Reviews

At this point in my life I know that watching a Fox produced show (pre-Disney deal) will come with some propaganda, I was ready for that and I planned to enjoyed the same way I would enjoy a book written by Lovecraft. So here I am, years after the show first caught my eyes, bored out of my mind, and I just watched it, and I liked it, propaganda and all. Crane is a really good protagonist who takes himself just seriously enough for my taste, the town of Sleepy Hollow is charming and lovely, and the writing and direction of the show were really decent. There's a clear fish out of water thing happening and I think it's great. What I don't like however is how Fox missed the opportunity to have a crossover between this show and the exorcist show, I would've loved a "Witness meets Exorcist" special, but Alas, that will never materialize.

In 1978 during the famous Egyptian comedy play al-Motazowgoon, Hanafy, played by the late great Goerge Sedhom, said to his food obsessed wife Gamalat, played by Rawya Sa'id "people eat to live, Gamalat, they do not live to eat".

In this documentary, I saw a history of turning eating from something we do to live, into something we live to do. The film makers really nailed the thorough explanation of the complicated matter that effects people world wide. I wish that an Egyptian film maker would make a piece that is as honest and nuanced about Egyptian food culture as this one is about American food culture.

I went to a lot of doctors in my life for my weight and guess what, they all recommended the same low fat high carb diet, and guess what, none of what they suggested work. Keep in mind that I'm an Egyptian for Cairo, my country's national dish, the Koshary, is carbs on top of carbs and I love it. But all the time I craved fat, all the time I wanted to eat eggs for breakfast, I was told that I needed to resist that while in fact my body was telling me what it needed, so here I am, rethinking my relationship with food.

The two missing stars is because the film didn't account for the psychological side to eating and weight, or for the difference of effects across genders.

Let's face folks, most of female led superhero movies and TV shows suffer from: poor writing, badly designed characters and inflated rotten tomatoes score. In Wanda Vision we see the contrast, the writing here is great, the characters are well developed and the mysteries are gripping. I, unlike many, didn't hate the ending, it mostly made sense to me. To all the people who were put off by the sit com look: trust me, induring the first two episodes and getting to the third is imminsely rewarding. Highly recommend

For some reason, the last few weeks of 2020 is coming to me with a strange mode, at least when it comes to tv shows. I'm not in the mode for my usual horror and fantasy stuff and I was looking for anything different watch when this show came back on my radar a few days ago. when I say "came back on my radar", I mean that I remembered I wanted to watched months after deciding to watch it. it first came on my radar when a friend shared a scene from the show that made me teary in the best way possible. the show is realistic and fluffy, and manages that with great writing. we see in each episode real people living real situations and having real struggles, we walk with them in the streets on New York city as they try. I loved it

This show is the first Egyptian title produced by Netflix, everybody know that. Chances are you don't know that this is the first Egyptian show produced American way, with one show runner leading a team of writers and directors. And yes, this means that all Egyptian shows are written entirely by one writer and directed by one director, wish I was making this stuff up. Let's get the stuff I didn't like out of the way first: the special effects were really bad, computer generated imagery is not Egypt's entertainment industry's biggest strength, and I didn't expect a cooperation with Netflix to fix that, keeping the streaming service's track record. the second weakness is that some of the child actors weren't ready for the scenes and episodes that almost entirely relied on their acting. the third was the fact the way the myth of the naiad\ Naddaha was botched in episode four. now, to the good things: the horror elements are great in some parts and meh in others. the adventure elements were great. the casting was right on point, and the acting was amazing. the cinematography is real art, like you can pose a certain scene, print it, frame it and hang it on your wall. the details of Cairo in the 1960s were taken very seriously and worked on very hard, not only the wardrobe and décor, but the tension caused by the political climate at the time. there is some serious character development in the show, coming from the fact that all the characters are realistically flawed, including the lead character. which leads to the greatest thing about the show, Dr Refaat Ismail, the protagonist, and his very deep, very funny, inner dialogue. Ahmed Amin was great in the rule. lastly, this show is fun, if you like fantasy, horror and adventure, you'll like it even if you hadn't read a word of the late authors work. but if you are a fan of the source material and the author, you'll have more fun finding Easter eggs and hints. I loved it, not as much as I love the book series, but I still love it

Someday, sweet child, you'll be old enough to watch this documentary, and read your late mother's book, and I hope, with all my heart that you see this afterward. You might be thinking: "what in the name of sanity did I just see? it that actually my mother?", and the answer to that is: yes, partly. People contain multitudes, your mother contained multitudes. And at the end of the day she was a good person, and she undoubtedly loved you. She did a great and a wonderful thing, helping to provide justice and closure to so many people. And on account of the fact that she was human, she made mistakes along the way, some of them took her from you way too early. It's unfair, but you can overcome it. And know, dear Alice, that you can always seek someone to listen to you. Take care.

Sincerely Aya

What do you do when you can't leave the house because there is an effing blight going on in the world? you look for good movies and watch them of course. Well, in this case, I did not go looking for a movie about debate (that amazing thing that the schools of my home country Egypt are lacking) or a movie that is based on a real story. I was looking for a good movie that I haven't seen before, and among the many recommendation videos that flooded my YouTube subscription feed, there was a video that recommended that movie. I heard it was a Denzel Washington movie and needed to hear no more. seriously, the man's name is a seal of quality, but the fact that this brilliant man has directed and starred this movie wasn't the only selling point, oh no. the movie is also about a brilliant group of people lead a particularly brilliant man. Melvin Tolson is a man who had the audacity to be educated, talented and opinionated in the Jim Crow south during the great depression no less. and as if that wasn't enough, the man took the responsibility of giving young people of his race the opportunity to get an education. and knowing that lectures and text books weren't merely enough to accomplish that, so he trained an A level debate team the members of which are dedicated researchers and passionate speakers who put their little know black college on the map. he discovered their talents, and gave them the tools and learning necessary to grow them. he challenged the hate and prejudice of others and taught them to do the same, and they took his teachings with gratitude and used them well. so be like Mr Tolson folks, and fight your way to greatness through people's ignorance and hate and repeat with him and the great debaters: "The judge is God. Why is he God? Because he decides who wins or loses, not my opponent. Who is your opponent? He doesn't exist. Why does he not exist? He's merely a dissenting voice to the truth l speak."

I rated it 7, it's more like 6.5 stars which is solid. it's my least favorite of the three episodes but not my far and I don't hate it. most of the reviews I read point the blame to the fact that it's different which shouldn't be enough to dismiss it as bad. we have yet another colorful cast of back characters in this episode, the cat/mouse aspect in the relationship between the count and a descendant of Van Helsing takes a back step in this episode which is the biggest flaw as far as I care, otherwise this episode makes sense to me and I like it.

If anybody who lived under a rock and never heard of the story of count Dracule before and watched this episode, it would be a good introduction. to me it was a new way to look at an old and beloved story

I loved this show, it was a good adaptation of a beloved horror classic, it emphasized the romantic relationship between Jonothan and Mina as well as the cat\mouse relationship between Dracula and Van Helsing very nicely.

I really don't watch black and white English language films, they rarely show up in recommendations and when they do I either can't find them or I am in the wrong emotional state for this specific genre or theme. in this case none of those things were an issue, somehow my emotional and creative slump was the best time possible to watch Harvey. the charming, less than two hours movie about an adult, polite and sociable man whose best friend in life is an invisible, talking 6 feet and three inches tall rabbit managed to reach into my heart and get some warm and fuzzy feelings to the surface. in this movie there are no villains to hate on, there are handful of people each with a point of view that's hard to miss or ignore and quite frankly, and as much as I love superhero movies that has an obvious bad guy to hate, we need more movies like this.

So when I heard about a series made by an american streaming service about an american Muslim young man of Egyptian descent I, being and Egyptian Muslim, kinda knew what to expect, conflict between the liberal american life style and the conservative Islamic beliefs and of course parents who value the traditions of the old country more than they value religion which common among born Muslims and quit honestly the show didn't disappoint, it showed a weird Egyptian everyday family living in the American society so this part of it didn't surprise me but was never the less very delightful. what truly surprised me, in a good way, however was all the 1980s and 1990s nostalgia left subtly for Egyptian in the know in most of the Arabic music that featured in the show but the most delightfully surprising part of it is Amr Waked's make up, it's like everyday before shooting he went to the make up artist looking like an Egyptian young-ish man and he came out looking like Refaat Ismael in a good day and if you're an Egyptian Millennial who doesn't know who Refaat Ismael is then I'm sorry that your life as teenager was magic free.

I am just sad that this show is not renewed for a third season and even disappointed but not surprised, not even a little bit, after all we are talking about Fox, the people who cancelled Firefly, Terminator the series and Futurama so of course their hit horror TV series would get cancelled after its second season which has a 100% score on rotten tomatoes. the show was amazing and successfully revived a franchise everybody thought was dead and its connection to the original movie was used very very cleverly, so her I am, writing this review hoping that it wouldn't turn into a eulogy, that one day after the Fox\Disney deal is done someone would look at the pile of good TV series cancelled by fox, dig up The Exorcist from the shelves and give this beautiful story a proper closure. until then goodbye Father Marcus, goodbye Father Thomas, Farewell strangers

Dear parents and educators it's time for you to know that a teenagers brain is like a speeding car with hormones behind the wheel, it's time for you to educate yourselves on the way your kids and students communicate and how those fascinating devices in your pockets that bring you news stories from the other part of the world, information about your local politician and conspiracies about vaccines can also be used to do horrible things. Dear parents and educators it's time for you to have a hard talk with your kids and students about the line when fun begins and crime begins, to draw the line between what's right and wrong based on the concepts of right and wrong not based on how much they can get away with. Dear parents and educators it's time for you to have a hard talk with your kids and students about liking themselves, respecting others and take rejection and defeat well. And finally dear parents and educators please don't be mad at me, I know that you work had for your kids and students and I know that you'd do anything for them and I also know that adapting to the needs of your kids and students in this brave new world is difficult, after all how could you possibly anticipate that communication technology will get so advanced and relative to everyday life so fast? but dear parents and educators it's time for change of the way you perceive and deal with the emotional health of kids and students.

Sincerely someone who was once a teenager and considered suicide

First live action E-Men based TV series ever, an extremely powerful and interesting lead characters and a lot of good things to work with.yes I was already bumped for this one. now to the real talk, the human mind is a very weird and messy place for people who don't have super powers or mental and emotional issues or even jobs that require that more than an average level of creativity, in this episode we get a glimpse of the mind of possibly the most powerful mutant ever, and one of the most emotional unhealthy comic book characters ever, and I loved it, I still not quit sure how much of the episode actually happened and how much happened inside David's head but generally I am happy. I know it's way to early to say weather the show is gonna be a TV wonder or a complete disaster but as a nerd I am happy and hopeful.

a few months ago in one of Cairo's lesser known theaters I watched a simple, yet powerful scene, a group of young people standing still taking turns to say either their age of year of birth, and every other sentence the one standing in the far left of group says: "I am thirty six years old", every time he said those words they sounded different from the times before. when I watched the pilot episode of the series only a few days ago, seeing Kevin, Kate and Randall celebrating their thirty six birthday, it hit me, people who are thirty six years old in 2016 are my generation's elders, they were born in the beginning of the decade when all the madness begun, slasher movies, PCs, mobile phones, people who are thirty six years in 2016 are the beginning of a current, and now they're in their late thirties with real issues and had decisions still ahead of them. and one can't help but relating to at least one of the characters, if not all of them. what do I do if my career went side ways 36? what do I about my food addiction at 36? what do I do about my lesser known side of the family at 36? is shifting to an office work for money a good idea? is having kids a good idea? and so much more questions this show is asking without shoving the answers in our faces. I love it, it's good, I want it stay good and close to our problems without shoving any answers in our faces or, God forbids, turn into a soap opera.

I watched House of Cards as a very good insight on how things in the white house in an excellent fictional context and I thought if any other TV series is going to realistically tread the subject again it's gonna have to copy the House of Cards format in a way, with an ambitious politician who schemes his way into a more powerful position, may be the most powerful of all, with carefully crafted lies and plays which worked greatly. what we have here is a completely different leading man, the main character of this show doesn't want to be were he ended up, in fact no one expected him to keep his own office in the first place, but then someone,more than one actually, dies and he becomes a president. but that is not why I'm now waiting for next episode, I'm waiting because of how everybody's reaction to the tragedy, fear and confusion for the most part, was shown almost perfectly by through the interactions between the different characters, and while that was just enough to attract every pit of attention I have left, I was given a very good WTF moment near the end, and the best part is, it all make sense, it's possible and this is what I want from a good political drama, and I got along with what I want from a TV series first episode. waiting for what's next

yet another great movie that I've missed because of when I was born, and now with the all the communications and the technology it's hard to be a movie nerd without knowing or at least hearing about this flick. Labyrinth is just one of those movies that keeps coming up in lists for movies and movie characters and movie performances and you keep hearing about it and hearing about it until you say to yourself one day: "that's it I'm so watching this movie to see what all the fuss is about", and so I watched the movie and I loved every minute of it. Labyrinth is exactly my favorite kind of movie, a family friendly flick that speaks well to every grown up's inner child and take every viewer in an other worldly adventure. Sarah's journey was such a wonderful adventure to go through and she has evolved in every step of it, the baby was the adorable annoying mix that we all know to exist in babies. and the Villain, OMG, can a villain ever be that intimidating and that likable in the same time? David Bowie was just amazing here and I don't know much people who disagree. all the supporting characters, even the ones who didn't get much screen time were great, all the effects where amazing. and by the end of it I started feeling like a seven years old again.

Christian Grey is a guy who deals with history as a victim of abuse as a child by being elegantly and charmingly abusive, that is Christian Grey in a nut shell. as for the amazing Miss Steele, she gives us, over 21-year-old virgins, a bad name with here hilarious naivety, I mean, I live in third world country and I still know better than fall in such mistakes as she have fallen into. not only that each one of them is unrealistically troubled on their own right but they struggle to look good together and fail mainly because the dialogue is bad, it doesn't help them at all. now the second and third parts of the novels are becoming movies anyway, I really hop to see some character development, something to justify and correct all this part's mistakes or this trilogy is going to fall hard in the history of literature and movies among the worst.

first I would like to point out that horror movies are not my cup of tea, I rarely watch them and even less likely to like them. then I would like to point out that I was born in 1989 so I missed all the great 1980s movies but what made me really oblivious of this movie is that it is not as talked about as the rest of the Hannibal movies which is sad.

the film is great in every way and William Petersen did such a great job portraying the brilliant, on-the-edge-of-madness FBI profiler Will Graham and Brian Cox's Hannibal was great especially while interacting with Graham, everything in this movie is great and I am astonished at how little recognition it gets among audience. in the end, the movie belongs to a genre that I don't usually enjoy but I enjoyed it (mainly because I watched it in the morning and in human company).

to say that J.J. Abrams is a genius would be stating the obvious and this amazing Sci-Fi, mystery drama is just another example.

as usual I heard about Fringe because it was being broadcast on a Nilesat network a little while after it was broadcast in the US (a season or tow) and due to my schedule I didn't follow it then so instead I waited tow years after it was over and a few weeks ago started to binge watch it and I enjoyed it, every performance, every dialogue and every W.T.F. moment and this show has a lot of W.T.F. moments all the way to the last episode. this is the kind of TV I want and love, great characters and human drama surrounded with other-worldly mysteries that impose important questions about important issues, I want more of that.

just finished the novel yesterday and freaking loved it and then watched the movie. it's a complicated narrative that will first bore you then excite you and the end flabbergast you. what is it about is easy enough to tell, a very bad and toxic relationship between tow very missed up people who grew up in very missed up/normal and happy looking families in a society that gets easily deceived. and in this relationship happens a mystery which proves how one dimensional and superficial the media's look at people's lives can be, which I'd like to highlight because I studied media.

I think if the rule that the mass media played in this story can tell us something is that: if you're information about a certain subject comes only from TV then you probably know nothing, and if you're IQ equals the average IQ of the news anchors and talk show hosts in your country then you're in trouble.

and the end I'd like to say that this is a great story and that every single one of the actors had done a great job.

we have a super hero with daddy issues in Ashley Scott's Huntress, we have a super hero on wheel chair and a desire to have a normal love life in Dina Meyer's Barbra Gordon,

we have a good coming-of-age story in Rachel Skarsten's Dinah Lance,

Mia Sara's Harley Quinn is amazing and set a really high standard for any future portrayal of the character (namely the Margot Robbie in Suicide Squad),

Shemar Moore's Reese showed the police/vigilante conflict very well, Shawn Christian's Wade are showing the human side of Barbra very well, and Ian Abercrombie's Alfred is the annoyingly lovable parental figure we all know and love,

so what went wrong? anyway, I have request for the people who work on comic book based projects or have ideas for such projects, please be careful with our super heroes, and be extra careful if the main characters are female super heroes.