From A to B (2014) Reviews

• A fun Arabic style Roadtrip....

  tomas-112-5565572015-01-07

  We had last night been at the Advanced Screening of Ali F. Mostafa's Movie From A to B at the Vox Cinemas at the Yas Mall in Abu Dhabi. It was the first time for me to be at the Vox Cinemas in the Yas Mall and man was it an experience. The Movie itself is playing in the year 2011 when Omar finds himself still racked with the guilt over the death of his best friend Hady 5 years ago and whose girl he married which was the reason for the the stress they had. Just days away from the birth of his first child, he decides to take the road trip they never got to take and reaches out to his estranged high school friends Jay (Albutairi) and Ramy (Alfons) who have lost touch since Hady's death to take the road trip in his memory., much to the dismay of his pregnant wife. Jay, now a playboy / wannabe DJ, and Ramy, an #activist (with 737 twitter followers!), take some convincing, but finally agree to the trip. The boys decide to drive from Abu Dhabi – via Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and Syria to arrive in Beirut, on what would have been Hady's twenty-fifth birthday. Their journey is interesting and you will see quite some places you are familiar with in this flick which is pretty awesome. As well the scenery is partially amazing, specially Jordan. It made me feel during the movie already like "I wanna go there". The story is told interesting and despite the movie being mainly in Arabic I followed the subtitles well enough to get everything. The movie did not bore me for even a minute. As a classic Roadtrip Movie with Arabic charm of course things have to go wrong during the trip and they do. A camel gets hit, they get arrested by the Police and so on. I don't want to take away to much of the story here but having as well some political influences about the war in Syria and the difficulties in Lebanon itself at that time is enriching the movie very well and I walked out of the Movie still thinking how horrible the situation in Syria must be. The Actors had been quite good and specially Fahad who plays Jay/Yousef was brilliant in my opinion and very entertaining. Overall it is an entertaining flick which is giving you a good time in the cinema. It is certainly worth watching and having a good time even if you do not speak native Arabic like me.

• Art for the Sake of Money

  loaker122015-01-28

  First of all, my English language is not good, so, I'm sorry if you find it hard to understand what I'm writing. The movie is a typical copy of American movies. When you watch the movie you will feel like they are not Muslims or Arabs because of the lack of Islamic and Arab traditional. The writer is trying to get rid of any kind of the society traditions. The director is coping other famous directors style. The language is very bad; using words like "s**t" and "holy s**t". Also, the Arab actors sometimes in the movie are talking in English with each other while they can speak in Arabic. Moreover the scene when Fahad "Jay" join the girl in the pool is showing the American affect of style of nudity. I know that some of the Arabs and Muslims did these sort of things, but movies supposed to show the world the reality of the society not the opposite. Finally I think the one who did the movie does not care about the art for the sake of art but art for the sake of money.

• an interesting off the road trip

  t-cugia2015-01-26

  I won't go into the story to avoid spoilers and because the first reviewer did an excellent short summary. I thought at the beginning that it was going to be only a light "road movie" with some interesting irony and wit (especially the twitter activist character, and "eager to please" whereas towards the end there is some added thought and depth and this given the movie a new, and positive dimension. I found the acting generally good with some exceptions which are more average. Interesting to see how a moderate Arab country like the UAE perceives the divergent situations the Arab world is living in, and how distant lives in those countries can be. A fresh look at also how close our lifestyles are becoming worldwide (except where there is war).

• Average Story

  Bashour_ksa2014-10-31

  WARNING Spoiler Alert > I find the movie an average one. Not as I imagined it would be. I feel that they got inspired from "Due Date" movie and copied a lot of ideas and script. The whole movie is about going on a road trip to visit their friend's grave and when they finally made it..nothing really was interesting or making a sense happened. And as usual they added offensive scenes just to sell the movie which were against Islam and Arabs cultures but for them they will always defend its just a movie while a movie is really nothing but the ugly truth of those hypocrites. Anyway, I write a comment which was so polite and reflects my opinion on one of the actors in the movie, Fahad who immediately deleted it and blocked my account and this really shows how an amateur actor he is and will always be as long as he can not accept that there will always be different opinions and if he can't deal with it professionally he will keep taking things personally and forget the fact that thriving for fame is a long road surrounded by viewers support and if he thinks he can reach to fame alone then I advise him to be his only fan.

• Just one word... Cliché.

  a-alsuwaidi-172016-06-01

  I will give two stars for effort. The movie is cliché, its not new. Maybe its a new way of making "Arab" films, but the film itself is not new. Minus extreme sexual innuendos, remove the English language and you get A to B. A hard try to create an Emirati image in the Arab cinema, but blatantly struggles to be original. The only Emirati film I can fully recognize as a well thought and properly executed attempt was "Zinzana" (Rattle the Cage) by Majid Al Ansari. As an Emirati myself, I feel we should just make films for the sake of making them but for the sake of innovation. Its a sad attempt for Ali F. Mostafa, but my respects still for making a movie at all. Hats off to effort. But I'd like my money back.