Sunday, April 30, 2017

Turkish Star Wars (1982)

TURKISH STAR WARS directed by Centin Inanc

Ranked 5.0/10 on IMDB



Warning: Spoilers!
--does anyone truly care?


Quick Synopsis: 

Talon: Geez. How many adjectives can I use to describe this movie?

Here's a few:
  • Astonishing.
  • Awe-inspiring. 
  • Beautiful.
  • Impressive. 
  • Wondrous.
  • Majestic. 
  • Mind-Blowing.
  • Overwhelming. 
  • Fantastically amazing. 
  • Far-Out. 
  • Orgasmic. 
Okay, maybe not orgasmic, but the first nine are fully spot on. 

Joe: I only have one:
  • Essential.
No lover of great bad movies can miss this one. It's required if you're a film buff.

Talon: I'd die for this movie. You readers might think I'm insane, but would someone insane cut up patches of brown carpet, glue them onto their skin, climb a tree and pretend they're a squirrel?

Joe: I do that at least twice a day.

Talon: I've always wondered why that giant squirrel outside my window looked like you. 

Joe: I'm also our family dog. That's why our dog talks and drinks a lot of beer.

Talon: TURKISH STAR WARS, originally known as Dünyayı Kurtaran Adam (The Man Who Saved the World), was directed in 1982 by Centin Inanc. A Turkish film director who had careers in law, erotica, and eventually action movies. Centin is also called "jet director" because he can shoot a whole film in ten days.

Joe: Thank you, Wikipedia.

Talon: Main Cast includes:

Cuneyt Arkin, stars as Cuneyt Arkin. He also deserves credit for writing this brilliant masterpiece. Quick fun facts: He got famous in Turkey for acting, and has been in over 100 movies. He's also played roles with his wife and kids.

This guy is legendary and only people in Turkey know it.

Joe: Plus we know it.

Thank you, Wikipedia.

Talon: The rest of the cast is irrelevant because Arkin is that bad-ass. I mean look at the movie cover. C'mon! Not even Chuck Norris could get his leg into that position without cramping, without crying, or without internally exploding.

That hair, too. This guy obviously had slept with every woman in the world.

Joe: I'd hit that.

Talon: And now we begin.

A long time ago in galaxy far, far away.... TURKISH STAR WARS starts off with the worst stock footage I've ever seen. It's like they used a potato to film. Then they repeatedly loop stolen scenes of the Death Star and ships flying all while explaining the longest info-dump in movie history.

And not a single damn sentence makes sense.

Here's some hilarious examples:

"Space age had been passed, life and time reached to the Galaxy age. Hundreds of thousands years had been passed and Earth and planets system in space turned into the galaxy system. Civilizations and history had become past, mankind started to be contended with a simple life style as in primitive ages."

WTF IS GOING ON?

MY MIND IS EXPLODING.

The narrator continues... "However in some cases Earth had been in disintegrated into parts which fragmented off from the Earth had become meteor rocks in space. On some planets life was still going on."

WHERE DID ALL THIS INFORMATION COME FROM? I'M JUST WATCHING THE DEATH STAR OVER AND OVER.

"A coating which was formed by compressed human brain molecules was protecting the Earth."

AM I ON DRUGS?

"Strongest and greatest two Turkish warriors and other humans sailed into space and declared war to the unknown enemy."

This is the best worst movie ever. Period.

Joe: Something may have been lost in the subtitle translation. But I doubt it.

Talon: So we're introduced to our two heroes and the unknown enemy, which is some man in a mask with spikes around his head. I guess he's a 1000 year old Wizard and his costume is a really effective use of cardboard and glue.

I'm guessing that this film's budget was less than the cost of a Happy Meal.

So the bad guy's plan is to capture a human brain so he can take over the universe.

The good guys, the two Turkish warriors, are here to stop the bad guy.

Simple enough.

After the painful infodump, we watch our heroes sit in front of actual STAR WARS footage and pretend they're pilots shooting at bad guys. It's soo funny. It's soooooo damn funny. I'd pay $30 just to see the first ten minutes. Then it gets 10 times funnier when the INDIANA JONES soundtrack plays while they pretend to blow up bad guys.

Joe: The John Williams SUPERMAN theme is also stolen and overused.

Seriously, the actors are just sitting in chairs in front of rear-projected scenes of STAR WARS. And there are actually edits in the footage behind them. They're supposed to be in cockpits, flying, and the background cuts form one scene to the next.

Maybe the Turks are more forgiving than American audiences.

Talon: Our heroes then get shot out of space and land on a mysterious planet. Besides worrying about famine and thirst--

Joe: Which they should worry about, having landed ten seconds earlier.

Talon: --they're also concerned if it's a planet inhabited only by women.

Joe: Which they should worry about, because parthenogenesis is a cause for worry.

Talon: Then we see footage of the pyramids in Egypt.

And we're back to an info dump about how incredible humanity is, and something about atomic war.

Then they're jumping onto rocks. Arkin is clearly teasing us with the stunts he can pull off.

And then they're whistling a special tune to call out all the woman on the planet. Instead of getting women, they get attacked by skeleton costumes on horses. The fight scenes are incredibly epic. Arkin can jump over horses. Dodge spear attacks. Punch people in the stomach and face. Ride a horse.Throw people over his shoulder. Fall off of a horse.

Then they get caught by robots with guns and are forced to battle villagers for entertainment.

That's what the robots claim, but that doesn't happen.

Instead, we watch robots choke children and murder people until our heroes decide they've seen enough. Which is after about three minutes. Then they kick everyone's ass the exact same way they've kicked everyone else's ass: Block, kick.  punch. Block, grab their arm and throw over the shoulder. Sometimes, they block and punch and throw.

It's good to have some variation.

For a lighthearted movie that seems aimed at kids, this has a lot of violence and murder.

Joe: Kids gotta learn it at some point.

Talon: Next, our heroes quickly get overwhelmed as too many skeletons and robots attack all at once.

Joe: It's a lot like the Super 8 movies I made when I was ten years old. Minus any of my skills.

Talon: Out heroes flee to the safety of a cave inhabited by a woman who takes care of children. The woman is impressed by Arkin.

And now, we got a love story.

This 10/10 film just went to 11/10.

Arkin's only interest with the woman is... that she's a woman.

Makes sense.

And instead of having her talk about her feelings, or having her talk at all, they just stare at each other for long periods of time until someone awkwardly smiles. This happens at least forty times to show they're truly in love.

Joe: This is how it was with your mother. After I fought robots and guys in skeleton costumes, I stared at your mother and you were born.

The only difference is, your mother can talk.

Boy, can she talk.

Talon: And now we're back to the atomic war info dump...

Alright, fine, this movie is back at a 10.

Suddenly, people in furry costumes crawl outta their graves and attack all the civilians hiding in the cave. It's a montage of violence. Women getting red paint on their faces! Men also getting red paint on their faces. We even see a pile of dead children! (It's truly just a bunch of kids lying down with their eyes closed.)

From what I've learned rewatching these scene several times, these guys are the Wizard's army. They kill humans so they can harvest their blood, and feed it to the Wizard to keep him immortal.

Joe:  I thought the 1000 year old wizard needed a human brain.

Talon: You're right. But those people aren't the right "humans" to capture a brain from. I guess they're too primitive for his taste. He needs Arkin's, or his friends, because you know, their brains connect molecules to form a barrier to protect Earth from laser weapons.

Joe: Why isn't our military using this? It's like the Cold War missile gap all over again.

Talon: They escape from the cave, and after seeing the casualties, our Arkin has had enough of the Wizard's sadistic ways. Its time for a work-out montage that makes Rocky Balboa's training look wimpish.

Ready?

Arkin can karate chop a boulder over and over. He can bench press a rock over and over. He can punch a different rock...over and over. Then, karate chop the same rock over and over. To change up his workout, he can punch a different rock. He can even lift a pile of rocks. Then go back to karate chopping another different rock.... over and over. And finally to unleash his pent up rage, he can karate chop a a completely different rock in half just once.

Joe: They spent a good deal of their six dollar budget on paper mache rocks.

Talon: His love interest is very impressed, and she shows it by staring in his eyes and awkwardly smiling.

And he's even a hero to the children, who now practice his punching moves.

I told you, this guy is a legend.

OH WAIT. This workout montage isn't over. Next, he's tied rocks around his ankles, while the INDIANA JONES music is playing. To show his strength, he's jumping on a trampoline over the camera. And again. And again. And then the rocks are gone.

Next cut, he's kicking giant rocks toward a wall, and they're exploding.

I'm speechless.

Joe: I love this movie hard.

Talon: So he goes to a bar, and I guess his friend (Akkaya) is back, and they get ambushed by the Wizard's fiends. After an epic fight scene, the Wizard appears to talk hella trash about the two Turkish warriors, while revealing his plan to destroy the human race. The Wizard even kidnapped the woman Arkin's in love with.

And then they got teleported to his ship.

Enough is enough. Time to wrap up the rest of the movie in a couple paragraphs.

Ready? It's gonna get crazy.

The Wizard wants the men to join him, He offers Arkin the chance to rule the universe if only he sacrifices his brain. He says no. Then the Wizard shows he has the women he loves in captivity. After some rough-housing and punching, we go to Akkaya who's being seduced by the Wizard's queen. Monsters attack him and he ends up fighting them next to Arkin. They get disabled by lasers and are thrown in a pit to be tortured. It doesn't work. Then, while Akkaya is being help captive, Arkin has to battle a monster. Eighty trampoline jumps over the monster later, he kicks his ass.

Take a breath. Still some left to go

So Arkin finds this bad-ass cardboard lightning sword after kicking some ninja ass. Now Arkin is basically superman with this sword so he goes back to the dungeon where the Wizard is keeping Akkaya. After saving Akkaya, Akkaya sees the power Arkin has with his new sword and knocks him out, taking his sword. The drama is real. The Turkish do not mess around. Then the Wizard uses his sneaky wizard powers to be sneaky and get the sword from Akkaya. The Wizard is now superman and he kills Akkaya. Then he throws Arkin, his woman, and child into a jail.

One more breath.

Arkin is soo sick of this Wizard that he melts the sword and a golden brain and turns them into a pair of gloves and boots. Now Arkin is super-superman and he kills about fifty monsters to find the Wizard. It's epic as hell as it really tries to be an action movie.

Then he karate chops the Wizard in half like he did with a rock. And goes home in the Millennium Falcon.

The End.

Joe: Amazeballs.

First Impressions:

Talon: I saw the tittle, and instantly knew this was going to be the best worst movie ever.

Watching it proved me right.

I know it's a cult classic based on being absolutely terrible, and I know it's a bad movie, but I rate movies on how much enjoyment I get outta them. I couldn't stop laughing because the producers actually stole STAR WARS footage and shot new scenes over it. Maybe the plot doesn't make any sense, maybe the acting is bad, maybe the fight scenes are repetitive, but I found all of that hilarious.

I think that's all that matters.

And for a terrible movie, this had a lot of action and conflict, and the main actor Cuneyt Arkin is like Turkey's Tom Cruise, so I can't hate on that.

No headaches were formed during the viewing of this movie, only endless laughter.

Joe: I first saw this back in my VHS tape trading days. It was epic then. It remains epic.

Talon: Here's some of the dialogue my dad and I had while viewing. Try to imagine some of our phrases as catchy slogans:

"Is that the Millennium Falcon?"
"I don't think they paid the licensing fee."

"It's like STAR WARS. Only Turkish... And horrible."

"The Turkish name for this is" The Man Who Saved The World." But who's going to save me from this movie?"

"I can't think of a better movie that I'm watching right now."

"He's jumping on the trampoline again..."
"He's hopping mad."

"I wish I was that cool."
"No, you don't."

"Holy cow there's a sequel."
"Shut up and take my money!"

"My favorite part is when we see stolen STAR WARS footage."
"Maybe it isn't stolen. Maybe George Lucas loaned it. I heard he's very good at relinquishing creative control."

"I don't think those are real rocks."
"You've lost your childhood sense of whimsy."

Best Worst Scene

Talon: The workout montage.

Joe: Agreed. But the costumes--most of which are worse than drunk frat boys make the day before Halloween--are a joy to behold.

Watch it? 

Talon: Yes. This is funnier than many comedies.

Joe: Absolutely. Because it's the greatest film of all time to use STAR WARS footage other than STAR WARS. I suggest three beers and three shots to make it go down smoother.

Share it? 

Talon: Yes. My pet turkey loves this Turkey movie.

Joe: Yes, it lives up to ALL the hype. You need to make everyone you know see this movie.

Re-watch it? 

Talon: Yes. I include it in my STAR WARS movie marathon.

Joe: I've seen it three times. I'll see it many more before death releases me.

Talon: Did you see TURKISH STAR WARS? Do you have any best worst movies to recommend? What kind of costumes can you make with cardboard? Post in the comments!

TALON'S TWENTY SECOND FILM REVIEW!

Talon will now spout off five reasons you should watch the next movie we're blogging about: It has the best rapper ever, it's a good movie, and it bombed the in the box office. It's...MISS MARCH.


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