Review - Al-Hijab

To be honest, I have no idea what a Hijab is until I watched this movie. Or the trailer of this movie. But I have known the concept of it all before.

Unfortunately, the Hijab in question did not came about until one third of the movie... and then, after the hijab thing happened, it came into play quite late in the game as well...

Anyway, this movie is Pierre Andre's baby... him, of the Seru and Jangan Pandang Belakang fame...

Actually, the storyline is a bit iffy... Rafael (played stiffly by Pierre) is an aspiring actor who finally gets a big break in the film industry. His first major movie role. In a horror movie. Unfortunately for him, he does not get easily spooked so naturally he turns to the hijab thing, which by the way, is the unseen veil covering our eyes from seeing the supernatural and the otherworldly.

Come on. Isn't it a wonder that your acting career kinda stalled? You. Just. Can't. Act. And I am not talking about Pierre Andre himself. Hmm, although, now that we're talking about it, he was quite stiff, especially in his scenes with Nur Fathia, who is a dead ringer for Ashley Tisdale. That's Sharpay Evans from the High School Musical trilogy, for those not in the know.

Back to the not being able to act. Seriously? You'd go for that kind of thing? You just cannot pretend to be scared of something? Do you need to see it up close and personal? Come on! Does not make sense. Unless you really are stiff like wood and cannot act. Again, I am talking about Rafael.

Since we're talking about acting, might as well start taking a swipe at the actors. As I've been alluding to, or kinda outrightly saying, Pierre Andre is quite stiff, and not the good kind. But not all of his scenes were stiff though. There were some subtle facial expressions that he did pull off but mostly, he was just stiff. Especially in his lovey dovey scenes with Ashley Tisdale...

Nur Fathia is not too bad here but when she's sharing the spotlight with Pierre, kinda falls flat... Maybe they both just don't have chemistry... Nur Albaniah fares a lot better in this movie. At least she played it with a bit more natural flair... and Maimun Talib, for the brief moments she was on the screen, was great. Her face has that naturally mean and strict look, but then again, her role was not really a stretch for anyone. Well, except maybe for Rafael. Ooh, burn! *sizzle sound*

Anywho, if you are watching this movie, and you are watching it carefully, you can totally see the dubbing work and it was sloppily done. Not sure where the blame lies. I really have to look into this. Is it the actors missing their marks and/or delivery? Is it the director who allowed the actors to miss their marks? Is it the editing people? Is it the dubbing people? Is it the producers? Who? Seriously. Who? Coz a lot of the Malay movies have horrendous dubbing work. But kudos though for the actors doing the dubbing. Their voice acting was kinda good. Unfortunately, the actual acting on screen was not up to par with the voice acting. Sigh.

Sounds like I am being overly negative yes? Dude. This movie was quite bad. From the horrendous dubbing, to the iffy-ness of the plot, to the corny-ness of the romantic scenes/dialogue, to the lame-ness of the script and the predictability of the ending, to the damn plotholes...

I mean, seriously... The opening of the movie? Had nothing to do with Hijabs at all... and I am not even sure what that was exactly. Was it a precursor to the movie that they were about to start filming? Coz immediately after the opening scene, we see a script with the title of Jalan Mati. But the opening scene had nothing to do with any dead ends. Sigh. I thought once Rafael got the hijab thingy done, then they would somehow refer to or tie in the opening scene to the entire movie but noooooooooooooo... nothing like that ever happened...

Don't even get me started on how Rafael was able to walk from a kampung back to the city, when clearly, it took him all day to drive from the city to the kampung. Not too mention him walking from the deserted building back to his house. And then the Audi car. He was supposed to get the car when he works for the future father-in-law but he was already driving it. Maybe he borrowed it. But he has his own ride...

And then, once he was hijab-ed, he did not get to see much of anything... but other people sees it hovering nearby him... which doesn't make sense much... coz he was supposed to be able to see, but was not supposed to attract those elements...

And then, when he could see the scariness... he turned down the lead in the movie... the only reason you went through that was to finally know what it takes to feel scared, to get a genuine reaction for the movie... but after you are able to do it for reals... you quit the movie... W. T. F. ?? That's 50K down the drain dude. Seriously? And a chance to work with Fazura. Seriously??

And... when your final redemption came around, we knew what was gonna happen... and we were right... and the reaction from Rafael was not of horror or even resigned to the fact you are stuck to that fate... it was more like he saw a box of gold bars or something to that effect... but that's just me being nitpicky...

Anyway, I do feel that Pierre Andre's work has been slipping... maybe he feels complacent with the successes of his horror flicks... I really don't know what's going on... but Jangan Pandang Belakang, for what it's worth, was quite okay and actually redefined the local horror genre...

That was RM18 down the drain... yup, I actually paid for Premiere Tickets... don't ask me why... if only there is a way to get a refund... I suppose I could just walk up to Pierre and demand my money back... like I was tempted to do with Prof Razak Mohaideen when I paid to watch Sifu & Tongga... but guess that would just be a fantasy... even the sight of Ashley Tisdale speaking Malay was not enough to cover the RM18... huhu...