Faithfully Unfaithful TV Series

As I was zapping across various TV channels this morning, I came upon a clip by Elyssa on MTV Lebanon.
While the song was unsurprisingly bland, the clip was actually interesting to watch, yet as usual a few scenes into it, I had another House M.D Epiphany moment.

The clip which you can see below showed well acclaimed actor Youssef el Khal  carrying some paintings and struggling in a strong wind only to finally bump into expressionless ex-Miss Lebanese beauty-turned-actress Nadine Njeim (the now skinnier one: I can never tell them apart by their middle initials).



The action goes on with him helping her up to his place to fix her wounded leg as you can see on minute 0:51s onward. This OST (Original Sound Track) video clip is based on scenes from the series "لو" (translates to "what if") and although I have not seen any episode from the series this smells like another rip off from a major foreign production.

In this case, the movie plot that this series was taken from is the 2002 Hollywood remake of Claude Chabrol's iconic La Femme Infidèle, entitled "Unfaithful", starring Richard Gere, Diane Lane and Olivier Martinez. Instead of going on and on about it, I will just let you watch the movie trailer below.



Now there is nothing wrong with reprising a classic like Chabrol's but wouldn't it be a stronger selling line if the series was promoted as a remake of that classic movie?
I, for one, would have been at least interested in watching a bit to see how or if they pulled it off. But perhaps for local audiences such references are meaningless and pointless and do not add any value to the artwork nor to their desire to watch it. Put pretty faces on the screen, some will act some will not and the audience will applaud!

Live Die Repeat: Afterthoughts

Many of you who follow me on social media or read the blog know that I am quite passionate about movies. I watch a lot of movies, good or bad regardless of style unless it's a beautiful Italian movie that's been ripped off onto an egyptian version. As a techie (see I avoided using geek) sci-fi has always held a special place in my heart and when I got the chance to get a sneak peak at Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt's latest flick I didn't mind throwing a few elbows to make my way into the movie theater.

I don't want to go throw in any spoilers as most have not seen the movie yet, also since I strongly believe there is a special place in hell (or somewhere in Beirut Traffic, whichever comes first) for people who giveaway plot details. So here are my 2 cents on what I got to watch tonight.

This was an entertaining movie with some cool visual effects, acceptable plot line (with only one major hiccup), some curved balls that break away partially of the Hollywood stereotypes and the same action movie quality performance we have seen before from either star.

The hook, however is in the title and the trailer as you might have already seen it. The possibility of living, dying then repeating things has been toyed with for a while. The temporal loop has been explored before in many movies, my favorite being still "Ground Hog Day" (1993) with Bill Murray.

Although the comedy of Bill Murray does take a jab at analyzing life and exploring the intricate emotions that connect us humans, "Live Die Repeat - Edge of Tomorrow" takes a darker approach to this from the start by setting the action in the midst of war, where there are far worse odds to come up against than meeting Ned Ryerson.

This movie offered a nice trip into a darker future world where hope was scarce but human spirit prevailed but the roller coaster it took me on was not on the silver screen, it was mostly in the afterthoughts of "what if".
What if we were given to relive the same experiences and learn to correct mistakes?
What if we were not able to learn?
What if that was a punishment and not a blessing? I know a few people I would not want to be reliving the same day with and I am sure they feel the same.
But then again, if you really think about it, sometimes real life does need an undo button .