Café Transit (English Title: Border Café) was surprisingly better than I could have ever imagined. The acting was superb, the storyline was feverishly well-developed and the conflict was — for lack of a better term — simply gut-wrenching. All in all, the movie was tremendously entertaining.

“Its central theme is the role of women in male dominated societies. Its heroine, Reyhan, has just become a widow, with two small children to take care of. Her deceased husband’s brother, Nasser, offers (in the local tradition of that part of Iran) to look after her by taking her as his second wife. Reyhan, however, is an independent woman and, spurning Nasser’s offer, decides instead to re-open her husband’s unsuccessful diner. This puts her in direct competition with Nasser, who owns a much bigger and successful diner. As her diner gradually builds up a fervent following, the tension between her and Nasser rises; particularly when a Greek truck driver takes a liking to Reyhan” [corrosion-2, IMdB]

Overall, I definitely recommend this movie to all indie-loving aficionados. However, if you’re iffy about subtitles and prefer to watch The Rock or anything directed by Michael Bay — you might want to skip this one.

Adieu. Navid.

I think Peter Jackson definitely hit that ever so elusive balance. The movie was able to take the audience was happy to sad, to laughter, to sheer terror and all the way back to “Holy shit, no way! Did you just see him kick that dinosaur’s ass?!” Good stuff. Oh, and before I forget … I thought it was remarkable how much dialogue the Ape conveys throughout the movie without ever uttering a single comprehensible word.

Adieu. Navid.

I had a special day today. It was special because it’s not everyday you get to watch a movie which immediately falls into pretty much the number one spot of worst movies you have ever had to endure. But today was more than special, today I was inspired. I was inspired to start finishing my novel as soon as I could. I suppose sometimes it’s not the best things that inspire you, but rather, the worst. These past twenty-one years have been good to me and although I’ve watched my fair share of despicable, boring, formulaic, none sensual and simply terrible movies, there are few movies which are capable of conjuring all those negative emotions at once. Grabbing a hold of me from the very first scene and choking me lifeless until I lay there consciously stupefied as I walked dazed and confused passed the confession stand trying to figure out if there was anyway I could desperately not only get my two hours back but to purge the very existence of the motion picture from my feeble mind.

The Darkness (2002/2004) involves your typical haunted house which requires seven virgin children to be sacrificed for some odd-16th century satanic ritual. You know the usual. The cast includes the ragingly aggressive father, the peculiarly smart daughter who consistently unravels the truth regarding the spiritual realm, a strange son who is randomly beaten severely and the excessively uninvolved mother who simply patronized her smart daughter’s plea for help.

The days misfortune included, much against my own personal advice, literally throwing away two hours of my life to one of the most despicable, most formulaic, nonsensical, total waste of time movies I have ever watched in my entire life; without a doubt a true abomination. From the trailer, I knew this was going to be trash, but alas, “the crew” insisted that there were no lucrative alternatives and it was simply a matter of circumstance (read: time). And of course, every scary movie is required by law to contain that eerie bathtub/shower scene because it’s much scarier to die naked apparently.

Now, I’ve decided not to include spoilers, but should I complete my mission successfully, you shall be enlightened enough to refuse to never ever ever never ever never ever ever ever ever watch, let alone speak, utter or even think about The Darkness again. The Darkness embodies all that is wrong with Hollywood and Humanity.

Adieu. Navid.