Sultan (Amir Karara) is a gangster who wants to leave the world of crime. But in movies, such characters fail to get out of their profession. They are always lured in with the promise of committing one last crime. Since Sultan is broke and has just been released from prison, his friend advises him to steal cash as well as a valuable statue for his retirement. And so, we get this Husain El-Minbawi film that jumps from one action scene to another. You don't watch Bogeyman for its, ahem, story. It relies on its lead actor and the comedy generated through the chaotic situations, and the characters. That comedy gives rise to mild chuckles whenever we see flashbacks involving Saadah (Mohamed Anwar) getting betrayed by Sultan. Here is a man who is burned, beaten, and crushed by a car. Yet, he miraculously makes it to the climax. Sultan's kid sees Sultan as a hero, but maybe he should consider Saadah a superhero.
Bogeyman, like Saadah, manages to hold itself for most of the time. Sure, the fight sequences could have used more creativity (the one that takes place at a birthday party is at least amusing), and the movie begins to drag by the time it reaches the finish line. But the actors are incredibly committed to the film. Karara lacks the comical touch that could have made his character more lively, though he compensates for it with his dominating physicality. Yasmine Sabri, as Salma, serves as an eye candy who is later turned into a cunning thief. Soka (Mohamed Abdel-Rahman), a man drowning in debt, gets smitten by her to the point that he receives sensuous shocks when she touches him. Abdel-Rahman doesn't exert himself to be funny. He delivers his lines casually, giving the impression that comedy comes to him naturally.
Bogeyman is not always entertaining, and there are moments when it merely looks noisy. It doesn't give you headaches or make you want to close Netflix, though you wish writer Ehab Blebel had come up with more good jokes, more delights. For a while, Bogeyman becomes almost insufferable when it reaches for sentimentality. Suddenly, we hear about a heart condition, and a little boy is quickly shifted to the hospital. It's all pukey. We see through the filmmaker's shallow intentions of adding "depth" to the material. Drama doesn't suit this film. When Sultan starts showing fatherly love to his kids at a birthday party, we don't entirely believe him because these new feelings come almost abruptly. The movie should have built up to this moment slowly.
Bogeyman, ultimately, remains okayish. I didn't mind watching it, and I am sure that within a few days, I will forget about it. It's harmless, tolerable, undemanding.
Final Score- [5.5/10]
Reviewed by - Vikas Yadav
Follow @vikasonorous on Twitter
Publisher at Midgard Times