kholiette-2 Reviews

Hemlock Grove (2013–2015)

great show ruined by its final season and unnecessary character assassination

[7/10 · 1 April 2016]

This show was so promising. I loved season 1 it was a great crazy concoction of the classic vampire /Werewolf story but for smart people and a lot of science. Then season 2 was not as good, but watchable. Season 3 was so bad, I finished it with difficulty. The character assassination of every character I liked was just too much. Sometimes the writers want to surprise you to keep you watching but sometimes those bombs have an adverse effect on the audience. The characters that were entertaining became more annoying. The relationships that were sacred because they made the show were literally crapped on. I am very disappointed at how they ruined a perfect show. So sad to see season 3. The high rating i gave the show is due to the amazing season, i would really like to forget that season 3 ever existed. How could they waste all the season on sub par sub plots that interests no one then in 2 episodes ruin all what they built.

Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016)

Don't believe what they tell you. Go see it and judge for yourself. And there are Spoilers

[10/10 · 28 March 2016]

So I went to see the most awaited and anticipated movie since the making of cinema. Sorry star wars fans, I know you think this spot is for you , but there were many star wars movies, but no other feature film with the most 2 iconic superheroes of all time.

Overall I liked it very much. Did I think it could be better? Yes, am I bitching about it? No. But I think there are some things that really irked me in the movie, but I tried not to make it a big deal so as to enjoy this momentous moment in nerd history.

I divided my opinion into 3 categories as follows :

Pros: -Don't believe those who say the story is jumbled and cluttered. It was very clear, except certain parts who non-comic fans wouldn't understand (Injustice maybe, some would totally not get it) . The story runs smoothly.

• Ben Affleck is the most Awesome Batman to date. He did a fantastic job depicting the A-hole hero. Yes I think Batman is a complete douche. I always did, but he did it so well I give him high props for that. Go Ben, and haters will be butthurt now. I wish he was portrayed as a less a-hole of a batman, but Frank Miller's version seemed to be the pop culture favorite that's because people are A-holes in general, so he talks to the douches in them. - Romance. OH MY GOD! Clark and Lois….please the B.S about them not building up the story in Man of Steel blab la bla….those 2 give me goose bumps every time they have a moment on screen. The looks they give each other, the love he has for her. Reminds me of the golden age when he was always there to save her. Please don't break them up, this is how you represent the most iconic relationship of all time. Amy and Henry have amazing chemistry. I just have to say wow.

• Cinematography and action: Another wow, I loved every moment with exceptions, they will be in the cons. Just enough action to keep you interested without over saturating. - I have two words for you, seeing Jason Momoa as Aqua man gave me goosebumps. I can't wait. He is the king of the 7 seas, there is no other Aqua man that I can think of. Please forget about the blond comment and he doesn't look the role. He made it his own.

Honorable mention: Henry Cavil is the best superman who ever graced the silver and the small screen. He just owns it. As a superman super fan, I have to say that every time he came on screen I feel flabbergasted by his presence. I still love the others, but no one can compete.

Mehh:

-Wonder woman was a total meh for me. I did not feel her. I wanted to get goosebumps but nah. She is just mehh. As a female I wanted to feel and take pride in the appearance of the most prominent female superhero of all time, but nope, speaking of that and not related at all but it seems there is a type going on, Electra on Netflix Daredevil who I think auditioned for the role and was a close runner up also gives me this Mehhh feeling, but in a more negative way. I really wanted to like her, but I think she lacks the charisma a character like that needed.

-Doomsday was another mehhh for me. I wanted to be awed, but I was not at all, he looked more like a blob of skin and energy than doomsday. I thought he could be better, and I also thought how they made him was a bit off.

Cons: -When the flash in the store looks like Cisco you know there is something wrong. There are no racial undertones here, I just don't get why get a guy who looks like Cisco to play the flash. It is confusing. Also I don't believe the BS Snyder said in the articles circulating on line. If it is about a multiverse, why can't Arrow use Harley, Dead shot and why can't we have Superman visit his cousin, and why can't Batman visit Starling city and why can't we have a flash point on the flash? So please spare me the multi verse BS and go talk to someone who would believe it.

-Lex Luthor was like if the Joker and Harley spawned a child he would be this version of Luthor. I did not like him at all. He was not Luthory enough for me. And Lex Luthor was always one of my top 10 evil bastards of all time.

• OK I know I am a superman fan, and this will be taken against me. But please…the fight was just an ode to the Batman fans. At least give the man of steel some credit. He carried the freaking spear in the end and finished doomsday, but yet he was about to die under the heavily armored boots of batman. So no comment here. I just like things to make sense even in a fictitious world. But I would say maybe because it was his first encounter with Kryptonite * wink wink*

I would give this movie a solid 4 stars. (out of 5) down with the critics and the haters.

Rocky Balboa (2006)

growing up with rocky......

[7 June 2008]

(contains a spoiler) This is not a review about how good the movie is , or how great the director was. This is just to share with people my age how i felt when i watched this movie. I felt sad, nostalgic,reminiscent of the good old days when Rocky was my childhood hero. Here i see an older Rocky, who reminded me with the first signs of wrinkles on my face. Adrian is dead, so no more i love you i love you too.....and why did they kill her anyway, what is the life span of a white American female..... why the misery....but on the other hand I cant hate this movie, i loved it, hell i went to see it in the movies when many were laughing at me to even to give it a chance. I loved it, wept like a child, and remembered that a new installment of a good old cheesy movie can make me feel better about aging....if rocky can do it, then maybe i can deal with aging, life and the whole package.....if you grew up watching Rocky...and loving the Italian stallion and the original music score, and the training scenes and the running in the street scenes...and all that ......then watch this movie...i think you would love it too

Heroes (II) (2006–2010)

Bizarro X-men

[3/10 · 11 December 2007]

Yes that what I would call the series heroes. I was so impressed by the hype it caused that I purchased the series on DVD. Old story made lamer. The heroes are mostly boring and characterless. It is a comic classic story that failed the test really. I know the show has a lot of fans, but I am just very disappointed. The plot is about humans evolving to heroes with super powers, but most of the powers really don't make a lot of sense. I am a huge fan of this genre, but the Bizarro x-men world created in this series was just not convincing enough…..I think that the most interesting character in this series is Syler. He is a good written super villain with good acting skills. I don't understand the popularity of the show, but i guess it is popular among children and teens, so if you are over 18 avoid it

Supernatural (2005–2020)

Buffy meets the Xfiles

[8/10 · 11 December 2007]

if you think you are going to watch something in the calibre of the x files then forget it...it will be more like Buffy the Vampire slayer..... I am a Buffy fan, so it is not an insult to the show, but I would say it is more on the lighter side of the Genre. The X files is dark and witty, and that is not what supernatural is, so to those who are comparing the 2 shows, I would say, stop right there.

The show is about two young brothers in desperate pursuit of their father, they both had a traumatizing experience as kids when their mom was killed by a mysterious force. The show starts naive and the acting a bit sloppy, but as it goes on they get better……(just like Buffy), but since I am sucker for the supernatural I can watch all this, I don't know about the rest of the viewers.

As every horror show it plays on famous urban legends and puts a bit of a twist to it, as I said before no complicated plots or conspiracies like the X files or Millennium. It is still a good watch and definitely better than other shoes on TV now. The humor is sometimes forced, but Dean grows on you really ( the older brother ), Sam is sometimes too annoying taking brooding to a higher level, but he can never pull an 'Angel' (from Buffy ).

Enjoy the show if you enjoy supernatural stuff

El-Rahinah (2006)

Not recommended for movie snobs.....An Egyptian guy travels abroad looking for a better life and then encounters problems...action packed....

[7/10 · 8 September 2007]

i went to see this movie because i am an Ahmad Ezz fan. I thought it would be a boring mundane, movie with cheap effects. Since i knew from the beginning that it would be an action flick as the writer is Nabil Farouk, a famous Egyptian writer who more or less plagiarizes western ideas, Egyptianize them...and give a good interesting plot...the movie was exactly that...fun to watch...the screenplay was funny and witty....the female costar Yasmine Abdelaziz was a bit 'over' as usual. She doesn't change that much from one movie to another, she acts herself most of the time. Nour, the crazy super villain was surprisingly good in her role, she managed to act well with the right amount of exaggeration . The director Sandra gets better from one film to another. I think overall it was a good entertaining Egyptian action flick....do not expect Oscar material and you will enjoy the fun.So not recommended for movie snobs....

Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones (2002)

At last we got to know how our beloved Luke Skywalker and his annoying sister got conceived. Young Any and Amidala team up to create a psudo impossible sinful love story as the not very old Senator falls in

[10 June 2002]

After the Phantom Menace, I've decided to boycott any movie bearing the Star Wars brand except for sure the original trilogy which I still think of as the `original', for sentimental reasons, and I bet all the people who grew up with a Darth Vader lunch box and Luke Skywalker Pjs would understand how disappointing the phantom menace was. After 3 weeks or so of the release of episode II I decided to disregard my prejudices and go see the new Lucas addition to the Star Wars Saga, especially after reading good reviews about it. To be honest, it was better than the Phantom Menace but still no where near as good as any of the old stuff. The Characters are well defined and deep, and although I liked young `Any' my liking can't change the fact that the boy can't act, besides the image of little 'Any' in diapers being protected by Amidala made me think along the lines of a `sinful' amoral relationship… bit of child molesting on the former queen's side..ugghh. The movie was a bit slow till the last 20 minutes. Too much animation made the set look unreal, and Youda was much bigger when he was a man in the empire strikes back.. and more real too. In addition I would like to add a bit of `borrowing' Like the beginning of the movie the city looked very `blade runner' `the 5th element' kind. The warms to kill the Senator were borrowed from the `Dune' Mini series, in addition to some of the beautiful Arab looking palaces in Nabu that was `Dune' too. The asteroids field was very much `farscapish' a bit on the side of warmhole technology. Don't get me wrong Lucas is a great guy , he gave us the original trilogy and that is just me…a hardcore Star Wars fan.

Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999)

Darth Vader ...uncovered

[12 April 2001]

As all the kids who were born in the 70s and lived the 80s I grew up watching Star Wars. It becomes part of your life.. you collect the little models and play with your light saber, I think every kid who witnessed the 70s and the 80s did the same… so star wars became a culture on its own. The original trilogy was never outdated, the special effects were fine for the 90s and I didn't feel I was watching a cheap flick or an old Sci-Fi that looked old and shabby.

Anyhow as a Star Wars fan I was so excited about the release of Episode I , expecting something along the same lines, but the disappointment was great.

It could be the biggest 3rd box office hit in the world, they say it had excellent effects….. …I just didn't feel i liked it. I thought it was fake, the characters were not well drawn, I didn't feel any affiliation with Qui-Gon, or young Obi-Wan, nothing like how you feel towards Luke Sky Walker or Han Solo or even Darth vader whom everyone loves to hate. And the Queen, I even hated her more than princess Liya. Jar Jar did not replace CP3O or Chwbaka. The Kid Anakin was ok but not waw. That was the emotional bit ( thank you Lucas for chattering my childhood dream).

Now we come to the technical part. Yes all was great, the city, the animation the best money can buy, but then again all looked animated, inanimate, with no life. Everything looked so unreal (toy story style). The best thing about the old 3 episodes was that everything looked so real, maybe if they had Jar Jar in a custom instead of animating him I would have like him better. The lavish customs were nothing like Star Wars , it was too much , but maybe this was to distract us from the weak plot as the story was so shallow and predictable.

Anyhow, I know for a fact that I am not really looking forward to episode II and III , I will stick to the original triology and watch Matrix II this summer.

Open Your Eyes (1997)

The story can't be told, it is very complicated and you need to watch it..it is all about a young handsome guy and his "Dreams"s

[10 April 2001]

Abre Los Ojos (Open your Eyes) is a brilliant movie. It was late when it was playing on TV, and I said I will just watch 15 minutes or so and go to bed, but I just couldn't move from my chair. The story is very gripping, even though the language was a barrier and I had to read the titles, still it was so intense that I watched it all and it haunted me for a while. It is one of those multi layer movies , when you get lost in the middle a couple of times and even when it ends you are still a bit at a loss and thinking what actually happened and what didn't. If you like to think , then I recommend it, if you are in for a joy ride then don't bother. Because when the movie ends it will leave you with a sense of dread and fear from yourself and what your mind can do.

The directing was very good, chapeau for the director and the writer. Actors were chosen well and they were very convincing, and the make up was not bad for a movie not made in Hollywood.

Finally, in my opinion , the adrenaline rush I got from this movie was only compared by the one I got from the movie Existenz ,which I recommend to people who liked this one and didn't see David Cronenberg's Existenz.

On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969)

I remember the first time I saw this movie.

[3 April 2000]

I remember the first time I saw this movie (and that was recent) I was like waw…who is the Bond. I’ve been a great Bond fan, heard about the movie but never saw it, and it was hard getting it on video, especially that I don’t live in your easy West. Well I thought that the movie was great and the Australian hunk was just as good as any other Bond. He portrayed his role well, yes he was different from the Connery Bond… but that doesn’t make him bad. Anyway, I think the problem with that particular Bond movie, was the drastic change. Mostly people love a character and link the character with the actor and when change happens they get disillusioned and just reject the new actor. Had George Lazenby acted bond in the 90s the movie would have left a different impression on peple.

Well technically speaking the movie was just as good as any action movie produced at that time, and the story was even more well defined (unlike the previous ones). Furthermore it gave another dimension to the Bond character…I was like waw the guy can actually love and feel strongly about something (other than the queen)…..I felt it made him more human.

Well, I think that maybe in the future, this movie will get more recognition as one of Bond’s best movies…with the Living daylights perhaps.

Well what I can’t understand is how can people actually accept the last 3 Bond movies ( I thought they were rather boring and lacked enough action….in the age of super technology which is a pity) and not accept On her majesty’s secret service.