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Reviews
Kurtlar Vadisi: Irak (2006)
Better than I expected
Finally a Turkish movie that was planned, budgeted, and executed well. (If you think this one is cheesy I invite you to watch some Turkish movies) After I read the reviews I thought it was simply trashing Americans to boost the Turkish pride. I purchased the DVD online, and quality of this movie surprised me.
This movie is about the adventures of a gang (not a real gang, just buddies from Turkish Special Forces) in Iraq running after one powerful guy (Zane) for revenge. That powerful guy happens to be head of some special operations in Iraq who also arrested Turkish soldiers with bags on their heads (which is a true story).
Obviously there are good guys, and bad guys. Good guys are Turks while the enemy is the "Americans". But it is not about defeating the "enemy". "Enemy" has already won the war: Turkish agent communicate with Iraqi girl in English - Enemy's language; also when they are in the restaurant one Turkish guy said no need to eat apple pie there because they already have that in McDonalds back in Turkey. Obviously no war to win - this is a pure fight between one powerful guy and handful of avengers.
It reflects Islamic philosophy very well. Please do not get offended thinking it is a pure propaganda, take your time and listen to the praying in the background when people are forced to leave their town. Some scenes are also artistic and worth to watch (such as the singing & praying ceremony around the Muslim cleric) Zane's performance is the best, a typical powerful and bad character that fits him very well since Titanic. There are some references to the real events such as arresting Turkish officials as stated above, Abu Gharib scandal and such. This power abuse was exaggerated in to an extend to make the movie more effective, and it works.
Why spending that much budget to make this movie? To restore the pride? Maybe. If you think it was unnecessary, I invite you to explore eastern culture a little bit more. Honor is very important in some cultures, and some people just live for that (remember hara kiri?) In this movie one of the Turkish officials also suicides because of the arrest in Iraq, and he only asks for revenge as his will. That's when all this starts.
Overally, it was a nice action/drama/politic movie. Order the DVD online if you can it is worth the $20. I give this movie 7/10.
Carnivore (2000)
If this was a school project then the student got an F
OK, I usually don't expect a perfect movie when I purchase a DVD from a bargain basket in Walmart, but I still didn't get it. Why people wasted their time to make this movie? And they even published on DVD! Now it became a digital junk. As a matter of fact I cannot criticize this movie because I didn't watch it 100%. I mostly fast forwarded it. Idea was too typical and acting was so cheap. Don't even think about watching for fun, it's boring.
Insan Avcisi (1976)
One of the most violent action movies
I was a kid when I saw this movie, so maybe it's not exciting as I remember. But me and my friends have seen this movie at least 10 - 20 times.
Turkish police decides to clean the drug dealers with the cooperation of US police. An American police comes to Turkey to work with another cop (Cuneyt Arkin). Turkish cop realizes this new guest actually part of this dirty business. When he tells this to his chief, he had to return his gun and badge......to kick some serious a**! He bought a shotgun and pig bullets. I still remember the conversation between the seller and him:
- "These bullets are for hunting pigs, what are you going to do with them in here?" - "There are still some around"
It reminded me Charles Bronson movies.
3 most violent scenes that I cannot forget:
1) He catches a bad guy in this hamam (Turkish bath), lock him in a big wooden box, and put the box in the flames. The guy was screaming and begging as he kicks the box to open from inside.
2) He catches another guy with one of these metal animal traps. He hangs the guy to a winch in a junkyard from his injured foot, and swings him around until his face is shredded by the broken windows.
3) Finally he catches the bad police, ties him on a big log where it lies on the bench that has a big log cutter blade. Log becomes two pieces... With the guy on it...
Ironically, bad guys only kill a few people with simple methods.