilliant, it's actually fascinating to see so much talent in one movie...like even Anne Hathaway was good. It's like they gave their best performances in Interstellar and my god it was brilliant.

Bravo man, Bravo.

A visual masterpiece with a spine tingling soundtrack to go along with it. The soundtrack, composed by Hans Zimmer, was in my opinion, the backbone of the movie. I'm never one to pay attention to the soundtrack of films, but this was just perfection, it extenuated the highs and the lows and complemented the visuals beautifully. Now about the visuals, they were bloody beautiful man, my expectations were high, and let me tell you they ended up soaring in the heavens. Wow, all I kept saying to myself was WOW.

The film's plot is very smart. I mean different planets, yeah we have seen that before, but to go in depth with black holes and relativity? Now I personally have not seen that. And because I spend a lot of time watching shows about space and reading about it (Yes, I am a nerd), It was pleasant to understand all that scientific jargon that was being thrown around about black holes and trajectories and Einstein's theory of Relativity and what not. The plot has a lot of twists, expected and unexpected, I mean you'd expect that in a movie like this.

Moreover, the film is an emotional roller coaster man, and I'm not talking about no kiddie coaster, I'm talking heart attack inducing shit right here (just a tad exaggerated). I mean you get so attached to the characters because the character development in the film is just out of this world, you start to develop a bond with them, I know it seems bizarre but I speak the truth. I remember this one scene where Cooper (Matthew McConaughey) was crying cause he was watching video messages of his children and oh my god man I swear I was cracking up, goddamn!

GARGANTULA! 

Now the ending, I honestly didn't have trouble understanding what happened at the end, and to be honest most people won't have a problem IF they focus from the beginning, cause in the end everything will start to make sense. And the run time, now I'm a veteran when it comes to long run times (I watched the extended Lord of The Rings Trilogy in one sitting), and I was so immersed in the film that I didn't even feel like 2 hours and 50 minutes passed, that's how engaging it is.

All in all, Interstellar is a blast from start to finish. Christopher Nolan just proves time and time again that he's one of the top directors out there. A beautiful plot, with the most jaw dropping visuals and soundtrack, very decent character developments, and an ending that will get you thinking. Is it worth watching, fuck yes. You have to watch it, in fact if I could recommend any movie from the last five years it would be Interstellar, no joke.


Side note: I love how the movie showcased the four elements of nature: Fire, Air, Water, and Earth. You will know what I'm talking about when you watch it.


"Mankind was born on earth, It was not meant to die here"

Ahmed Almatrook

Lucy (2014)

So I never really got the chance to watch Lucy in the theaters, because of a combination of not having a ride and a lack of cash (story of my life). But I remember being excited for its release, the trailer looked good and the previews were fair. And it basically follows the same idea as Limitless, which in all honesty, was a blast and I loved it. So I got the opportunity to watch Lucy last night, and let's just say, my day could have gone waaaaaay better if I chose to watch Tropic Thunder for the millionth time as opposed to this shit-fest.

So, the story is about Lucy (obviously), who's tricked by her boyfriend into becoming a drug mule for a Korean mob boss (Triads?). So they plant the drugs into her abdomen and send her off, but the drugs eventually leak into her body, giving her the ability to utilize more than 10% of her brain and thus the ability to become superhuman.

Let me start by crushing your hopes children, this myth that a human being only uses 10% of their brain is total utter bullshit. It's science man, you can't argue with SCIENCE (Breaking Bad reference). Now that we got that out of the way, let's move on. I have never realised how much of a bad actress Scarlett Johansson is until I watched Lucy, like I don't see talent there. I mean she's a sex symbol, that's it, not a sex symbol that can act like Angelina Jolie. She fails as an actress just like Hitler failed when he tried to invade the Soviet Union.

She's really pretty but she just can't act

Another thing that pissed me off was the direction this movie was going in. *SPOILER ALERT* It went too over-the-top, I mean what's it supposed to convey to us (let's assume that this myth is a fact)? That if we reach 100%  of our cerebral capacity, we just turn into this giant Daedric looking supercomputer and release a flash drive then disappear*SPOILERS END HERE*. Going back to Limitless, I mean that movie too was over the top, but it had appeal. It engaged the audience and it had a twisty-ish plot. Limitless was a "realistic" version of movies that are based on the "10% of the brain myth", whereas Lucy was just fuckin' weird. Lucy is a prime example in which the direction of the movie was literally just forward, and not in a good way. No subplots, no emotion, and just to top it off, an abrupt ending that would literally make you want to throw your TV from a fuckin' airplane.

Anyways, I'm losing brain cells just talking about this shit-fest. So let me cut to the chase, do not watch Lucy, because I swear to god you'll hate yourself for it. If you want a movie that explores the same idea as Lucy, watch Limitless, and trust me, you WILL thank me.


"Ignorance brings chaos, not knowledge"

Ahmed Almatrook

Metallica Through The Never (2013)

As a HUGE Metallica fan (and a fan of heavy metal in general), can you imagine the disappointment I felt when I found out that Bahrain's oh so perfect (sarcasm level breaking the roof) theater company, Cineco, only released Through The Never for a WEEK!! Now that my friends, is what you call pure bullshit. So I couldn't watch it in the cinema and experience the whole thing. But lucky for them, I have a pretty awesome sound system and a pretty decent TV, so my experience wasn't the full one, but it was fair to say the least. So the movie is about a roadie called Trip (Dane Dehaan) who goes to fetch a bag that the band needs...let's just say his journey's smooth at first, but after a while, anarchy steps in; and all hell breaks loose in the streets. All this is happening whilst Metallica are playing a concert of epic proportions. 

Let's just say that I was glued to the TV, for an hour and a half I didn't take my eyes off the TV, I don't even think I blinked man, cause in the end I was in tears (Or maybe that's cause they played Orion). And that brings me to the set-list, it was perfect, they played fan favorites from every album since Kill 'em All (except for Load and St.Anger, which are my least favorites so I couldn't give a fuck). And I say the set-list was perfect because the songs were appropriate to the plot of the movie. The minute they started playing Creeping Death, every song was getting progressively better in terms of the pyrotechnics and effects on the stage. Although my personal favorite was when the electric chair came down from the ceiling and they started shocking the shit out of it with 4 Tesla coils during Ride The Lightning.

Yes, this is where I wanna be in life.

The level of anarchy in this movie is sky high, I mean Metal and Anarchy go together like Bonnie and Clyde man. I particularly liked the scene where Trip finds himself in no man's land between the police and the rioters, and that Sitar like intro of Wherever I May Roam starts playing, then just as both groups start to charge towards each other, Cyanide starts playing, that scene was perfection man. After a brief encounter with the Horseman (the main antagonist in the movie), Trip is left walking on a road with bodies hanging from a bridge...what happens next made me scream. Ahhh, as Trip walks we hear the familiar harmonious intro of And Justice For All, and I said to myself "Are they really gonna play it in its entirety?" Well yes they did, now you have to understand, before this movie came out, Metallica never played And Justice For All in its entirety, so having them play it in a movie was fuckin' insane, what a treat!

So Trip finds the duffel bag that the band needs, the contents inside it are never revealed (although it is rumored that the bag contained Cliff Burton's soul), and Master of Puppets starts playing. Towards the end of the movie, Trip faces the Horseman in a rooftop battle that makes the city fall apart, literally. So this happens whilst Metallica plays Enter Sandman, but they stopped playing it towards the end cause the stage started falling apart. At this point I though the movie was gonna end, like that's it  the Horseman is dead, and the stage is fucked, so this must be the end right? But wait, they didn't play any song from their debut album, Kill 'Em All. This can't be happening, how can they forget?!?! But oh no they didn't, after assessing the damage, they play it...they play the big one....the song in my opinion that is bigger than Master of Puppets, fuckin' HIT THE LIGHTS!!! Yes as you can probably tell it is my favorite Metallica song.

Oh yeah baby!!

After that epic conclusion to what was already a mind blowing concert, Trip arrives back to stage, duffel bag in hand, and watches Metallica play Orion in an empty stadium as the credits roll. I mean you can't complain, you really can't. Even if you're not a Metallica fan, watching this movie will kick your ass so hard you'll end up in a wheelchair. It's a true concert film, like it doesn't get any better than that. It's definitely worth watching on a big screen TV with a banging stereo system. Because to be honest this is one of the best modern performances I've ever seen by Metallica. These days they're not as good as they were live, and I'm sorry but Robert Trujillo's backing vocals cannot match Jason Newsted's. But all that aside this movie is worth the watch, I would really recommend it if you just wanted to take a break and watch pure radness and anarchy (which everyone needs once in a while).

"HIT THE LIGHTS"

Ahmed Almatrook

Boogie Nights (1997)

Boogie Nights.....what a  fantastic movie. Now I would love to make this a one word review, but hey, that's not the way it goes (Unfortunately). But seriously, why hasn't anyone told me about it!! The minute I read the summary, I was hooked, I was like "Pause everything you're doing in life, and watch this movie.", no joke. In my opinion, Boogie Nights is the first movie to accurately give you an inside look at the excesses that pornographers engaged in the the 70's and 80's, drawing heavily from the likes of legendary pornographer John Holmes. The story is about high school dropout Eddie Adams (Mark Wahlberg) who works as a dishwasher in a nightclub. One night, he is discovered by porn director Jack Horner (Burt Reynolds), who decides to introduce Eddie to the porn industry. Eddie runs away from home and starts working for Jack using his new stage name "DIRK DIGGLER", probably one of the best fucking stage names ever!! So anyways, all is good until the 80's roll in and the excesses start to come.

This movie has guts man, I'll give it that. It dives into the world of pornography full force, flipping off anyone who mentions the word "taboo". It gives us a detailed look into the life of a successful pornographic actor during the "Golden Age" of porn. It has a fine balance between violence and comedy, which is something hard to achieve, and I realized that when I tried to categorize it; I was like "This isn't a comedy, nor is it an action, or a drama". It's one of those movies you can't really classify, no matter what IMDB or Rotten Tomatoes tell you. I like the symbolism in the film in a sense that it shows us that even a nobody, can become a somebody, given the right circumstances (and the right body parts). And wow man, Julianne Moore was pretty hot in the 90's, holy shit!

Eddie Adams aka Dirk Diggler

I also like how despite the fact that there's a number of subplots, the movie does such a job in not fucking up how they're presented, smooth transition, that's the way to go. And all the sub-plots eventually come together to form the whole plot of the movie in such harmony I couldn't believe it. And my god but Mark Wahlberg does such a good job portraying Dirk, you'd actually think he was a pornstar in his past life. At the beginning he gains so much as a result of entering the porn industry, you start thinking of actually becoming a pornstar, but that's just the beginning, what happens next ain't so pretty. Lets just say that Dirk Diggler rises, then falls on his face...hard.

Perfect Cast

But, despite all the coolness and the glitz and glamour that Boogie Nights has to offer, it still bears a very important message. Too much of anything is bad for you, don't dive into the world of excess cause you're bound to break a leg and drown. But beside all that serious stuff, Boogie Nights is an amazing movie, I mean it is one of my favorites. Because it's just funky and cool, you know, with a good balance of action for good measure, and an amazing plot. You'll appreciate the movie, because it is worth it, trust me. One complaint though, the run time, 2 hours and 35 minutes; that's a lot of film. Apart from that, I haven't got anything negative to say. I'd say the only people who would complain would be like hardcore overcaring, overprotective parents; and you know when THEY complain, 9 times out of 10, the movie is bound to be awesome.

"I'm a star. I am a big bright shining star."

Ahmed Almatrook 

The Amazing Spiderman 2 (2014)

I wanted to watch this movie the day it came out, which was May 1st, but unfortunately I kind of lost track of time because that tends to happen when you're on your summer vacation. So I had the chance to watch it today and in 3D, which was pretty nice considering that I barely attend 3D movies. Now I must say that I'm more of an Andrew Garfield fan than a Tobey Maguire one. But in all honesty, I had high hopes for this film bearing in mind the fact that I loved the first one, I'm sad to say it didn't quite deliver it for me.

Let me start off with some good points, for instance the battles between Spiderman and Electro are fantastic, I've never been so engaged into a battle like this for quite some time and it's just a pleasure watching them fight it out with awesome choreography and spectacular visuals and music, I mean Hans Zimmer is the composer so you'd expect the music (especially during battle scenes) to be epic, and oh boy it was. Jamie Foxxx was spectacular as Electro, I had my doubts about him I must say, but he impressed the hell out of me. Just the fact that he goes into extreme territories of obsession indicates that he's not the type of guy you'd want to tread on. The CGI on him was terrifyingly realistic and his character is just so unpredictable and live, you feel like he's just doing to get recognition, and that's scary, how extreme he goes just to be recognized. And let's not forget the chemistry between Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone was flawless, my god Emma Stone is beautiful! 

Goddess 

And Dane DeHaan did quite a good job portraying Harry Osbourne and I loved the way that he's actually a goblin. As freaky as that may sound but he actually transforms into a goblin. Rather than in the original Spiderman where the Green Goblin was just Norman Osbourne wearing a goblin suit.  Also this film is meant to be seen in 3D cause you'd really be missing out, it's not the kind of movie you'd watch in 2D because it won't make sense. 

But now let me movie to the negatives. First off, this movie felt kind of like a videogame in some sequences, it was too CGI-ish. For instance with the slow motion segments, I felt like I was playing a videogame where one of the objectives is to save people before time runs out (you'll know what I'm talking about when you watch it). The run time was just over 2 and a half hours, but they were wasted, I'll tell you why. There were supposed to be 3 villains in this movie: Rhino, Electro, and the Green Goblin. Electro gets enough screen time, so no problem there. Rhino and Green Goblin though, not so much. Green Goblin only appears for a total of 15 minutes maybe, and Rhino (which really pissed me off) only has about 5-7 minutes of screen time, OUT OF 2 AND A HALF HOURS!!! Instead they focused more on the relationship between Gwen and Peter, like seriously I didn't give two shits, I just wanted to see Rhino smash shit up. you'd think that they'd use 2 and a half hours efficiently, but no they just had to complicate the love story. *SPOILERS* After all that complex romantic side plot development, Gwen dies, hoo-fucking-ray *SPOILERS END HERE*. Rhino and Green Goblin were so rushed that they didn't even bother trying not to make it obvious, it's as clear as solid sunshine. Like seriously, screw the romance and put more fight scenes. This is an action movie NOT a romance film. 

Ma Man!

But seriously though, I would reluctantly recommend it, I loved Electro and the fight scenes between Spiderman and him, but in all honesty, this movie was shit. I'd recommend you attend it with a group of friends so you could all just have a laugh and diss this movie's flaws till you run out of breath 

"I just wanted everybody to see me..."

Ahmed Almatrook