Sorry, this movie sucks

Just perfect...

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

This movie was a interesting look into life in Cairo, Egypt during that time period. It portrayed a very diverse city and nation. The characters were wonderful although some of them seemed like stereotypes. I am not sure the movie went deep enough. The Christian Copts all seemed a bit money grubbing while Muslims were portrayed in a slightly more positive note. Some of the romantic scenes were enticing but I have to say that the presentation of the Gay character as a predator who obviously deserved the unhappy ending he gets at the end of the movie was disturbing. It is a bit the way homosexuals were presented in American cinema 25-50 years ago. On the other hand, an old charming straight man hits the jackpot at the end. Don't get me wrong. How things ended for the old straight guy was beautifully done. I just wondered why the Gay man was not given a better portrayal. Poorly done and too black and white for my tastes.

Imagine when the bestselling novel(Alaa el Aswany's Yacoubian Building) in the middle east is made into a movieWith an adaptation made by "Wahid Hamed"(the best screen writer in Egypt), and starring actors like :Adel Imam, Nour el Sheriff, Yousra...etc. , And the rising director and highly recommended "Marwan Hamed" which was his first movie. And let us not forget the huge budget that was set for the movie(about 22 million Egyptian pounds). All those elements were gathered to present a movie that was supposed to be a worldwide award winning movie or let us say a highly artistic movie. Unfortunately that wasn't enough!, all what I've seen in this movie wasn't so special, nothing spectacular, although the issues this film dealt with were hot and controversial for the Arab world I felt nothing.The movie talks about Egypt in the 1990's through yacoubian building which was supposed to be luxurious building in the past and still until now but not as much as in the past where some characters whom you can really see in our society, like Zaki el Desouky who's a 60 year old playboy who lives in yacoubian building with his sister in the same apartment and they are always fighting and yelling each other, Zaki also misses how this country was clean and beautiful even more than European countries he is also astonished about what's going on in the society when El Haj Azzam who used to polish his shoes one day owns half of the stores in his neighborhood now and lives in the same building with him, and is a part of the Egyptian parliament!! While el Haj Azzam takes advantage of the economical situation of a young widow whom her husband died in Iraq and marries her secretly because of some sexual need, he also enters the parliament to protect his dirty business.We also see the homosexual editor in chief of a french newspaper in Egypt "Hatem Rashid" who seduces a villager soldier, we see how this guy lives secretly in a society that cannot bear such a direction and how he reacts towards teasing from others about his homosexuality and the huge guilt the villager soldier "Abd Rabbo" feels due to his religious beliefs.There's also "bousaina" who loves "Hassan" her neighbor and they cannot afford to get married, after the dreams of "Hassan" of becoming a Police officer were gone because of his social level, they separate and select different paths in life; he becomes a religious extremist and she uses her body to get what she needs in life. This is a brief summary of the movie which dealt with a lot of characters without you being really sympathized with them!, despite the good acting the movie needed better adaptation, you feel like it's talking about a lot of things but they don't really touch you, most people in Egypt were impressed by the sparkling names of actors and the controversial issue the movie failed to discuss, I think this movie was a heavy load for "Marwan Hamed" as his first experience he didn't show much of a special vision and couldn't manage the script his father wrote,other big names could have done this project and make a huge difference. watching this movie isn't a 100% bad idea it's a chance for those who don't know much about Egypt to take a look about what's happening in there but it will not satisfy them as a film.

I saw this one yesterday at the Stockholm Filmfestival.Nice try, but I didn't connect to any of the characters in this movie. They tried to make stories of different life-situations all connected to the same building. Some of these stories might have been interesting if done differently but they were actually just kind of boring. They tried to make some of the characters sympathetical but they weren't perceived as such, at least not by me. Some points in the movie were over exaggerated and some were not explained at all. one of the few movies I've seen that I actually didn't care at all how it ended. and that's not a very good sign... no, nice try but this one is a stinker./B

I just saw "The Yacoubian Building" last night. Let me first say that it was an ambitious, well-acted film . Ultimately, though, despite the three hours running time, I walked away unsatisfied, defeated by the film's ambition. In an effort to bring all the problems facing Egypt to light, the filmmaker has stretched himself too thin. Each of the topics addressed: the plight of women, homosexuality, corruption, fundamentalism, etc., could easily have been its own full-length film. I was particularly concerned with the fundamentalism segment of the movie. The character and his motivations were too undeveloped to understand his convictions and his actions, and I feel that it is irresponsible to release such a superficial overview to the West. I am worried that this portrayal may help cement some Westerners' anti-Arab view (while I understand that the intention was completely opposite). Overall, as mentioned earlier, I thought that this has the potential to be a fabulous series of movies, but all thrown together, it leaves something to be desired.