A Hologram for the King (2016)

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Simply Perfect

hyped garbage

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

11:23 of watching and there is a lot of wrong in this movie. Mostly cultural.

To summarize things, I am a huge Tom Hanks fan. I love to see his movies over and over. The Terminal (2004) - I don't know how many times I have seen that movie and even cried. But this particular movie also made me cry, because of the intense level of pain. Totally unexpected from Tom Hanks, that he will go through with such a character and a script. I have tried to watch this movie and for the first several attempts, I failed. The movie has no attraction points. There is almost no scene where you can get amazed and set yourself for the rest of the movie. Everything is so hazy and without any solid purpose.I will still be seeing more of Tom Hank's movies. But I don't expect him to work on such type of characters.

One of the worst movies I've ever seen. I felt so uncomfortable and even confused. Was I meant to care about this man? What might have been an interesting concept of culture clash and understanding was a disjointed piece of junk. So Americans and Europeans value alcohol and sex so much they're willing to break a country's laws and customs--but don't worry because there are cool Saudi Muslims there who wear weird clothes and speak funny--but hey! They like drinking booze, having casual sex, and cussing too! Aren't we all so similar?! Yeah! Either you're a frigging' loser or a frigging' jerk, see? It's a small world.

This movie comes close to hitting it out of the park. Alan Clay is a Willy Loman figure. He outsourced production of Schwinn, an American icon, to China and the company went under when the Chinese undercut Schwinn. Clay bitterly describes the result "all the bikes are the same, just different labels for different companies" and the Chinese of course can sell theirs for a fraction of what Schwinn does.Now he finds himself on a "do or die" mission for his current company. His job is to sell a holographic communications package to the Royal Family in Saudi Arabia.He has to negotiate a number of obstacles, both real and imaginary, to achieve his goal. There is a literal "monkey on his back" that represents his state in life. Once he gets rid of that the life he imagined comes back...or does it? Karma both gives and takes.Tighter editing would have made this a much better picture. Perhaps some voice-over dialogue from Clay to emphasize the Willy Loman in him. Flashbacks to the good ol' days when he was the king (of sales) himself.