Reviews

Tolga Ornek is a very successful documentary producer. "Kaybedenler Kulubu" could be a better documentary than a movie. The pace of the movie is sometimes so slow that you lose your concentration. The dialog is sometimes hard to follow and not very interesting at some other times. In the end, I do not find the characters sincere and the radio program they are serving worthwhile to listen. The love in the movie does not get enough electricity but more than enough sex scenes which obviously aim to attract audience to the movie. At the end, I give an OK grade to the movie but easily understand if others love it. (it all depends if you like the characters and the radio show)

Arog is by far the worst movie that Cem Yilmaz has ever made. He used a simple plot, amateur actors like in all his other movies. But unlike others, he could not get a warm, entertaining movie. There were not big laughs in any of the jokes which were mostly about Turkish idioms. The plot was boring, I counted minutes towards the end. Lot's of money spent and they used the technology right. However, if the story is bad and the jokes are bad, this cannot help the movie out.

I feel that Cem is not very funny any more. He should spend more time to find jokes and construct a movie. Writing a script in a short time is not working out for him any more.

The directing and the scenario of this movie is horrible. I do not think that this product can be classified as a movie: This movie consists many stories that are unconnected. There is no flow of story and no suspense. All characters are caricatures. We do not even get to know Nazim Hikmet, thanks to the poor script.

The only good thing is the selection of Yetkin as the main character. He does everything to save the movie. His acting is superb despite the script limitations. However, the supporting cast is horrible (1970's mediocre Turkish movies horrible).

There are a lot of good directors in the contemporary Turkish cinema and I hope that one day we can watch a good movie about Nazim Hikmet.

An imam comes to a small village in the western part of Turkey with his wife and daughter. The residents of the village -mostly train station workers- hire the imam for the holly month of Ramadan. The story tells how the small community of the village intervene with the imam's life through first by gossiping among themselves and then by direct involvement. The story also tells the heart-warming friendship of Adem - one of the worker's 6-7 years son - and Imam's daughter. This is one of the best village-based Turkish movie that I have seen (out of 6-7 movies). The acting of the children are superb, the others also act satisfactorily. The directing and the scenario are also strong.

This movie is one of the recent Turkish - village movies. Unfortunately, most of these movies take the religion aspect at the center, probably as a pre-condition of getting subsidy from Turkish Cultural Ministry. I would give this movie an 8 in isolation. However, the political(non-secular) impact on Turkish movies disturbs me and I subtract 1 because of that.

I go to at least 50 movies this year and this is certainly the best movie of the year. First, if you can, watch it in a movie theater. There are beautiful mountain scenes that you do not want to give up by watching on DVD. Second, watch it with a friend who knows about mountain climbing. You will be really wondering about answers to some questions at the end of the movie.

This is a documentary about two climbers who climb to a difficult mountain. This is a real story. And it is very exciting. Will they survive or die in the end? O.K. from the beginning we know that they will survive, but still...

You will be asking: if I were one of these climbers, how would I deal with the difficulties? Then, you will find parallels to the difficulties in your own life...

The directing is perfect. The acting is perfect. The story is perfect. I cannot understand how someone can trash this movie? The New York Times critiques tried to. I stopped reading them...

My Grade is: 10/10

There is a boy who is trying to find his way towards his life. He faces lots of difficulties. He cannot handle them by himself. This is the realistic part of the story. There is also a fairy tale aspect of this movie. The old man gives a hand to the boy to find the meaning of life etc. Their relationship is too perfect to be true. I think the movie forms a nice balance between realism and fairy-tale.

This is a light movie to spend a pleasant movie night. Do not expect too much. There are few very good moments that you will remember two months from now.

The acting is excellent.

The story is good. Nothing major happens. The story still keeps you interested. One major concern is that there is too much lesson given by the old man. Some of the lessons could be visual rather than by dialogue.

My Grade is: 8/10