Alternate title(s): Rampage, Turkish Rambo
Release: 1986, theatrical
Starring: Serdar Kebapçilar, Hüseyin Peyda, Sümer Tilmaç
Directed by: Çetin Inanç
IMDB page: Link opens in a new window
Description: When a wealthy businessman is captured by a gang of mountain bandits, the only one that can save the day is the war veteran Serdar - His only goal, to live honorably!
Hans' thoughts:
Sometimes, a movie comes along that is just so crazy that it's really hard for me not to have at least a slimmer of affection for it. No matter how absolutely ridiculously bad it is. This is such a movie.
This movie is actually harder to describe than I thought it would be, In essence it's a pretty blatant rip-off of the Rambo movies but with a original plot. Serdar is some kind of commando/war veteran that gets blamed for the kidnapping of a wealthy businessman. He's sent to jail, and makes a deal with his cellmates to help break them out if he can join the mountain bandits that did the kidnapping in the first place. Throughout the movie, Serdar himself doesn't really speak a lot of dialogue. Instead he just stares at the camera.
Had this been a better movie, less would have been more. Serdar is obviously not all that good an actor - this is visible even through the dub. Making him be mostly silent could have been a very good choice. Unfortunately, the camera work of the movie is just not strong enough to convey what the actor can't so instead the characters motivation become sort of vague. Why is he doing this? Why is he doing that? I found myself getting kind of distracted by looking around the room to pass the time because I barely understood any of what was going on, on screen.
While the other characters motivations are definitely clear, their actual personalities are barely existent. This is a shame because some of these actors seem like they could have done a very good job with a better script. Instead the villains are dimensionless and the heroes are kind of, wooden. A lot of the henchmen also do a lot of laughing for no apparent reason. The movie seems to try and set up Serdar as this patriotic, family oriented hero. At one point he saves a family from a gang of mountain bandits and while it could have been a very fun little scene, it feels kind of forced.
As for the actual action, it is what you would expect from a low budget production. The weapons act kind of off, although the explosion work is actually pretty good. Unfortunately, the main source of action in this movie is hand-to-hand combat. The hand-to-hand combat in this movie is one of the most ridiculously over-the-top spectacles I have seen on screen for quite a while. I've seen student projects with more believable combat than what this movie provides. On top of that, the stage falls have this kind of unprofessional delay, sometimes with a whole second after the cause between the falls. Indeed, even the death-scenes are kind of awkward, as the actors in question seem like they tried to make their falls as comfortable as possible, or are just careful not to damage equipment. An old man in this movie clearly puts his walkietalkie neatly to the side before lying his head down on the ground, dead.
Speaking of the walkies, if you're going to use toy-walkies for your movie, here's a hint: Do not zoom in on the logo saying "Junior". The walkies even looked very believable, so the choice to zoom in on them just baffles me. I have to say though, props for sticking to your guns and straight up roll with it. I'm guessing the budget was the cause of using children's toys, but other film makers had tried to hide that fact as to not kill the audiences suspension of disbelief.
All in all, this movie was a neat little piece of history, a testament to how utterly strange the world is sometimes. I have to say though, this DVD will most like not be seen again in my household for quite a while. Until such a time comes, it will sit on my shelf as a fun little oddity alongside Reptilicus. I'm not saying that I regret I saw it, I probably just won't revisit it.
Had this been a better movie, less would have been more. Serdar is obviously not all that good an actor - this is visible even through the dub. Making him be mostly silent could have been a very good choice. Unfortunately, the camera work of the movie is just not strong enough to convey what the actor can't so instead the characters motivation become sort of vague. Why is he doing this? Why is he doing that? I found myself getting kind of distracted by looking around the room to pass the time because I barely understood any of what was going on, on screen.
While the other characters motivations are definitely clear, their actual personalities are barely existent. This is a shame because some of these actors seem like they could have done a very good job with a better script. Instead the villains are dimensionless and the heroes are kind of, wooden. A lot of the henchmen also do a lot of laughing for no apparent reason. The movie seems to try and set up Serdar as this patriotic, family oriented hero. At one point he saves a family from a gang of mountain bandits and while it could have been a very fun little scene, it feels kind of forced.
As for the actual action, it is what you would expect from a low budget production. The weapons act kind of off, although the explosion work is actually pretty good. Unfortunately, the main source of action in this movie is hand-to-hand combat. The hand-to-hand combat in this movie is one of the most ridiculously over-the-top spectacles I have seen on screen for quite a while. I've seen student projects with more believable combat than what this movie provides. On top of that, the stage falls have this kind of unprofessional delay, sometimes with a whole second after the cause between the falls. Indeed, even the death-scenes are kind of awkward, as the actors in question seem like they tried to make their falls as comfortable as possible, or are just careful not to damage equipment. An old man in this movie clearly puts his walkietalkie neatly to the side before lying his head down on the ground, dead.
Speaking of the walkies, if you're going to use toy-walkies for your movie, here's a hint: Do not zoom in on the logo saying "Junior". The walkies even looked very believable, so the choice to zoom in on them just baffles me. I have to say though, props for sticking to your guns and straight up roll with it. I'm guessing the budget was the cause of using children's toys, but other film makers had tried to hide that fact as to not kill the audiences suspension of disbelief.
All in all, this movie was a neat little piece of history, a testament to how utterly strange the world is sometimes. I have to say though, this DVD will most like not be seen again in my household for quite a while. Until such a time comes, it will sit on my shelf as a fun little oddity alongside Reptilicus. I'm not saying that I regret I saw it, I probably just won't revisit it.
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