Tag Archives | movie

Review – Avengers: Infinity War

By Rami on April 26, 2018 in Reviews

I don’t usually write movie posts but I’ll make an exception for Avengers: Infinity War. The movie is absolutely amazing and is my favorite among the Marvel films so far.

I actually attended the movie premiere at VOX two days ago and the event coincided with their 5th anniversary in Lebanon. Featuring most of the character from the Marvel universe, you would expect some to appear less special than the others, but the movie is 150 minutes long for a reason, and in my opinion each one of them got the deserved time to stand out.

The movie is of course everything you would expect from a Marvel movie plus a lot of humor and some emotional moments. This time, the avengers are uniting to face Thanos who’s on a quest to collect all of the 6 infinity stones to abolish half the universe. I won’t spoil rest but do yourself a favor and go watch it in theater. It now has a 9.2 rating on IMDB and I agree with Anis that the movie will definitely stand for years to come.

Avengers: Infinity War will be available in cinemas as of tomorrow.

Giveaway Day 12 – Two $50 Gold Combo Vouchers from VOX Cinemas

By Rami on March 5, 2018 in Giveaways

Today’s giveaway is presented by the friends at VOX Cinemas who were kind enough to offer 2 Gold Combo vouchers that include a GOLD Movie Ticket, popcorn, and your choice of starter, main, drink and dessert from the menu. I personally have tried this Gold combo last summer and totally loved the 5 star experience, but it unfortunately makes it difficult to later attend regular shows! 😛

VOX Cinemas recently launched a new loyalty program by the way which is a free to join program that allows you to earn points every time you visit the cinema to use on free movie tickets along with a number of other benefits. I think it is a must for those who regularly go to the movies and you can read more details about it here.

To qualify for the draw, go to +961’s page on Facebook and interact with the giveaway’s post. One winner will be randomly chosen and announced tomorrow morning, and I will message him/her for instructions on how to claim the vouchers.

The Insult – First Lebanese Movie to Get An Academy Award Nomination

By Rami on January 23, 2018 in Movies

Lebanese director Ziad Doueiri just earned today an academy award nomination for his movie “The Insult” in the Foreign Language Film category! This is big news for us because it is the first movie to ever get an official Oscar nomination since Lebanon started submitting films to the Academy Awards in 1978, and will compete with four other submissions from Russia, Chile, Hungary and Sweden.

Ziad Doueiri stirred much controversy a while ago by the way when he filmed a previous movie, The Attack, in Israel. However, I noticed that almost everybody seemed to agree on praising “The Insult” regardless of their stance on Doueiri and his political views, so I really hope it manages to clinch the trophy!

The Oscars will air on Sunday March 4th on ABC Network and Jimmy Kimmel is once again hosting the event this year. You can check the full list of nominees for all categories here.

Hollywood Made a Bad Movie About Beirut – So What?!

By Rami on January 16, 2018 in Movies

Everyone and their mother seems to be upset about Jon Hamm’s new movie, titled “Beirut”, because of its bad portrayal of our Beirut city and all the stereotypes that appeared in the trailer.

The movie is written by Tony Gilroy (author first four films of the Bourne series) and tells the story of Mason Skiles (Jon Hamm a former U.S. diplomat who is called back into service to save a colleague from a terrorist group that was responsible for the death of his own family 10 years earlier.

As the trailer shows, the movie is gonna give quite a gloomy picture of Beirut, and with everything bad going around us in the region right now,western people will unconsciously associate us with terrorism after watching it. But then again, you can’t just blame this movie for the bad publicity we have abroad… We have been ruining our country for over 40 years now and have made enough headlines so far for the whole world to judge us without the need to watch any movie about Lebanon!

And what are you expecting from Hollywood in the first place? A promotional tourism movie about Lebanon? In a world where everyone has a different point of view, why can’t we take their side for a second? We treat them as invaders but they simply regard themselves as our white saviors… Ever knew about the 1985 TWA Flight 847 that was hijacked by Lebanese people and rerouted to Beirut with 85 American passengers on-board? How about the 1983 barracks bombings in Beirut? Regardless what your political views might be, these are acts of terrorism to them and the average American had every reason to think of us as terrorists back then…

Even worse, back to our side, how do you label 15 years of civil war? We butchered each other, mass killings were nothing unusual over that period, and minors did join militias back then. Go read or watch some Lebanese war documentary to learn all about it… Do you only feel butthurt because an American is mentioning it now?

Instead of whining about the movie, just let it be and move on, if it’s really bad then it will eventually be a box office flop. If anything, you can probably brighten the country’s image by simply replacing the warlords that have been ruling the country since the civil war era and are the ones responsible for Beirut’s bad publicity everywhere!

Marvel Movies Free Screenings in Beirut

By Rami on December 30, 2017 in Movies

If you’re a fan of Marvel or superhero movies in general, then here’s your chance to re-watch or catch up on the Marvel Cinematic Universe films for free. The people at a production company called “Monkey Business Dreams” are planning host screenings for 18 Marvel movies each Tuesday at 7PM starting January 2nd 2018 until “Avengers: Infinity War” is released on May 4th 2018. Each screening will be followed by a discussion and a Q&A on plot and production.

If you’re interested to attend, you can find the screening location coordinates here and below is their schedule:

Jan 2: Iron Man
Jan 9: The Incredible Hulk
Jan 16: Iron Man 2
Jan 23: Thor
Jan 30: Captain America – The First Avenger
Feb 6: The Avengers
Feb 13: Iron Man 3
Feb 20: Thor – The Dark World
Feb 27: Captain America – The Winter Soldier
Mar 6: Guardians Of The Galaxy
Mar 13: The Avengers – Age Of Ultron
Mar 20: Ant-Man
Mar 27: Captain America – Civil War
Apr 3: Doctor Strange
Apr 10: Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol.2
Apr 17: Spider-Man Homecoming
Apr 24: Thor – Ragnarok
May 1: Black Panther

No snacks or drinks are sold on location by the way, so feel free to bring your own stuff.

Why is Lebanon Acting Schizophrenic About Gal Gadot?

By Rami on December 11, 2017 in Movies

People at the censorship bureau don’t seem to be able to make up their mind about Gal Godot. Few years ago they had no problem with her appearing in movies like Fast & Furious, Batman v Superman, and Keeping up with the Joneses, until they suddenly decided to ban Wonder Woman back in May because she had the lead role in it.

Fast forward to nowadays, just as several magazines chose Godot to be on their cover for their December issues, the much anticipated “Justice League” also got banned two weeks ago because she was among its cast. I took the above photo for example at Librarie Antoine a few days ago and it’s obvious the authorities did not find anything wrong with a magazine having Gal Gadot as its main subject, so why not allow a movie starring her as well?

DVD rips of banned movies eventually end up flooding the market and it isn’t like superhero movie fans are going to miss seeing them, so it’s definitely about time the censorship bureau reconsider their role and the decisions they take.

How Do Boycott Campaigns Work in Lebanon?

By Rami on May 30, 2017 in Movies, Politics

I remember at least two artists who were subject to online and offline boycott campaigns in Lebanon over the past few years due to their alleged support to Israel, Gad Elmaleh in 2009 and Lara Fabian in 2012. Gad Elmaleh was accused of serving in the Israeli Defense Forces (which wasn’t true) while Lara Fabian faced so much criticism for performing at an event to celebrate the 60th anniversary of Israel, and civil society groups of course tried to keep the two artists from performing in Lebanon.

Fast forward to the present, Wonder Woman starring Gal Gadot is scheduled to start showing across Lebanese theaters on June 1st. However, Gal Gadot is an Israeli actress and model who first appeared as Wonder Woman in Batman VS Superman last year and her upcoming movie posters have been surprisingly all around the country for a while now! That’s not just any actress supporting Israel, that’s an Israeli actress who served as a combat trainer in the Israeli Defense Forces with her posters all around Lebanon.

I’m not writing this to call for the movie boycott. I personally love superhero movies and will definitely be watching Wonder woman. However, I’ve yet to hear about any call against screening it and in this case one can’t but wonder how do civil society activists choose which artists/projects to boycott or let pass. At one point you start doubting their campaigns could be sometimes fueled by business competition… International artists are all exposed to have a connection with Israel at some point during their career, which makes it easy for anyone to criticize them for the sole purpose of provoking those who are investing their money into getting such artists to perform in Lebanon.

Anyway, the movie is showing in two days so let’s see if any cyber activists will try to take a stance against it!

Update:

I just learned the Ministry of Economy and Trade demanded the General Security to withdraw the movie from Lebanese theaters. However, the questions I raised above still stand.

Review – “Film Ameriki Tawil” 36 Years Later

By Rami on October 11, 2016 in Cinema, Reviews

Last night was the avant premiere for the highly anticipated Film Ameriki Tawil and I had the privilege to be among the attendees. Needless to say, it was really awesome to finally see the original footage of this play since I have always enjoyed listening to this masterpiece by Ziad Rahbani on the radio!

As in the case with Bennesbe Labokra Chou, M Media did a fantastic job by reconstructing several old videos in order to create this movie. However, unlike last year’s end result, Film Ameriki Tawil has a better image quality, looks much smoother thanks to the use of fixed cameras during the original recording, and has an almost consistent audio level and quality. So if you felt annoyed by the shaky image in “Bennesbe Labokra Chou” then I can guarantee this one is much more better and has much better scene transitions. In my opinion, this movie does more justice to Ziad Rahbani’s work than the previous one.

As far as the acting is concerned, I believe I would be stating the obvious by telling it was impressive. I mostly loved the authentic performance by Joseph Sakr, Ziad Abou Absi and Rafik Najem. Watching Sakr singing three time during the play/movie was alone a treat for me! So, to make a long story short, I highly recommend you go watch it and take older people like your parents with you because they’ll definitely get some good memories and laughs back! The official release date is set for October 20th, and for those who would like to get a sneak peak of it I have shared a beautiful video on Facebook of “Raj3a bi iznillah” with the whole cast dancing to it. (link)

However, as I recommended last year, do yourself a favor and delay booking your tickets a bit, Ziad’s diehard fans will naturally attend the early screenings and my opinion about them still stands, they’re annoying! One guy was sitting behind us last night and almost recited the whole scenario while the movie was playing.

On another note, I have a good new to whoever missed watching Bennesbe Labokra Chou last year, the guys from M Media will soon be officially launching their streaming service which will allow you to watch their productions for $5 per month (think of it as a Lebanese Netflix) and that includes Bennesbe Labokra Chou which will also be available for watching on their website.

Annoying Moviegoers !

By Rony on January 7, 2015 in Lebanon

Smartphone theaters

Movie theaters usually ask you to silence you phone before the movie starts in order to perfectly enjoy the screening and avoid any disturbance to the experience. Most moviegoers usually abide by this which is good. However, another problem that really annoys me and is starting to become more and more recurrent, is people that cannot get off social media and keep using their smartphones while cranking up the brightness to maximum. These people do RUIN the movie experience. Have you lately came across such people at the cinemas?

On a somewhat related level, Old Trafford (Manchester United’s stadium for those of you who are not football fans) introduced some changes to its policy last year, one of which was banning the use of large devices (mainly tablets) during matches in order not to ruin the experience for people who just want to enjoy watching the game.

So don’t you think that theaters should ask viewers not only to silence their phones, but also to reduce their brightness to minimum?

Lebanese submissions to the 87th Oscar awards

By Rami on December 19, 2014 in Lebanon

I was checking some Oscar-related news today and noticed we got two submissions (but not yet shortlisted) for the awards. One for the movie “Ghadi” by George Khabbaz as the best foreign language film, and the other for Yasmine Hamdan’s song “Hal”, which was featured in the British-German movie “Only Lovers Left Alive“, as the best original song.

I sure hope at least one of these two gets shortlisted, especially Yasmine Hamdan with that super sensual performance, but the competition is usually pretty fierce.

Does anybody know if any Lebanese artwork has ever been shortlisted for the Oscars?

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