Before the beginning of a new cinema season, Mohamed El-Assyouti rounds up major hits and misses of summer flicks -- some of which are still on show until the end of Ramadan The film noir formula -- urban heroics, dynamic picture and breathtaking pace -- has overtaken the local projectors this summer. The trouble is Hollywood has recycled the genre so consistently over the last two decades, that even there, where it is properly funded and skilfully made, it no longer holds much credibility. Transferred to the local scene -- this means both a lower budget and lesser technique -- the films amount to little more than an excuse to introduce stars, a process that implicitly involves declaring other stars dead. Sandra Nashaat's Malaki Iskendriya (Alexandria Private) and Ahmed Saleh's debut, Harb Ataliya (Italy's War) are examples of this. Both feature action heroes playing lawyers who start an investigation, only to unravel a series of crimes -- a character that was played by Denzil Washington and Tom Cruise in the film versions of John Grisham bestsellers, but also by Richard Gere and Harrison Ford. However, the Nashaat and Saleh films fail to live up to their standard. Still, they demonstrate a somewhat deeper interest in their material than the action-for-action's-sake genre. They self-consciously emphasise narrative and plot twists over sheer muscle, adhering to a tightly constructed script. And this in itself is a step in the right direction, for recent action films, have depended as much on improvisation as on the script to fill screen time. Comedies do the same. Hareem Kareem (Kareem's Harem), though a comedy intended as a vehicle for its singer star Mustafa Qamar, provides a glimmer of hope by offering an insight into the position of women in today's Egypt, thanks largely to Zeinab Aziz's screenplay. All three films testify against the tendency to ignore the fact that screenwriters are not a luxury but a necessity in any self-respecting film industry. They fared well at the box office, with Harb Ataliya reinforcing the action-star status of Ahmed El-Saqaa (having reached LE13 million so far, it promises to set a record for the actor), Malaki Iskendriya withdrawing at LE10 million and Hareem Kareem exceeding LE7million, and still running. On a different front, two newcomers to the silver screen have proved welcome from the viewpoint of the box office. Singer Tamer Hosni as Sayed the Sentimental in Sayed El-Atifi, a very underwritten screenplay by Bilal Fadl directed by his collaborator Ali Ragab, managed to reach the wider audience of the music video, a feat aided by the appearance of the pop star in person at select screenings. This said, Sayed El-Atifi is probably among the worst of the new-wave comedies of the last few years. On the other hand pop singer Hamada Hilal's debut Iyal Habiba (Loverboys), directed by producer Magdi El-Hawwari and co-starring his wife Ghada Adel, appealed to a teenage audience that could identify with Hilal's baby face; the star's general demeanour and limited intelligence seems to have filled a vacant space in starland. Sayed El-Atifi stopped after gleaning LE10 million, while Iyal Habiba is running for its second month now, having grossed over LE7 million. Starring in the action film Ahlam Umrina (Our Life's Dreams), the debut of music video director Osman Abu Laban, Mustafa Shaaban made a career advancement this summer. Having played the lead in director Mohamed Abu Seif's social dramas Al-Naama Wal Tawwous (The Ostrich and the Peacock) and Khali Al-Dimagh Sahi (Keep the Head Awake), Shaaban did not draw attention to himself until he co-starred with Ahmed El-Saqaa in the action flick Mafia, directed by Sherif Arafa -- a major box-office improvement. Positive, too, was the latest development in comedian Ahmed Adam's career, whose fortunes seem to be smiling at long last. His film Maalish Ihna Binitbahdil (Sorry, We're Being Humiliated) persevered for weeks on several screens. Written by satirist Youssef Maati and directed by Sherif Mandour, the film exploits Adam's TV-show peasant character, El-Qarmouti, who exaggerates his connections and achievements, setting the events of the film in present-day Iraq -- an opportunity to bring George Bush, Saddam Hussein and Kofi Annan in contact with the comedian. In the last two decades pop star Hakeem was better recognised as a shaabi (urban folk) singer -- with a predominantly working-class audience base. Having acquired a middle-class audience, more recently, this summer he made his biggest booboo to date with Ali Spicy, a Bilal Fadl script directed by the most prolific of the new-wave comedy directors, Mohamed El-Naggar, and produced by no other than Al-Sharika Al-Arabiya lil-Intag (The Arab Company for Production), whose first two productions -- Osama Fawzi's Bahib Al-Sima (I Love Cinema) and Hani Khalifa's Sahar Al-Layali (Night Vigil) -- had their release dates delayed four and three years, respectively. Among the best recent films, the company deemed them both unsuitable for the Egyptian market. On the other hand, Hakeem's film, which the company whole-heartedly backed, had completely disappeared within a week of its release -- despite an extensive promotion campaign that included the opening of Cairo's most recent cinema mutliplex at the Nile City Towers on the Corniche. The shopping mall audience rejected the shaabi singer, even though it flocked to Hamada Hilal and Tamer Hosni, though as singers their sound is remarkably similar to Hakeem's. Perhaps it was the latter's older age that put him at a disadvantage, in the final analysis. For the fourth year in a row comedian Mohamed Saad's summer film crossed the LE20 million barrier at the box office -- over LE24 million and promising to repeat his 2002 Al-Limbi record of LE25 million. Booha, directed by Rami Imam, establishes Saad as the safest bet in new-wave comedy. Likewise, for the third year in a row, veteran actor Adel Imam surpassed the LE15 million barrier, making him the second safest investment. In Al-Sifara fil Imara (The Embassy in the Building), he returns to comedy with a political statement -- opposing normalisation with Israel. Directed by Amr Arafa, Al-Sifara's screenplay was written by Youssef Maati, author of Imam's last two successful comedies, which marked his return to box office competition. Finally, new-wave comedy hero Mohamed Heneidi, whose first two films set a record of LE25 million, failed for the third year in a row to make any box-office progress. Despite being released earlier in the summer than either Saad's or Imam's, Heneidi's Yana ya Khalti (Either Me or My Aunt), written by Ahmed Abdallah and directed by Said Hamed, barely crossed the LE10 million barrier. Despite his secure star status, the competition was tough for Heneidi, whose position at the top of the box office grosses was first overtaken by the late Alaa Walieddin in 1999 and 2000, then by Mohamed Saad since 2002. Hamada Yilaab (Hamada Plays) and Al-Hassa Al-Sabiaa (The Seventh Sense) -- the former directed by new-wave comedies regular Said Hamed and the latter being the directorial debut of Ahmed Mekki -- were attempts to make Ahmed Rizq and Ahmed El-Fishawi respectively into top box office names, but the efforts of both were in vain. Though they stayed for a few weeks each in some venues, still their revenues are not rewarding enough for producers to consider backing other films with either. However, this is the name of the game: since the three big producers monopolising the market are sharing both the loss and the profit of most of the summer releases, discovering the star potential of singers Hosni and Hilal was worth burning the Rizq and El-Fishawi cards. Star making is also star breaking.
