Kabadayi (2007)

User Rating:

7.9/10   

Director:

Ömer Vargi

Writer:

Yavuz Turgul (writer)

Release Date:

12 December 2007 (Belgium)

Genre:

Action | Crime | Drama

Plot:

Ali Osman is a former bully of city of Istanbul. But lately he gives up bully and starts to operate a synthetic pitch...

Plot Keywords:

Russian Roulette | Raid | Father Son Relationship | Blackmail | Throat Slitting

Cast

Ferdi Akarnur	...	Talat
Atakan Aksu	...	Küçük Devran
Sehsuvar Aktas	...	Taksi Soförü
Ayberk Atilla	...	Hasan
Samim Baki	...	Teoman
Tuncay Beyazit	...	Baskomiser
Rana Cabbar	...	Haco
Ismail Hacioglu	...	Murat
Kenan Imirzalioglu	...	Devran
Kemal Inci	...	Beyto
Ali Ipek	...	Settar
Erol Kasapoglu	...	Tebernüs
Talha Kortun	...	Rüstem
Selma Kutlu	...	Afet
Ulgar Manzakoglu
Ahmet Ilker Okumus	...	Komiser Yardimcisi
Nuri Olisan	...	Çulsuz Selami
Baran Ozcaylan	...	Barmen Bahadir
Elif Özel	...	Sekreter Aylin
Rasim Oztekin	...	Surmeli
Duygu Paraciklioglu	...	Garson
Atilla Pekdemir	...	Battal
Candan Sabuncu	...	Atiye
Dursun Ali Sarioglu	...	Turhan
Ruhi Sari	...	Piç Selim
Ali Savasçi	...	Mustafa
Sener Sen	...	Ali Osman
Asli Tandogan	...	Karaca
Süleyman Turan	...	Cemil
Barbaros Uçak	...	Necdet
Vedat Ünal	...	Çulsuz Tacettin
Tarik Ünlüoglu	...	Gölge
Canan Uzun	...	Ayse
Fatih Yilmaz	...	Fotografçi

Runtime:

140 min | Germany:151 min

Country:

Turkey

Language:

Turkish

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Germany:16

Company:

Fida Film

First rate disappointment

Unbelievable, exploitative and often downright silly, Kabadayi is a disappointment of the first order. One of Turkish cinema's best loved actors, Sener Sen, reprises his character from Eskiya (1996), without bothering to add a single nuance to his performance. Yavuz Turgul, writer/director of Eskiya, is also responsible for this script. However, where Eskiya managed to convey serious social messages within a rousing tale of violence and its consequences, Kabadayi never rises above the level of a second rate Hong Kong tale of revenge. Kenan Imirzalioglu, a reliable if limited leading man, overacts to the point of caricature as the villain of the piece, Devran. A number of stalwarts of modern Turkish cinema bravely try to inject some individuality into their clichéd characters without success. Young leads, Ismail Hacioglu (Murat) and Asli Tandogan (Karaca) look good but act with the vivacity of a couple of shop window mannequins that were given temporary lives. Editing is a disaster and the script appears to have run away from its writer to be completed during the shoot. There is plenty of unintended comedy – especially during the final climax… If it weren't preceded with fanfare that raised expectations and invited obvious comparisons to Eskiya (one of the most involving Turkish films of recent times) the disappointment would not have been that great. As it stands, the film is a disgrace on all fronts. Comparisons to works of Coppola and Scorsese would have been insulting if they weren't so outrageously comical. 1/10.