basel-rafat Reviews

Don't Look Up (2021)

Could not finish this underdeveloped piece of film

[5/10 · 22 April 2022]

This is the worst kind of political satire, the politically correct one. You make fun of all the people and things that you(an averagely opinionated person) disagree with, ignoring all that you agree with.

However, that's not its only sin. Even with Heavy caliber actors like Jen Law and DiCaprio, this movie couldn't carry itself on the open seas. It lacks the consistent narrative that it sacrifices to drop allegories and similes between real life persons and the fictional characters we're watching. This has the writers manifesting their worst perceptions of certain people and putting them on paper then applying it in a Frankensteinian manner to a good movie idea.

The results is a disjointed series of scenes instead of an enjoyable movie, all the things in the writers' heads being shoved down our throats, and me losing my appetite for any entertainment for the day.

The Rookie (2018– )

Good until season 3

[8/10 · 3 December 2021]

Before you write this off as some hater, know that I'm a person of color. I appreciate the attempt at bringing real life issues into the show, but that does not forgive bad writing or a shove-it-down-your-throat attitude. Season 3 has so far been only about 2 things. Women suffering from men and people of color suffering from bad cops. There's no longer policing, there's no longer "The Rookie". This is another show, and it's the wrong show.

This used to be a goody-two-shoes comic relief police show with just enough drama to make us invested. That doesn't go with this. If you want to talk about these issues that deeply then make another show dedicated to them.

And if you wanted to simply give them an appearance in "The Rookie", then you could have done it more subtly and without simply pulling us out of the story and environment we were used to. For example, Officer Smitty would have been a good character to involve in the racism issues. He's a slacker, comic-relief, but what if we show him when he feels endangered, because of a person of color who doesn't show any cause for danger? That could have been a good tip of the hat towards the issue, and showing it through a character we're familiar with.

One other thing is the death of logic in this third season.

SPOILERS IN THE NEXT LINE. (Check below for Spoiler end and start reading there to avoid season 3 spoilers)

The fact that Jackson's TO would be this stupid when he has the IA commander's son as a boot just doesn't make sense. And if he's as smart and cautious about his racism as they make him out to be, he'd have actually acted like a goody-two-shoes in front of Jackson, which the latter could have noticed and created another plotline about that, but we're past that now.

SPOILER END.

At the moment, I'm conflicted about even finish season 3, I'm at episode 5, and frankly I don't want to watch it. I just want this whole mess over with and for us to get back to the story of The Rookie.

Chicago P.D.: What Do You Do (2015) Season 2, Episode 15

Well-made piece

[10/10 · 20 May 2020]

It takes a bit of suspension of disbelief to get past the beginning of this episode's suspense, but it props itself up eventually with a gritty approach that connects us deeply to two beat cops we only took as side characters so far.

Sheikh Jackson (2017)

I'd pay to watch it again

[9/10 · 12 October 2017]

Since I started watching movies when I was 10 years old, I've kept a collection of movies on my hard drive. Each movie I loved or thought was worth my time, I'd add to my hard drive. The list is almost at 25 movies now, and today, Sheikh Jackson earned a spot on it. The first non-English movie to enter that list so far.

I can't promise anything but I'll try to keep the spoilers minor in what's to come.

We start our journey with our Sheikh(who has no first name as far ahead as the mid-end of the movie) in a dream. Basically, a dream that paints us half the picture of our protagonist. He fears death, not only because it's, you know, Death, but because it means that his chance to improve his good-standing with god is gone. And so we start at the depth of our character and continue exploring it outwards.

Later, we get to catch glimpses of his childhood, and adolescence. Both well-acted and well-written. We witness the emotional traumas he goes through during these periods and how they made him what he is today. El-Kedwany plays a master-class part in portraying the child and adolescent Sheikh's father. He joins both abusive and preaching characteristics in a well-developed character.

To steer off giving any major spoilers, of what I think is a movie not just about a story or some events, I will just give a final opinion of what I saw the main character as. He is a very religious man, though not a fanatic. A good man, albeit flawed and haunted. A sad man, an imprisoned man, although with no warden but himself.