Shitty movies that shouldn't even exist...

So by now it's obvious that I'm into B- horror movies and bad movies that they are good and entertaining to watch. But sometimes you will stumble on some movies that are simply bad, and at some point you'll have to ask yourself why were these movie made?? I just want my wasted hours back, fuck you for wasting my precious time. 

The Hoarder

Plot (IMDB): A young woman enters an underground storage facility, where she soon finds herself trapped and stalked by a killer.

I though that this might be an interesting film, reading the movie's plot made me think that this might be an entertaining movie but instead this ended being a hell of mess. The acting is just terrible, as if the ''actors'' just wanted to wrap this shit up, take their and call it a day. The script is so poor and by god the ''killings?'' are so poorly done. I don't want to spoil the movie but that ending was a hell of an epic fail, but seeing Andrew Buckley running like an idiot was the highlight of the movie. 

Agoraphobia

Plot (IMDB):: An agoraphobic inherits her father's house in a remote part of the Florida Keys. When weird things start happening, she discovers that there's something far more terrifying trapped inside the house with her.

Seeing Tony Todd on the poster made me want to see this movie so fuck you movie for deceiving me. They just threw his name in to attract people to see this shitfest. The movie's biggest problem is that it's deceiving and nothing really happens, by god this is a hell of a boring film. The movie was supposed to be a supernatural horror movie but it ended up being a soap opera that happens to involve a ghost in it. Even the ''scary'' parts are so meh and forgettable. Fuck you again for putting Tony Todd on the poster.

Echoes 

Plot (Rotten Tomatoes):Struggling with horrifying, sleep-paralysis induced visions, a young writer retreats with her boyfriend to an isolated desert house. As the visions intensify, she finds herself on the verge of losing her mind...or uncovering a life-threatening secret

While the acting and the direction are good and Kate French did a solid job but the script and the plot are really weak and made watching paint dry and far more interesting idea than seeing this movie. I don't know what happened but the sleep paralysis idea was really interesting until they threw in the ghost thing which wasn't really necessary. This really pissed me off because the locations were really interesting, so bad they were wasted on this snorefest. 

V/H/S Viral

While the first movie had some interesting ideas and the second one was a masterpiece, the third one was a big pile of shit. I'm not sure what were they thinking while making this movie but by god the whole thing was just awful. It's one of those ''Hey we need a sequel'' type of movies. It's a shame that such a great series ended in a such shitty way. 

A nightmare on elm street (2010)

I really don't know why did they want to remake this movie?? In an age that is full meaningless  remakes and reboots this is worst of them all. Unlike Rob Zombie's Halloween in which he tried to put his own touch on the movie, this one here fails to justify it's existence. Even with a higher budget than the old one, it fails in bringing the magic that Wes Craven brought in the original movie. The movie is so bland, generic and mediocre at its best, in other words we didn't need a nightmare on elm street remake. Fuck you for doing this to such a great series. 

Shit to watch on Halloween

So Halloween is on its way and as you know, when it come to Halloween, horror movies are a must. So I decided to write a list of horror movies that I like, and no this list won't contain movies like Saw and Halloween because you already know them. Lets try to dig deeper in the B movies territory. 

 V/H/S 2

Plot (FROM IMDB): Searching for a missing student, two private investigators break into his house and find collection of VHS tapes. Viewing the horrific contents of each cassette, they realize there may be dark motives behind the student's disappearance.

While the first movie was good, VHS 2 is a masterpiece when it comes to found footage movies. The movie is more focused and it's full of holyshit moments and interesting ideas. The part that makes this movie a terrifying piece of art is ''safe haven'' brought to you by the crazy motherfucker behind ''The raid'' Gareth Evans. A hell of segment but this doesn't mean that the rest of the movie is bad, but this one here is a masterpiece by its own. 

Let us prey

Plot (FROM IMDB): Held in a remote police station, a mysterious stranger takes over the minds and souls of everyone inside.

Who knew that the Irish could make such amazing movie. This movie made me want to discover more movies made by the Irish film council and by god did I  discover some amazing shit. This movie is really twisted, and has old school elements to it. It's sad that such movies don't take their chances compared to other shitty movies. 

From Beyond 

Plot (FROM IMDB): A group of scientists have developed the Resonator, a machine which allows whoever is within range to see beyond normal perceptible reality. But when the experiment succeeds, they are immediately attacked by terrible life forms.

Such an underrated movie!! From the mastermind behind the Re-animator, Stuart Gordon. The thing that makes this a great movie is the fact that it's taken from a short story written by the lunatic H.P Lovecraft.  The 80s is full of underrated treasures and when it comes to B- movies this is a must see movie. 

You are next

Plot (FROM IMDB): When the Davison family comes under attack during their wedding anniversary getaway, the gang of mysterious killers soon learns that one of the victims harbors a secret talent for fighting back.

Mixing black humor with gore is a great idea that added a lot to the home invasion genre. The movie is smart and full of interesting twists. Sharni Vinson is the best thing of the movie, till now this is one of my favourite home invasion movies. 

Spring 

Plot (FROM IMDB): A young man in a personal tailspin flees the US to Italy, where he sparks up a romance with a woman harboring a dark, primordial secret.

A mix between horror and romance, this movie is surreal and one of the best movies that came out in 2015. I really don't know how to describe this but if you are into fresh and somewhat out of the box ideas then this movie is for you. 

The Canal

Plot (FROM IMDB): Film archivist David (Rupert Evans) has been having a rough time lately, as he suspects that his wife Alice (Hannah Hoekstra) has been cheating on him with Alex (Carl Shaaban), one of her work clients. This stress is compounded when David's work partner Claire (Antonia Campbell-Hughes) gives him a reel of to-be-archived footage that shows that his house was the setting for a brutal murder in 1902.

Let's wrap this up with another Irish movie. Ivan managed to create a hunting and creepy atmosphere with a really twisty ending. This movie isn't for everyone because of it's slow build up. The movie is more atmospheric than depending on jump scares, the director managed to create a grim atmosphere with the location and manged to make me glued to my seat until the end. 

So that's it for now, there are more movies on my mind but that's it for now, hope you enjoy these movie and happy HALLOWEEN.... 

Dark Places... Dark, twisted and a true page turner....

Candles glow on alters bare
a virgin's death is needed there
sacrifice to Lucifer my master
bring the calico raise the knife
welcome to my sacrifice
plunge the dagger in her breast
I insist
S.A.C.R.I.F.I.C.E.
limbs weaken life flies away demons rejoice
sacrifice, sacrifice, name your price, sacrifice

- Venom, Sacrifice

It's been a while since I've read something that interesting, by God, Gillian Flynn is a genius!! Gone girl is a good book but this one here is epic by all means. The book had it all, fucked up people, metal, satanic rituals, a hell of an ending and a somewhat hopeful message about starting over or whatever. So lets review this book, and I'll try to be brief.

1- Let's discuss our main character, Libby Day. At first, I hated her, but as I went through the book I realised that her character is really complicated and well developed in a way that at some point you'll have to feel sorry for her and I really wanted thing to end well for her. And that's a great thing about Flynn's characters are complicated and somewhat dark not one dimensional. 

2- What helped in making the Libby's character solid is the way the novel is written. You have three parallel narratives going on, one by libby in the present and the other two are by Ben and their mother back in 1985. This made the mystery more engaging and thrilling. 

3- The idea of guilt and second chances and I really do think that this was the novels' main theme. What if after more than 20 years you found out that you may have falsely accused your brother of murdering your entire family but even he doesn't want to talk to save his ass. The novel does a great job in mirroring Libby's feelings towards her brother plus here the thing, at some point you'll ask yourself do they (Ben and Libby) deserve second chances?? and Did Billy do it?? If not, then Libby had to deal with the guilt of imprisoning her own flesh and blood if not then she'll at least know what really happened. I really liked the transition that happened to Libby from trying to find answers to earn some cash to actually trying to find the truth to what happened to her family. 

4- The novel also sheds some light on the whole satanic worship thing that took part in the 80s and how people were freaked out. Ben's character was really complicated and he felt neglected and confused. (spoiler alert) The whole worshiping Satan thing was just a phase, a trend, bullshit in other words. Ben and his friends were a group of confused teenagers who wanted to feel that they belonged to something especially Ben. The whole they worship satan thing was really old, even Led Zeppelin were accused of being satanists. Heck, in Norway, the whole satanic thing was cool a whole genre was built on it aka Black Metal. And as great and artistic Black metal is, it got famous because of the bullshit and urban legends surrounding it. Burning churches was the cool thing back in the days but after moving on, most of those so called satanists were doing the whole thing to gain interest and create some sort of an image, the shock value in other words. The whole satanism thing is really complicated, there are books and documentaries about this, I might discuss this in another time.

5- I'm planning to see the movie to see how did they make this complicated novel to the big screen. The novel is really juicy, the characters are complicated and not one dimensional, the ending is a bit shocking and how Flynn kept adding layers to the story, giving you more stuff to think about and try to find out who killed the days makes this book a hell of a read. Give it a try...... 

  

Fantastic four---- When normal failure isn't enough,,,

What started as a promising and interesting movie, ended into something that only would come from the asylum not fox...

When I went to see the movie, I knew all the bad buzz the surrounded the movie so I wasn't really sure what to expect and till now I can't really figure out what to write because this movie is so marvelous on so many levels, I've never seen such a terrific way to kill and botch your own franchise. So I decided to split this up into two parts:

1- The good parts (the first part of the movie).

2- The bad parts (the final parts of the movie).

So what went right?? what made me think that this movie might not be as bad as people are saying??? 

The first part of the movie felt like as if Trank and co wanted to take this movie into a more sci-fi direction and It had this Nolan feeling into it, which was fine by me. We first get introduced to a younger version of Reed Richards and Ben Grim and how the became best friends and then we get to see them grow up and we find out that both of them succeeded in building a prototype teleporter that has the ability to transport stuff into another dimension, so far so good. Then we get introduced to Dr. Storm and his adopted daughter Sue after they find out about Reed's machine and it turns out that Dr. storm has been working on the same project but a bigger scale so he asks Reed to join him and try to make the machine work after years of failed attempts. Till now the plot was good and I had the feeling that this might pay off by the end. We then get introduced to the rest of the gang, Dr. Storm's son Johnny and the one and only Von Doom but lets talk about him later. The chemistry between those guys in the first part was really good plus the cast did their best into making us buy into these characters but before we reach into the next part of the story you could feel that a lot of stuff was edited out of the movie, you never got the chance to see what made those young people so special (Reed aside). And after re watching the trailers I do think that they took out a lot of essential parts might have helped us into understanding those young people and their gifts. So they finally manage to build the machine and went into the other dimension which had a bit of a cool design, before shit hit the fan and the whole place started to explode before they return back, leaving Von Doom behind and by god how brilliant and horrifying the whole scenes were. The whole accident thing was nicely shot and it was disturbing enough to make me feel how horrifying the whole accident was. It was scenes like this one that made me buy into the movie and like it for a bit. But the really, really disturbing and horrifying part was when then found out that the accident made then into freaks, when we got to see them after the accident, it had this horror movie feeling into it, it was so dark and grim and this when the movie stopped making any sense and started to lead into nothing. But till this point I was invested into the movie and I was expecting that all of this will lead to something. 

And then when we were about to see how will they adapt their new powers and how will they interact with each other as a unit, this happens:

This when I started to feel that I'm watching a whole new movie, because starting from here nothing really happens. But they started to show us that the military are using them and trying to figure out how to make more of them which is ok by but the thing is that this didn't lead to anything. They started to throw things at you like they started to know how to control their powers and that Reed is a total dick, speaking of, at some point you would expect him doing something which he was as he was trying to find a cure for his friends but finally the army decided to catch him and bring him back. Problem is that all of this happens so fast and the more the movie progresses the more you feel that there were huge changes were made. What's more frasturating is that when something starts to happen, it never really goes anywhere. Like there was this cool action scene in the woods between Reeds and the army but it ended so fast, like why???!!!!!!

So now we have the whole gang back together again and we're like an hour into the movie maybe?? an hour 10 minutes??? I don't know, but I started to ask myself if I was watching the same movie, may be I'm in the wrong theater??? And this is when I'll just stop talking about the movie and discuss something else, why the fuck did fox make this movie?? Having a melt down between a director and the studio isn't something new, heck, ant freaking man had some backstage issues and Marvel decided to bring a new director o board but at least Disney (marvel) had a vision. Disney wanted the movie to connect with the rest of Marvel's universe but Edgar Wright was like fuck you guys, I don't want to do that so Disney didn't really give a shit, brought a new director, rewrote some stuff and released the movie that they wanted to release. On the other hand, that second part of the movie showed that Fox didn't really have anything on their minds. So yeah, the guys at Fox didn't like Josh's version so what did Fox want to do?? I'm really sure that even if Trank's version wasn't that great (we'll never know) but at least the guy had a vision, he had something on his mind. But the guys at Fox didn't really care, they really didn't give a fuck so things like this for example slipped away:

A fucking wig in a 120 million dollars produced movie, the wig was so fake and obvious that I felt as if Fox was saying ''Fuck you'' to who ever went to see this movie. So if the studio it self didn't really give a damn about the movie, so why should the people?? But it was really obvious that Fox knew that the thing that they had in their hands was so shitty and horrific that even the cast didn't see the movie till it was released. And by god, the god awful climax!! When doom came out of no where and added him to mix he did have some cool stuff like making people's heads explode and shit but he didn't really use his powers in the final scenes, fuck, the finished the guy off in 10 fucking minutes!! 10 freaking minutes!!! The climax, the movie's most important (and only) real action scene started and ended in 10 freaking minutes. The F4 destroyed their emo arch nemesis in 10 minutes and boy did they ruin Doom's character to the point that I really didn't give a single fuck when he appeared, I was like ''Is he in the movie?!''. 

Here is a quote that I really liked from a review:

''If “Victor Domashev” was even remotely interesting at one point, these cuts and changes have removed every aspect of his personality. All that’s left is a one-dimensional psycho that still doesn’t look or act like the traditional Doctor Doom''.

Read More: Everything That Was Cut From ‘Fantastic Four’ Before Its Release | http://screencrush.com/fantastic-four-trailer-scenes-cut-from-movie/?trackback=tsmclip

Doom's character suffered from the re-shoots and the rewritings to a point that   his character didn't make any sense. And that laughable fighting scream was so bland, so green screened, so shitty that even the cast didn't give a single fuck, you could see how flat they were. Plus, you will really have to ask yourself why are the even fighting?? Why are they together?? The f4 didn't really interact with each other for like half the movie, the whole thing had this big MEH feeling into it. After that horrific scene you'll have to ask yourself about the stuff that we saw in the trailers, It's like ordering a big mac only to receive a happy meal instead. If you are interested, here are some of the scenes and stuff that didn't make it to the final version of the movie:

http://screencrush.com/fantastic-four-trailer-scenes-cut-from-movie/

And then after this grimness, darkness and Meh , the movie turned into some sort of a parody or a campy 1960s movie. Those final scenes feel like as if they were shooting another movie, not the one that we were watching!! It's a shame to see such a talented cast getting wasted in such a terrible excuse of a movie. It's a shame to see Josh Trank getting fucked that way and by god it's a shame to see that the backstage drama is more interesting than the movie it self, It's a sad movie, a really sad one and I really want to see a director's cut to see where did Trank want to take this, but I guess this won't happen but at least the people said fuck you to Fox and decided to just skip the whole thing. If you really want to know the true meaning of epic fail then don't waste any time and go watch this, you will be amazed (Lol, it costed more than $120 million) ,,,, 

  

Beautiful Creatures movie,,, Underrated, campy and not twilight!!

Let's be clear, I love this movie and I really do think that it's one hell of an underrated adaptation!! And it's way better than stuff like Divergent and the god awful Twilight series, I was about to mention the mortal instruments then I remembered that no one bothered to go watch this shit. It might not be the best movie ever, or one of the best adaptations ever but its magic lays in its campiness, and yes the movie does have its faults but for me, this movies has its own charm that made me fall in love with it. 

The first thing that caught my attention are the two leads and by god I loved them!! They acted like normal teenagers, not too god damned depressed or too god damn bitchy, there was this balance that made them likable to me and taking the witch part away I at some point was like ''Well yeah, I can relate to this a bit!". I really do think that both Alice Englert & Alden Ehrenreich did a great job and were charming together, there was this chemistry that is missing from other movies like The mortal instruments. Plus I found Alden's (Ethan) character really interesting and not  one dimensional though he had issues . The thing with most YA movie adaptations is that some people think that every god damn novel should be turned into a movie, and the way the choices they make for these movies. 

Movies like The mortal instruments and the Divergent series are huge examples of those wrong choices like the cast members, the screenplays and those who were hired behind the chair to do the job. Choosing a director like Robert Schwentke was really odd and that's why Insurgent had this meh feeling to it, plus the way they translated the book into the big screen felt awkward as if the writers and screen players mashed things up so things didn't feel smooth or cohesive enough to make the movie interesting. Adapting books into a movies isn't an easy task and for a movie like Beatiful creatures I really do think that writer/director Robert Schwentke tried to bring something new to the table and give the film this campy feeling to it which is another problem that faces YA adaptations. It feels like those are behind these movies want to give you this serious tune even if the topic itself is ridiculous and stupid, or unrealistic. In the divergent series those who have read the book understand what led to creation of this version of Chicago and why are the divergents so special even if the whole conclusion is stupid but at least you understand but the movie really failed in making people getting invested in this weird ass society. The whole idea of fractions is tricky and you need a hell of a screenwriter and director to make the whole thing digestible for the viewer. The first Harry Potter made you get invested into the whole special boy thing and made the movie watchable for both parents and children and as our heroes grow up and so are the viewers and so for each new part the brought on a new director to take the movie to a new level and climax to make people stay hooked. Most YA movies fail to do that, most movies feel like ''meh'' wtf am I watching?! Why is a divergent so special ?? Why would someone go through all of this trouble to kill a couple of people?? A movie goer won't wait for the next movie to know so you have to make him hooked and want to know more, that's the whole thing, a movie isn't like a book and some books aren't adaptable. I guess that's what Beautiful creatures tried to do, make the movie a standalone thing that will hook the readers and the casual movie goer. Yeah, the movie did suffer from some plot holes and some weird ass reaction from our heroes and the CGI wasn't that epic and we can question the ending but this movie was brutally criticized and didn't get the chance to shine like other movies, I think this movie is way better than other adaptations like Twilight and COB. And you could feel that the cast were having fun in the movie especially Jeremy Irons and  Emma Thompson, boy, did they do a great job. That's the great thing about the movie, it had a nice cast, good direction, it felt different and the screen play was written in a good way. It may not be the perfect adaptation but by god it isn't a bad adaptation at all. 

Terminator Genesis,, A fun and entertaining movie that lost its sight..

I wanted to write an article about Paper town's and it's shocking box office performance but I decided to put that aside til I see the movie. Instead, I will talk about something else, Terminator genesis and the idea of rebooting or remaking every single movie franchise from the past. To be honest I was really looking forward to see this movie and finally I got the chance today after I decided to go to the cinema alone and give this movie a shot and see if it was worth the wait. I had fun watching movie and I was entertained but here is the thing that I asked my self after watching the movie, did they have to make this movie?? was it worth the existence?? Was it groundbreaking like the old ones?? 

The shitty parts 

The John Conner spoiler: 

Somehow, some where, some one though that spoiling the movie's biggest plot twist in the trailers and the movie's promotional posters was a really good idea!! Who the fuck does that?! For those who don't know, John Conner is supposed to be the man who saves humanity from the robot in the future, this time the team behind the movie decided to add a new twist and make Conner the bad guy and instead of keeping it as a surprise or a shock value they decided to throw it all away. So while I was watching the movie, I was just counting the minutes till they ''reveal'' the big twist, which ruined a huge part of the watching experience. 

Imagine that instead of watching star wars to find out that Darth is Luke's father, they give it all away in the trailers, that would have pissed a lot fans off.  

Lack of chemistry:

Arnold did a great job in the movie so let's put him aside for now. Now if you are a fan, you will know that Kyle Reese is supposed to save Sarah Conner's ass and bang her to bring John Conner to life so yeah he is an important part of the franchise. By god there was no chemistry between Emilia Clarke (Sarah) and Jay Courtney (Kyle Reese), we were supposed to care about them and wait for them to blend in and have some character development to make them fall in love but instead I just didn't give a fuck about whatever these two were doing, the chemistry wasn't there and the development between those two was nil to the point that when they kissed each other at the end of the movie you could feel how forced this whole scene is, heck the whole love thing felt forced. As if the whole thing happened because it should happen, the goddamn dude should fall in love with the goddamn heroine, even if there is no chemistry. 

Brain dead:

In order to revive the movie and work as if the last two squeals didn't exist a new plot line was needed and somehow they tried to tie Genesis with the first two movies and create a new timeline add some twists to the movie by going back and forth in time. The result was one confusing plot to follow and some big ass expressions about time travelling that at some point you'll have to ask yourself '' What the fuck is happening here??'' It was a lot to absorb and made the plot a bit confusing and hard for a lot of people to follow. I remember someone sitting behind me telling his friend how confused he was. They talked a lot about time travelling and shit and at some point I had this feeling that they wanted to follow interstellar's footsteps but in an inferior way. 

PG - 13

Terminator is supposed to be an R rated ruthless action film and that's the core of its fan base but in our case they decided to take the PG-13 route which watered down the whole movie and it might be a big reason for the backlash that it faced in the united but to be hones?? That wasn't a big problem, I didn't have a problem with this which takes me to the good parts of the movie:

The good parts

The John Conner twist

Some fans didn't like this but I loved it!! It brought a new element to the movie, what if the one who we considered the savior is now the bad guy?? What if he is now preparing to destroy humanity?? Turning Conner into the threat was a nice twist ruined by the trailers. Jason Clarke played a nice role here though I really did want to see more out of the evil Conner. 

Emilia Clarke

I really did like her and how she played the role. Unlike her wooden relation with Jay, she and Arnie did have a nice thing going on. I did like how she played a huge role in the movie and kicking some ass around.

Arnold VS Arnold 

The best part of the movie was seeing the old Arnold taking on the new one. A fight between the first terminator who was sent back in the 80s to destroy Sarah Conner vs the one who was sent to protect her. A holy shit moment in other words, it was one of the things that made me say on hell yeah I'm entertained. I got goosebumps when I saw this scene, It's the simplest things in life that makes you happy. And to be honest, Arnold is the best damn thing in the whole movie... 

And this guy:

The verdict 

Unlike a lot of people think, this movie is really entertaining. I had fun watching it, and I think the whole new timeline thing was smart but got lost with its confusing time travelling shit. By all means it's a fine squeal and this is it's biggest problem, it doesn't feel like a new movie that could start a new trilogy because it lacks what made the first two movies unique and groundbreaking. Watching this makes you feel that it was made to revive Arnold's career like what they did with rise of the machines and use the whole back to past trend that showered the market this summer. And if you guys are into the numbers you will find out that the last two Terminator movies revenues started to diminish and people were having enough so to bring those people back to watch the Terminator back to action again, the production team had to come up with something new like what Jurassic world did or the Mission impossible franchise is doing, and the tried to do so but it just didn't workout plus the marketing was terrible and made people stay away from the movie in the USA.Te movie is doing great in the overseas market. Thing is the movie didn't have what it takes to bring new fans on board especially that Arnold's star power isn't that strong anymore though he did a good job in the movie. They just didn't any strong faces to support the aging star. Jurassic World's Chris Pratt is on fire because of his last year's hit guardians of the galaxy so it made sense to make him the new face of the franchise, Terminator didn't do that especially it was released in a tough time especially with the surprising strong performance of Jurassic world. It was a fun and entertaining film that lacked what it takes to make it the next big thing. It felt more of a squeal more than a franchise starter with a good idea of a plot but got of hand and got really confusing and head scratching. Not the worst movie in the franchise, I like it, but I guess unless they find a miracle or something huge to add, we really don't need another sequel, though I will watch the new one if the decided to green light any squeals but this will depend on how it will perform overseas. Give it a try but don't take it seriously or don't expect another terminator 2...

#‎Lionesses‬: Women who inspire us (the unpublished article)

A month ago I took part in a competition to get a chance to work in a magazine. I won the first stage but lost in the semi finals, and boy was it ugly!! During the competition I had an article on my mind that I wanted to write if ever made it into the finals but since I failed to do so I decided to publish it here, on my blog,  since I can write anything here. Today's article won't be about books, instead it's going to be about women. 

But I won't talk about women in your good old stereotypical way, no I won't talk about boobs, how to deal with them as if they are some sort of third rated animal or whether or not the belong into the kitchen. No, I am going to talk about heroes or in our case heroines.I talked about the fact that we might need good examples, bright ones to make us feel inspired so I'll talk to you guys about women who inspired me to do something or helped me at some point in my life. Some of these women might be a bit famous and some might be ordinary women who you meet everyday like your teacher (in a good way you perv), or may be a manager of yours or even your mum, so let's start the damn thing. 

1) Horrible bosses?? Nop,,,

I worked in 3 different places, two of them I was managed by women and by god they are two of the best people I've ever met in my life. The first one, I met her back in summer 2012 during my summer internship at a public institute. Thing about internships is that they suck and you get bored really fast because most of the time or at least here in Egypt the most exciting thing you will do is copying papers and discover how white the fluorescent lamps are. So I wasn't having any high expectations until I met my manager. She taught me a lot of things, new things that I didn't know. She promised me that by the end of the internship I will have new skills that I could add to my C.v so with her help I knew more about planning and new softwares that I had no idea how they worked.  She even let me help out in some of the institute's projects, I was so happy and excited that I stayed till the end of summer so thank you where ever you are.

Let's be honest, working in a retail is a shitty experience. You almost work everyday, you are underpaid, you deal with dickheads and don't forget the asshole aka the mystery shopper and as time goes by you die a little from the inside. But for me, there was always this light at the end of the tunnel. Imagine you arrive in the morning to find out that your boss is giving a hand and helping you with the display? This woman I'm talking about was more than a boss, I consider her a friend. If we wanted to discuss stuff like having other careers she won't act like a manger, instead she will act like a friend. I remember when she  encouraged me to buy a bike (ehich I eventually did) my mum was against the idea but my boss was like ''do it, you idiot!! don't waste time!!''>I also love the fact that every time I run she writes something to encourage me  and I won't forget that she was the only one at work who asked me about I did when I took part in my first half marathon a year ago and she was really excited for me and my friends. She also used to give us days off or vacations if we needed to do something besides work that might help us in the future. Believe me it is things like these that made me and my friends forget about the shit that we face and stay at work. 

2) Lionesses 

Back in 2012 I used to be fat, and I didn't like it. I wanted to change but I didn't know how but two things inspired me 1) Jessica Ennis and 2) Women's football. Women's football is an inspiration by itself. A lot of people used to make fun of women's football but nowadays women make people proud of their teams. England's women's football team managed to make people including me get excited for their country's team. People finally are proud of their team. They managed to win the bronze medal for the first time in their life and the first time England reached that high in a world cup (even the men's team couldn't do that with all of their money and fame). The English women team weren't household names but I bet your ass that they are now. Finally People started to give attention to women's football, people are actually proud of this team and what they did!! Even in the USA players like Alex Morgan are household names and helped to make football famous in the USA. THE USA team made me get into women's football in 2012 at the Olympics and I was in love but England's team made me proud, thank you ladies. You have to admit that these women are passionate and that's why people started to get behind them. The don't get paid much like the men, some of the women players don't have clubs to play for but I think they like what they do and they want women's football to be recognized me and for this you should feel inspired. 

3) the mysterious N

I love running, and I found out that Instagram is a great way to get inspiration. My friends don't run that much, fact is most of them aren't that active. But thanks to groups like Cairo runners I don't miss a run plus I lost weight but I've to thank the mysterious N for her help. I don't know her and she doesn't know me but I follow her account on instgram. She talks about her runs, her equipment, her recent achievement she might not be famous but I have to thank her for the boost that she gives to me before I run. You don't have to be famous to become a hero. 

As for my biggest inspiration, my mum, she did a lot to help me but an article won't be enough to describe how my mum played a huge role in my life. Thank you mum... 

Some people might not realize this but women play a huge part in our lives and it's a matter of time in countries like Egypt that people will start to realize that women deserve to be treated equally to men, that women don't have to end up getting married and having children. That women aren't about what they wear or how they look like. That women have the right to do the stuff that other men do like running without hearing shitty words from the passer bys, that they could walk safely in the street without being looked at as a way to satisfy sick sexual fantasies, I hope that I will be able to see this when I'm alive. But on the other hands some women should stop acting like victims and start doing something about it and as Pearl Jam said before:

The North is to South what the clock is to time
There's east and there's west and there's everywhere life
I know I was born and I know that I'll die
The in between is mine
I am mine

Time Remaining One Hour: Part I

Time Remaining One Hour

After Anna getting her french kiss with ST.Clair, I needed to get away from the world of YA for a while and continue exploring the great and magical world of Naguib Mahfouz. The first thing that caught my attention is the location of the story, Helwan (part of greater Cairo). Thing is according to Mahfouz's description, Helwan seems to be beautiful or used to be a beautiful and peaceful city.    

I've never been to Helwan before but I really do want to see the places that he described in the novel like the Japanese Garden. The author managed to describe the Egyptian society through 3 generations from the 1920s till the 1970s. So the 3 generations in the story represent the main ideas and ideologies that represented the Egyptian society and that's the great thing about this book, that Mahfouz managed to describe all of these ideas through this family, in other words, this family here represented the Egyptian society with its changes and evolution in the period between the 1920s till the Yom Kippur war. What's really frightening is that if you compare what happened in the novel and what's happening in the Egyptian society you'll realize that history does repeat it self. It's novels like that one that gives you true indications about history in general, as important history books are but things like cinema, songs and novels give you an idea of how the society looked like in the past. Our main character is an old woman called Sania and her sons, daughters and grandsons. At first, we get to see Sani's marriage to a nice guy called Hamid and how she overcame that she wasn't highly educated by reading and keeping an eye on the latest news and political developments. We then go to see her children as the grow up and everyone start their own political ideas and identity. The most notable case is Mohamed and his involvement with the Muslim brotherhood and as the novel goes by he starts to get deeper and deeper into the group and their ideas till he reaches the conclusion that Islam might be the real answer to Egypt's problems especially after the 1952 Coup. The MB were hopeful that Nasser's regime might give them the chance that they were waiting for and start to take a bigger part in the political life but Nasser eliminated them completely from the society and tore the group down leaving them broke, beaten but a bit more determined and Mahfouz put all of these elements into Mohamed. As much as I don't like the Muslim Brotherhood but Mohamed was a well written character that really loved his group and ideas more than anything else. 

Unlike Mohamed the rest of the family supported Nasser and what he stood for, and till now you will find those who believe in Nasserism as an ideology so in a way the novel describes how most Egyptian turned Nasser into a cult figure and an ideology more than a person. And that't what made the part about the 6 days was really important because it showed how much people were shocked when their idol suddenly fell down and that the strong and powerful leader clashed down. People believed Nasser and his media whrn they told the people that they were attacking Tel Av-iv instead Egyptians woke up in the morning to find out that Israel was in Egypt and defeated the Egyptian army in a humiliating way. As much humiliating the defeat was, what made things worse is how stunned and shocked people were as they saw how weak and unrealistic their leader was, Nasser was no god as people saw him. Thing is the 1967 defeat was so crucial and disastrous that till now you might feel its results, fact is it ended Nasser and his regime in the worst way possible. 

My dad once told me that finding out that the whole Nassersim thing was a big lie made me understand and get what did Mahfouz tried to say through his characters. The ones who were satisfied were the MBs or in our case Mohamed. Mohamed hated Nasser for what he did to him and his group and unlike the rest of the family who loved Nasser, Mohamed hated him and hated his ideas but didn't say this loudly to protect himself and family, it wasn't until Sadat;s era that the MBs started to get what they really want.  Nasser gave people high hopes but after 1967 people found out that they gained absolutely nothing and till now we are still suffering from Nasser's misjudgments. So did Mahfouz hate Nasser?? I don't know the guy but from his novels Mahfouz was really critical to Nasser and his era and I guess what he really hated is how people change their minds and tend to forget or in other words how hypocrite people are but lets talk about this in part 2...