Growing up as an Egyptian, I watched a lot of movies, lots of which from Adel Imam whom I'm a fan of. Unfortunately, this entry disappoints and fails on many accounts.
The first half hour is typical of an Adel Imam film, a lot of sex jokes, normally he manages to make them funny, unfortunately there's more emphasis on sex here rather than jokes, it just wasn't funny.
The movie improves though when he gets to Egypt, there were some good jokes, but it all goes downhill when he find out that he lives next to the Israeli embassy.
Anyone familiar with Egyptian customs knows all about their conflict with Israel given their history and Muslim's general feelings towards Jews. That's the movies biggest fault, it's an anti Israeli propaganda film that's there to paint them in a negative light. As a Coptic Orthodox Christian, I'm neutral on the Egypt/Israel conflict. So I don't like seeing that in my entertainment.
It doesn't say anything profound or anything funny. The truth is this movie had a lot of potential to be funny, the scenario of an average Egyptian living next to an Israeli embassy given the animosity between the two cultures has comedic potential but it was discarded in favour of a mean spirited anti-Israel piece.
Thankfully his subsequent movies, Yacoubyan Apartment and Morgan Ahmed Morgan are much better films with his trademark humour. In fact, Hassan & Marcus, starring himself and Omar Sheriff, deals with a similar topic of prejudice between Egyptian groups, the Copts and Muslims, it's much better because it's not one sided, both the Muslim & Coptic characters are represented as people, and it's quite humorous at times, making the movie accessible despite the heavy topic. I recommend watching those and skipping this one.
The first half hour is typical of an Adel Imam film, a lot of sex jokes, normally he manages to make them funny, unfortunately there's more emphasis on sex here rather than jokes, it just wasn't funny.
The movie improves though when he gets to Egypt, there were some good jokes, but it all goes downhill when he find out that he lives next to the Israeli embassy.
Anyone familiar with Egyptian customs knows all about their conflict with Israel given their history and Muslim's general feelings towards Jews. That's the movies biggest fault, it's an anti Israeli propaganda film that's there to paint them in a negative light. As a Coptic Orthodox Christian, I'm neutral on the Egypt/Israel conflict. So I don't like seeing that in my entertainment.
It doesn't say anything profound or anything funny. The truth is this movie had a lot of potential to be funny, the scenario of an average Egyptian living next to an Israeli embassy given the animosity between the two cultures has comedic potential but it was discarded in favour of a mean spirited anti-Israel piece.
Thankfully his subsequent movies, Yacoubyan Apartment and Morgan Ahmed Morgan are much better films with his trademark humour. In fact, Hassan & Marcus, starring himself and Omar Sheriff, deals with a similar topic of prejudice between Egyptian groups, the Copts and Muslims, it's much better because it's not one sided, both the Muslim & Coptic characters are represented as people, and it's quite humorous at times, making the movie accessible despite the heavy topic. I recommend watching those and skipping this one.