"Wlad Rizk 2" .. Do "Action" films always succeed?

On the Egyptian film scene, the poster of the film "Wad Rizk" is next to the poster of "Blue Elephant", intensifying the box office conflict between the two films, while Ahmed Helmy's "Fantasy of Matte" and "Treasure: Love and Destiny" stand in a slightly dark space . This is the case of the box office this season of Eid al-Adha films, and there is a clear change in the behavior of the viewer, who became more than once think and consult others before choosing the film to watch and spend money. But this season's films are a little different from the previous ones, because we are in front of other parts of films previously watched by the audience and tested its success and wants to complete with the story.

Black Earth returns

The cinema scene in Egypt is predominantly a state of art of a certain nature, which we can easily trace by showing the "movie genres" that have been at the forefront of the box office for quite some time now, and prevail here to win action films, as if Egyptian cinema is hungry for this type of film. In the past, Farid Shawky released the action films and monopolized them for himself. The third-class cinema fans have represented this type of film, which, through its long history in Egyptian cinema, proves the audience's fascination with it, and its passion to see his favorite hero triumph over the villain with a single punch, as if the punches paid by Farid Shawky , Or Ahmed Ezz, is the act that the viewer wants to do in his personal life, here, the public finds a special refuge in the body of the hero who defeats his enemies and chases them and escapes their conspiracies with skill and lightness.

The series "Wlad Rizk" regains that old spirit of action, which must be firmly on the scene, which is the same logic that director Tariq Al-Arian now sees the film industry and says that the audience is what we want now, and we - filmmakers - to attract audiences to enter the cinema [1 ] Because each artist has his own tools to address his audience, Arian likes to attract them the way he is fluent and inclined, namely Action, and heroes with us pause because they are at all levels "not perfect."

Wlad Rizk and the logic of the Bad Boys

The heroes of Walad Rizk are part of the “Heroes Cinema”, a cinematic term that we call non-idealistic heroes who commit crimes, yet they are dramatically admired and await in the end to triumph over their evil enemies even if this villain is the police themselves. . What is different about these heroes is that we - involuntarily - put them in the ranks of the good even if they are drug dealers or a mafia gang, but the game of intelligent writing makes you biased to them, such as our bias to the family of Don Corleone in the movie "Godfather" (Godfather), although they are a mafia gang Italian, like our bias to the four Rizk children, even though they are an outlaw gang, loot and steal in order to live and earn money.

Going back to the film "The Godfather," the first seed that binds the audience to the Coriglione family is the idea of ​​the family, the bonding between them and their devotion to the blood link. If a child falls into trouble, the whole family joins in for him and commits all crimes provided no one is harmed. The same is the case with the sons of Rizk, and the constant affirmation, even in the new part, that the bond of brothers is more important to them than anything, and that the decisions of the big brother "Reda / Ahmed Ezz" are not to be discussed, the brothers make their own law. On the other hand, these brothers are good-looking and constantly jokes, which makes them "close to the heart." When you see them in one of the scenes and have succeeded in stealing a commercial bank or jewelry shop you will rejoice for their victory despite your total rejection in the depths of this kind of crimes and others It is illegal and unlawful acts such as murder, drinking and sex.

"It is something closer to the idea and world of the spiritual father and the mafia, where we start from the family to come back to it, and where there is no success except in the group, led by the father, or his replacement and heir."

(Critic Mahmoud Abdel Shakour)

The old sauce

The writer Salah al-Juhaini defends the second part as completely different from the first part, says that the world of Rizk children differed, and we moved from crimes of the popular level to crimes in the halls of luxury palaces, and ambitions became precious, focusing their attention on jewelry belonging to the royal family and influential and millions of swindlers , This in the eyes of Juhayni President change in the new film. However, if we closely compare the construction of the script in both parts of the film, they follow the same approach, share the same complexities, crises, and plot twist as part of the dramatic construction, and also the happy ending itself, which may not matter to the makers for reasons we can explain now. .

"Sequel" films always face the crisis of mass success. Will the film succeed in its second, third or tenth part? Throughout a long history of part-time films, success is variable and unstable. Some fail publicly, or more precisely, not the first success itself, such as the Jaws, Rocky and Ocean's series. Some are getting more and more successful with every new part like Mission Impossible, and the only solution that ensures continuity. Success is to write in a safe space and follow the same dramatic construction style that the film has followed from the beginning and impressed the audience with the same rhythm and construction pattern, and with the same twisted plot if necessary, but without risking the development of characters or approach them for fear that the audience does not like change, Rizk children will remain Gang of brothers joining together without any trailing frills. But the filmmaker has to visually evolve and offer a different and more sophisticated level in action scenes, then the filmmakers ensure a safe success for a long series. This is the logic of director Tariq Al-Arian, but the audience will inevitably get bored if every time he is told the same story and told the same way.

On the other hand, the second part of "Wlad Rizk" distinguishes his crowd to more actors, and the crowd is also a magic mixture to help the film to accelerate its success, a secret characterized by the films of the collective championship, and throughout the film the audience is increasingly admired the glow of "Stars of Honor" It will be taken away by their appearance even if it is passing and ineffective in the course of events, such as the emergence of Ghada Adel, Iyad Nassar, Sawsan Badr, Asir Yassin, Yousra, Majid Al-Masri, and singer Asala. But did this crowd really do a good job?

Unfortunately, it was not very useful, certainly at the level of propaganda was good and successful, but, given the film from within, there are characters who will end up forgetting their presence by the end of the film, and perhaps you will not remember why it appeared from the ground up? Will omitting them affect the story? This is true of Nancy / Ghada Adel and Sakr / Iyad Nassar. If we remove their characters from the screenplay, they will not be disturbed at all. Rizk returned as black to the crime area. The details of the robbery carried out by the children of Rizk, which he tells since the beginning of the film (Atef / Ahmed Dawoud) to (Kamal / Khaled Al-Sawy), who kidnapped him as a hostage in the circumstances of another crime involving the latter with the children of Rizk, all these details are part of the trick of the children of Rizk Kamal, But it is purely the consumption of the same dramatic structure used in the first part without any attempt to innovate in the creation of a new sequence of events, or focus only on the circumstances of the kidnapping of Atef in particular without dumping in other events whose only purpose is to fascinate you visually despite disturbing the rhythm of the story that wants to tell you that Ould Rizk dodgers, which we do not need to be sure In the new film.

In addition to the mobilization of stars and dumping in action techniques, it affected the main heroes, and in writing, where the film witnessed a significant decline of the character of Ragab / Ahmed Al-Fishawi at the expense of the character of Atef / Ahmed Daoud, and Rabia / Amr Youssef continued on its previous area itself did not develop and did not retreat While the character of Ramadan / Karim Qasim seemed to be a compelled figure to talk and engage in dialogue only because he is brothers and difficult to abandon, but his dramatic role was not motivating events as before, Ramadan, who lost his eye and finger in the crime of settling accounts we witnessed in the first part of The film, didn't it make sense to see a change in the piss whoop? Or deter them for their crimes after what happened to him? But he showed only a shadow of his brothers and was only ridiculous.

On the other hand, Reda / Ahmed Ezz maintains the personality of the conservative leader on the family and its actions, and is the savior for them at the last moment, because he is the hero who holds the reins from the beginning, and must not diminish his luster or less balance between personalities, and this brings us back to the scenario He took in details and minor characters at the expense of his main characters who were not pushing events forward and did not develop logically and sufficiently.

Local action or importer?

In 1990, Tariq Al-Arian began his film-making career with the film "The Emperor", and the first work of the director inevitably puts us in front of the initial signs of his artistic tastes, and clearly we can explore Al-Arian through his first film, a preaching of the famous American film "Scar", starring Al Pacino and directed by Brian De Palma.

Egyptian cinema is used to the foreignization of foreign films, but the selection of Al-Arian to be the beginning of the movie with a famous action film to top the art scene, and starring Ahmed Zaki, is a sign tells us about his fascination with this genre (Action), which stopped at Farid Shawki and no longer accompany Egyptian cinema professionally while Achieves remarkable development in Hollywood cinema to this day. In an interview with the artist Mahmoud Hamida, he talks about his relationship with director Tarek El-Erian in "The Emperor," and said that the latter asked him to watch "Scarface" to present the same performance as the character played by Hamida in the film [2], this small detail confirms Al-Arian is also intrigued by the original film to the point where he is required to make an identical film, with the same elements and acting performance, as if he were importing an imported template and putting it in a different context, and he is required to succeed in his final art product, which we call in the sculpture.

Tariq Al-Arian takes on the idea of ​​industry, and declares that what distinguishes "Rizk II" is the evolution of the production process. Writing and Screenplay It did not develop much, only minor changes in the five main characters.

Although Blue Elephant achieved high revenues since its screening days before the Eid al-Adha season, the arrival of Ould Rizk II cinema theaters has now made it the first place in the daily box office revenues, bringing the total achieved in one week 49 million and 6,601 pounds [4]. This mass successful season puts us in front of a good situation in the Egyptian film industry, in which Action Cinema is successful in investing the success of previous films, a new recovery for the industry after years of stiffness and technical and artistic atrophy.