Reviews

Kurak Gunler, which literally translates as "Arid Days" in Turkish, is an extraordinary psychological / political suspense movie that I watched without breathing from the very beginning to the last minute. If we can still be so deeply affected by the events that take place in this film despite all the shame and disgrace we have experienced in the last 20 years, it means there is still hope for this country.

The suspense continues until the end of the movie, also with the help of great soundtrack and perfect acting performances, especially by the talented young Turkish actor, sweet Selahattin Pasali.

My only disappointment about the movie was the end was not very hopeful, which we need more than ever nowadays...

I truly enjoyed this movie even though I am an atheist myself and I think such supernatural stories are total nonsense. Furthermore, I even sided with Father Moore and his female lawyer throughout the movie. The cast was superb including the ones playing small roles. I was especially impressed by Jennifer Carpenter who is playing Emily Rose in the movie. Her scenes were really scary even for someone like me who does not believe in things like demons and such. Laura Linney was also very credible as the ambitious lawyer. The atmosphere of the movie was also very well-made so as to possess the audience from the first minute to the end.

The movie should be called "Elvis reincarnated". Austin Butler is the greatest thing in the movie and undoubtedly deserves an Oscar prize. The movie itself is really good too, but I really did not like the story revolving too much around his manager, and showing Elvis as a his puppet, which I think is not true. Watching him on his famous live TV show I think Elvis was very intellectual, self confident man. Austin is so good that he didn't need even Tom hanks in this one. I'd rather they had concentrated on his affairs with Pricilla instead, maybe with a more famous actress playing the role for the sake of box office success. Still very good though. Do not miss it..

I remember how we rejoiced when a television was brought into our house, in almost the same years, when I was also around the age of Kahraman (the little boy in the movie) and we were living in a ghetto as poor as the one in the movie. One of those years I lost my elder sister in a traffic accident, who was going to primary school in a neighborhood on the opposite side of the highway, because there was no school in our newly "built" slum. I wasn't aware of the severeness of the tragedy because of my age but my "dear mother" suffered from that incident all her life. Thereby I witness the movie is so real, besides being one of the best drama movies of the movie industry - FYI, I don't only mean among the Turkish films.

It's been more than half an hour since I finished watching the movie and I still couldn't recover from the hole it opened in my soul. Very well knitted sad story of a father is being told along with great acting by talented Turkish actors. Well done guys. Very well done.

To my surprise I found out very recently that this average Turkish melodram has been so popular all the way in Papua New Guinea for decades, dubbed in English and screened under the title "Bobby in Teardrops" also know as Bobby Teardrops. The praising comments under the version published on Youtube is astonishing, some claiming it to be the best movie they ever watched. It is a typical version of Turkish "Yesilcam Sinema" of 1960's and 70's, about a woman who has been wrongly accused of cheating her husband. Actually we have thousands of movies like this produced in these years. It seems that we could have been competing with Hollywood if these movies had been dubbed in English properly at those years :).

Sener Sen is one of the most reputable actors of the Turkish movie industry since early 90's. Even though he was already famous as a comedy movie actor since mid 70's he became leading star in his own right in dramatic movies as well, starting with this one. This movie is a reverence to the golden period of the Turkish movie industry before mid 70's, known as Yesilcam. Most of the movies produced at those times were being misprized for being romance movie clichés. Yesilcam is the counterpart expression in place of "Hollywood" for the Turkish movie industry before 1980's; named after a small street in Beyoglu around which there used to be most of the movie production companies and café houses where co-actors and movie extras used to gather. The movie is about a director of those romance movies, who is now hopelessly trying to prove himself to the changing movie industry by trying to make a supposedly intellectual movie with a social message. Veteran actors of those times were also in the movie in their real life characters.

A tragic love affair between a poor, proud blacksmith and a small town girl who comes to Istanbul chasing her flighty elder sister. They are ready to sacrifice everything for the sake of it. Good acting and scenes for these times. Yilmaz Duru was one of the best actors of the 1960's Yesilcam movies, a name given to Turkish movie industry until 80's.

There are also documentary scenes from the 1963 Ankara Ulus plane crash in this black and white film.

I am happy to see that I can still be genuinely surprised while watching a thriller. This movie manages this very well, in addition to outstanding acting performances of the two leading actors. It is one of the best thriller & mystery movies I have seen in the last 4-5 years. It is a good movie regardless of the genre.

I won't say it is one of the best Turkish TV series I have watched simply because it is one of the best TV series I have watched regardless of the country of origin; even better than most revered American TV serials, in my honest opinion. Seriously, I am not saying it just because I am Turkish, even though I am proud that this masterpiece is a Turkish product, I must admit . Casting, acting, the script, screenplay, the atmosphere and its social messages are all so great. It is a venerable uprising against harassment, violence, sexual abuse directed towards women all over the world.

I just finished the last episode and i am literally shaking right now. I remember, the last time I felt this way was after watching Guillermo del Toro's El laberinto del Fauno (Pan's Labyrinth)

Bravo!

January 11th 2001 is a very special day in Turkey. In the evening of that day, the streets all over the country were completely empty when the final episode of Ikinci Bahar was being aired on a TV channel. The title of the series, "Ikinci Bahar" means "second spring", a term used for describing romantic affair between middle aged and mature people. It is the story of ordinary people taking place in traditional Samatya neighbourhood of Istanbul. The leading actors Turkan Soray and Sener Sen are the top stars of Turkish movie history, comparable to Elizabeth Taylor and Al Pacino.

A very cleverly done movie which can considered as the first of its kind, just like Blair Witch and Matrix.

It seems that some people did not understand what makes this movie different from the other social media crime movies. The movie is not about a crime committed over the internet. It is about the crime being solved over the internet. Not necessary to find a missing person, but almost all of us like to use internet to solve some kind of mysteries nowadays. We easily put ourselves in place of the protagonist, who is doing what we would have done. It makes you feel like you are a part of the movie.

Film adaptation of the popular musical theater play with identical name, "The Legend of Kesanli Ali" was written by famous Turkish playwright Haldun Taner (1915-1986). The original play had first been staged in 1964, the same year with the film. The story is taking place in the slums of 60's Istanbul, revolving around tough-guy Ali who gets out of prison thanks to a recent general amnesty. Ali has been wrongly accused of killing the uncle of the girl he truly loves. It satirizes the social and political situation of the country in a tragicomic way.

"To be champion means to keep running even when you know that you will lose someday."

One of the best Turkish movies of all time, one of the best movies of last decade in the whole world. It is full of emotion getting hold of you all through the movie so much so that you hardly realize when it comes to an end. It keeps you occupied another 2 hours after you leave the movie theater.

"Champion" is tour de force for Turkish film industry and it deserves international recognition. In fact, it can really be very successful abroad, if a good advertising campaign is carried out, at least in countries where Turkish TV serials are already popular.

It is a story revolving around Bold Pilot, a real life race horse which was very popular in 1990's Turkey. You don't have to be a fan of horses or horse races to enjoy this movie. It is a story of love, hope and solidarity against all odds. A story told in a very touchy way. It is the story of ordinary people who are left behind, but never give up fighting for a better life. It is a story of human beings. It is our story.

Oh well... I like quality thrillers and horror movies, even though I don't get excited with the ghost / possession stories anymore having seen so many of them already. Therefore I was not expecting much before I sat down to watch Hereditary. But it got full control of me after some 5-10 minutes past. The accident scene was one of the most socking movie moments of all time for me. I almost cried and it took me a while until I recovered myself from its psychological effect. Then, it went on very well with the help of great acting skills of all leading actors. I would definitely vote 10/10 for the movie if it had not been for the last 10 - 15 minutes - the final scenes of the movie. It was such a cliche, third class horror movie ending. It was truly disappointing for me. I think this could have been one of the all-time classic thriller movies otherwise.

I would like to emphasize once again the acting was superb. The young actor Alex Wolff was almost perfect. Toni Collette was magnificent. Even though she (unexpectedly) left early Milly Shapiro who portrayed the little girl of the family was also very impressive. I wish the end of the movie was better at least for their sake.

A traditional Turkish music is playing in the background. Fast friends; street photographer Hashmet (Sadri Alisik), unemployed actor Shefik, fisherman Ibrahim and grocer Halil are having a conversation in a neglected, smoke-filled Turkish tavern.

Hashmet; "Do you think I never fall in love before, my dear friend Shefik? This is only mercy; just a little worry for an innocent, ignorant and timid young girl"

Ibrahim; "Please forgive me brother, but I honestly don't think so."

Hashmet; "You too Ibrahim. Seriously?"

Ibrahim; "If is it a matter of having mercy, I believe there are many girls who deserve it more than Ayshe. Whom should we have mercy on? Hundred thousands of working class Turkish girls or the girls like Ayshe who are after easy money? Anyway...Please bear with me, if I am belaboring the point." Holding up his glass "I drink this one to your health my friends"

Hashmet would take his chance on Ayshe, since helping all women in need was beyond his capacity. Even worse he had not secured his own future yet.

Great dialogues, conformable and cleverly emplaced social references, magnificent acting and very fluent story telling...

It is a tragicomic story of an innocent girl's struggle to protect her innocence, in a yet unspoiled Istanbul of 1960's, shortly after rural-urban migration started within Turkey. The story of everything we have lost just because we took them for granted. In my opinion "Ah Guzel Istanbul" (Oh Beautiful Istanbul) is not only one of the best Turkish movies of all time, it is one of the best in the world.

Very good acting by all actors playing the leading roles. I like the way the story slowly growing from a dark comedy into a thriller near the end. Some people may find / have found it too dark but it did not really made me feel depressed. On the contrary there are many amusing and touchy scenes. I believe the few obscene scenes are tolerable. I have deliberately voted some 1-2 point higher than I normally would, because I think it deserves much higher rating than the current 5,9 points. Zac Efron seems to be making a permanent career in Hollywood film industry as a leading actor. Despite several negative criticisms I have read elsewhere, I also liked Charlotte as a movie character and the acting performance of Nichole Kidman.