A Hologram For The King

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.

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.

I bought this film because it was in a deal with another, better rated film that it in fact out shone. The story meanders pleasing in a country I am curious about but will never set foot in, telling an amusing tale of a man in an alien environment who finds comfort and happiness in places he would have thought unlikely before.Probably the only recent film set in the Middle East about people interacting, not fighting each other. It's an entertaining film I'm happy to have in my collection.

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.

Not one of Mr Hanks' better movies. It is well made and well acted although the story line is never absorbing and the end of the film is bizarre and unsatisfactory. The technical quality is very good and I imagine that the depiction of life in the middle East is probably about right as well.My wife and I are great fans of Mr Hanks' movies but this one is definitely one to keep in the cupboard until you find that there is nothing better to watch.