A Hologram For The King [Blu-ray]

A great movie, very easy process from buying to watching.

Tom Hanks is great as always but nothing really happens in this film

Spending Several Years In The Middle East ( Including Saudi ) I Found This Film To Be Quite " Entertaining "Daily Life In The Kingdom Is Hard To Imagine For The Western World, And I Found The Film Pretty Spot-On With Poor Tom Hanks, Who Was Trying To Do Business Within The Country...Other Than The " Embassy Party" The Average Working Man In The Kingdom Never Comes Anywhere Near One Of These Gatherings ( They DO Occur ) But Scenes Such As The "Promise " To Return To Meet With Tom Never Happens, As The Gent Who Made The " Promise " Drive Off Into The Desert...In The Lobby Of A New Apartment Complex ( Not Completed ) There Is A " KFC " Sign...Tom Inquires About It, Only To Be Told " It's Just For Show - There's No KFC-And There Never Will Be "A Really Fine Film, But You Can Bet, Most People Will Still Think It's Fictional....Not So...

Must admit, i probably wouldn't have given the film a second glance but for the fact that much acclaimed actor'Tom Hanks' plays the lead role (He remains, in my view, one of the best around)The story tells of washed-up salesman 'Alan Clay' who's life had hit the buffers at home', losing his wife and home,now almost penniless...however he has a need to see that his daughter completes her education, which takesfinancial commitment.He is given one last chance to resurrect his career and financial well-being, he travels to Saudi-Arabia to sell aholographic-teleconferencing-system to the Saudi Government.....not only will he struggle with the culture andways of the Saudi's he'll find tat actually getting an audience to to be far more demonstrate the technology difficultand challenging than he could ever have imagined.Among the diverse characters he'll interact with 'Yousef' (Alexander Black) a Saudi taxi-driver who is assigned to'Alan' to get him to the places he needs to be.He also comes into contact with a local practitioner 'Zahra' (Sarita Choudhury) who he meets because of a healthissue, unexpectedly the two hit-it-off over a period of time.Will his business trip to the far-east be a success or will things just go from bad to worse for the struggling salesman ?An unusual film in truth though tinged with much humour which is brought to the screen by the skills of Tom Hanks'and the off-beat taxi-driver 'Yousef' in the main.Though never an Oscar contender the film is in my opinion worth a viewing - maybe one to catch on a movie-channel.Features -The making of 'A Hologram for the King'Image Gallery.

This movie caught me totally by surprise... I was expecting standard dramedy like hundreds of other movies Hollywood is churning out these days, but it's actually a little treat dealing with common themes of success, projecting an image towards others and interweaving it with story of human connection, love, and finding your purpose... Hanks is great as ever, and movie has beautiful scenery and number of small, intimate and poignant almost tender moments you can't find in aggressive world today... for all those who love sensitive dramas with touch of comedy - my heartfelt recommendation.

A Hanks fan, I was interested to find a film of his not yet seen by us. We won’t see it again. DVD sent to charity shop.No outstanding feature within, other than the size of the host country, and how much money can be wasted in the film industry.

Tom Hanks is a most engaging actor , together with a cast of others new to me he turns in a satisfyingfilm on a strange kind of subject..The viewer will be a bit intrigued by the plot , which it is safe to say will not make it to the Oscar ceremony.

It is about an American businessman played by Tom Hanks who is doing badly at home in the United States and who hopes to sell an advanced Information Technology product to the Saudis, but is beaten to it by the mainland Chinese who sell the same product on the basis that they can produce the product both quicker and more cheaply than the Americans, which is why he is out there in the first place because he used to sell bicycles back in the United States until his US company made the same bikes in China and saw the mainland Chinese set up a new company that copied his bikes and then sold the same-looking bikes much more cheaply than the Americans, which pushed the US company under.This is a strange film in that Tom Hanks gets sentimentally involved with a divorced middle-aged Saudi woman doctor in the Middle East who seems to have no qualms about showing her bare tits in public / on screen. Just on the bare tits alone the film has to lose a star, but the whole film is down market, shallow, and out-of-character for the top A-lister actor that Tom Hanks really is.A just about OK film that is highly unlikely to be watched multiple times by anybody.

Toute la description du produit est en français sur amazon, et il n’est pas noté que la langue française n’est pas disponible sur le blue ray!!!

Ennesimo buon film con Tom Hanks...ambientato a Dudai ..e zone degli Emirati Arabi Uniti.. Qui il nostro eroe si reca nel tentativo di rimettere in piedi la sua situazione finanziare ..dopo un divorzio disastroso..non tutto va come previsto..ma non tutto è perduto..buon cast.

Hank sempre bravo ma il film non mi ha preso

Perhaps because I lived and worked in Saudi Arabia for over five years, I viewed this movie from a different point of view. Because my wife and I had lived there we were very anxious to see this movie. It was a good movie and entertaining. Tom gave his usual excellent performance and it was an engaging story. As perplexing and frustrating as the movie makes working and living in Saudi Arabia seem the reality there is far worse. Let me say this. Once while we Americans and British were at work discussing our experience in Saudi Arabia we said it was this way. "Have you ever been in a bar and had a guy come in and describe his experiences living in a foreign country and when he left looked at each other and asked, 'Does he expect us to believe that $ # ! + ?' That's what will happen when we tell the truth about our experiences in a pub or bar in Manchester or Philadelphia after we leave." If you want to see a more accurate movie about the experience of working in Saudi Arabia then see "Human Cargo" starring Treat Williams.

Story(3)Das anspruchsvollste Film-Genre ist, meiner Meinung nach, die Komödie. Nichts ist so komplex, wie zu erreichen, dass etwas komisch oder humorvoll ist, ohne gleichzeitig albern oder deplatziert zu wirken.Der deutsche Regisseur Tom Tykwer hat viele Fähigkeiten, besitzt aber leider weder ein Gespür fürs richtige Timing, noch für Situationskomik. So kommt es in diesem Streifen, der eigentlich eine sehr tragische Geschichte einer Midlife-Crisis beschreibt, immer wieder zu hochnotpeinlichen Szenen. Die „Gags“ sind leider nicht nur peinlich, sondern vor allem auch in ihrem Timing schlecht.Die Story um Alan Clay ist äusserst skurril und dramatisch angelegt und hätte somit durchaus grosses Potential für Komik gehabt. Ich ertappte mich immer wieder dabei, wie ich dachte: Was hätten wohl Wes Anderson, Jim Jarmusch oder die Coen-Brüder aus diesem Stoff gemacht…Tom Hanks bemüht sich redlich, und ihm ist es schlussendlich auch zu verdanken, dass der Streifen nicht völlig versumpft.Richtig gut wird die Geschichte immer dann, wenn sie sich von der eigentlichen Haupthandlung entfernt. Wie zum Beispiel beim Besuch von Yousefs Familie und der nächtlichen Wolfsjagd.Solche Szenen sind aber leider sehr rar, und so bleiben vom Film nur die sehr schönen Landschaftsbilder und die Erkenntnis, dass sich Tom Tykwer offensichtlich keine Sekunde mit der gesellschaftspolitischen Seite Saudi-Arabiens auseinander gesetzt hat.Die sehr behäbige Geschichte bietet mir persönlich zu wenig Lichtblicke, als dass ich sie schlussendlich hätte geniessen können. Einfachste Unterhaltung mit schmalzig-kitschigem Schluss. Etwas mehr hätte den Zuschauern schon zugetraut werden dürfen…Bild (4)Das Bildseitenverhältnis liegt in 2.35:1 (21:9 – Neues CinemaScope (Panavision)) vor.Das Bild macht im Grossen und Ganzen einen sehr guten Eindruck. Die Schärfewerte halten sich, abgesehen von vereinzelten unscharfen Shots, auf einem ansprechenden Niveau. Die Farben wirken recht natürlich, bei Aussenaufnahmen zuweilen etwas überstrahlt.In dunklen Szenen wird das Bild etwas verschluckt. Der Schwarzwert ist zudem nicht ganz auf dem Stand einer aktuellen Produktion. Es ist ein leichtes, aber nicht störendes, Filmkorn zu sehen.Ton(3)Das Tonformat liegt in DTS-HD Master 5.1 vor.Theoretisch, bin ich versucht zu sagen, denn wirklich ausgereizt wird die 5.1-Abmischung weiss Gott nicht. Vielmehr ist die Tonumsetzung ausgesprochen frontlastig. Selbst beim Soundtrack kommen die hinteren Kanäle nur sehr zögerlich zum Einsatz. Bei Umgebungsgeräuschen bleiben sie grösstenteils völlig stumm.Die Dialoge sind jederzeit gut zu verstehen, und die Tonbalance ist ebenfalls gut ausgefallen.Die Tonumsetzung hat noch reichlich Luft nach oben, ist aber Genre-bedingt als gut zu bezeichnen.Extras (2)Es gibt ein etwas lieblos umgesetztes Making-of, ansonsten nichts Interessantes. Ein WendeCover ist vorhanden!Fazit: Obwohl ich sowohl skurrile Filme wie auch Tragikkomödien sehr mag, bin ich bei diesem Streifen nicht auf meine Kosten gekommen. Wem einfache Unterhaltung mit schönen Bildern reicht, könnte hier glücklich werden, alle anderen eher nicht. Von mir gibt es nur eine bedingte Empfehlung…