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Ga'ana Al-Bayan Al-Tali (This Just In)
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Starring: Mohamed Heneidi, Hanan Turk
Directed by: Said Hamid
Click here for photos from the star-studded premier.
The cairolive.com rating: 6 (out of 10)
At the premier of the his new film Ga'ana Al-Bayan Al-Tali (This Just In), Mohanmed Heneidi appeared visibly nervous, and he had every right to be. This film would be the clincher. After rising to super-stardom with some of the highest grossing films in Egyptian history, Heneidi's last few efforts have been disappointments with much of the general public feeling they were seeing him playing re-hashes of the old Heneidi roles rather than offering hungry viewers anything new...
Here, with the help of budding scriptwriter Mohamed Amin, he attempts to do more.
For one thing, there's a story. It's about a boy who has always wanted to be a TV announcer. And he'll do anything to get to his goal. The first thing he tries to do is bribe his local parliamentarian with a support rally in exchange for a good word from the politico to the head of the station where he wants to work.
When that doesn't work he takes the test like everyone else, but as expected, only those with connections make the grade. Instead, he and co-star Hanan Turk are relegated to the under-belly of the news gathering process, mere desk jockeys.
Heneidi's character then tries to sweet-talk his bosses, which eventually works, and he is sent on a series of assignments as an announcer. He goes to cover the war in Chechnya, and a mixed up scene follows where his microphone becomes a torch after the place he's covering is bombed. He calls out for the Islamic world to take action. In the West Bank after being shot at by Israeli soldiers he actually picks up stones and joins the intifada. These scenes are unnecessary attempts to gain the audience's sympathy on political issues, and turn Heneidi into a hero, but they are far too superficially dealt with to have any such effect.
After a string of such actions that constantly get him in trouble with his superiors, Heneidi comes to realize that the only way he'll be allowed to succeed at his job is to sell his soul for success. That's when the movie starts to get good. The trouble is, the evil Heneidi is only given about twenty minutes or so of screen time before he wakes up and discovers his true nature as a good guy. The evil Heneidi should have been introduced earlier on in the film, and his realization of the error of his ways should have been done more subtly.
The evil Heneidi has no problems whatsoever becoming the enthusiastic pitch-man for Power Family milk. He plugs Power Family with a vengeance, becoming a star in the process. At one point Heneidi does a spoof of announcer Tarek Allam, and others of his ilk -- who end up plugging products at all costs -- offering prizes to the poor that are really just excuses for the company to appear as God's gift to the shaab. This makes for some of the film's most hilarious scenes, truly biting commentary on the victory of consumerism over the Egyptian psyche.
But overall, with the film trying to talk about this, as well as about a million other things as well, there are too many disparate messages and elements, to keep the audience truly interested. The film's themes are taken straight from the jaws of the media which it is trying to portray: it features corrupt parliamentarians, plays on people's fears of powdered milk and the US as an evil entity trying to ruin everything, porn videos being used to blackmail people, etc. But Heneidi's gung-ho form of investigative journalism is a distant dream in Egypt, something the film itself admits in its final sight gag.
As for Heneidi he shows he can act, but at the same time, it is unbelievable, for instance, that he has still not learned his lesson regarding singing in a movie. Here, again, he decides to do a song, and to make things worse, again, it's a song about becoming rich. That makes four such songs in a row: Ismailiya Rayih Gayy's Kamanana, Saidi Fil Gamaa Al-Amrikiya's Casualloo, Hamam fi Amsterdam's entire repertoire, and now this forgettable ditty about selling your principals for the sake of fame and money.
At one point he also decides to prove to his biggest competitor, and former partner in comedy, Alaa Walieddin, who successfully played his own mother in last year's Al-Nazer, that he can play a woman too. As a prostitute in a red dress, Heneidi does indeed do a good job.
Overall, the film is entertaining and Heneidi is fun to watch. He had one more chance, and though he doesn't blow us away with Ga'ana Al-Bayan Al-Tali, he doesn't send us packing for good as well.
Click here for photos from the star-studded premier.
Showing at:
Drive In, Geniena, Heliopolis, Karim, Roxy, Serag, Wonderland, Miami, Karim, Cosmos, Cairo Shaeraton, OG Maadi
Did you like this article? Send your comments to comments@cairolive.com
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