It's laugh-a-minute time with this unintentionally hilarious Turkish classic which shows just how much fun can be had on a (very) low budget. Although I saw the movie in its original undubbed Turkish, you don't really need to understand the dialogue to know what's going on, as the film is taken up with pure action. There's a bad guy with lots of followers and monsters under his control, and a pair of heroes have to stop them. Yes, you've seen the plot a zillion times, but I can assure you that you've never quite seen it like THIS before. You see, they don't have any copyright laws in Turkey which means that the producers didn't need to fork out any money for special effects or a composer - instead, the music is ripped off from RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK (the stirring bit that everybody remembers too) and every single frame of the outer-space footage is openly stolen from STAR WARS, which gives the film its bootleg title Turkish STAR WARS.
To make matters more amusing, the footage is edited together in a very frenetic way and constantly repeated, so we get to see the same shot of a planet exploding about six different times during the course of the movie and the same piece of music over and over again in the poorly-filmed action scenes, which are plentiful throughout the film's running time. Shots of the two Turkish "heroes" of this film flying through space were achieved by donning the actors with motorbike helmets and sitting them in front of a screen again showing clips from STAR WARS. The effect is awful and terribly unrealistic with it, but for bad movie lovers it's a must. The non-existent production values of this film are a riot, from the exceptionally cheesy costumes to the sub standard effects, but these are the things that make this a classic for all the wrong reasons. THE MAN WHO SAVES THE WORLD - one of the best worst films you'll ever witness! From the opening credits - painted on a black cloth and waved shoddily in front of the camera - you just know that no expense was made in the creation of this movie masterpiece. Two of Turkey's finest actors - Aytekin Akkaya and Cuneyt Arkin - portray the film's dashing heroes with more than a touch of Han Solo about them, and the brightly coloured silk shirts they occasionally wear are most fetching. And even if they can't act to save their lives, at least they can run around and do athletic things without getting tired. Much of the new footage has been filmed in a Turkish desert somewhere, inhabited by villagers, Muslims and the Sphinx! So now you know what an alien planet looks like...
Highlights include an evil wizard Darth Vader rip-off in a brightly-coloured mask who gets split in two at the film's conclusion and a giant cardboard robot which goes around and squashes small children to death! I certainly didn't see that in George Lucas' kiddie-friendly film. The evil minions include furry red and black monsters, a giant growling Chewbacca-type creature with no discernible head, mummies, zombies, robot soldiers, and old-fashioned skeleton horsemen. Elsewhere we have a blonde Princess Leia clone who keeps on smiling inanely, unexplained hieroglyphics and corpses which magically transform into mummies. The fun doesn't end there either: guys tie rocks to their legs and practice running and jumping to the Indiana Jones theme, rocks are kicked through the air like in a cheesy GODZILLA film and they even occasionally explode too. There's a bar-room brawl which rips off the canteen scene in STAR WARS yet again and a gang of guys in rubber monster masks who run around and leer at the camera.
Arkin finds a mysterious golden temple and a gold sword and heart (!). After beating two golden guards he uses the spiked sword to kick backside against some tin-helmeted kung fu warriors in the desert (yes, kung fu too: no stone is left unturned in this all-out crazy style movie). Later on, in the film's coolest and most imaginative moment, he melts down the sword and dips his hand into the molten gold to form powerful golden gloves. This leads to the fantastic action-packed finale with a full fifteen minutes of incredible fighting prowess as Arkin takes on the forces of evil, single-handed, and wins; monsters are ruthlessly chopped in half, have their arms and legs and heads torn off with the power of Arkin's gloves. A mummy's head explodes, robots attack using laser beams which are scratched onto the film itself, and a series of cheap explosions enliven the action-spectacular.
Arkin also seems to be auditioning for the world trampolining championship as endless shots of him jumping up and down through the desert (while people occasionally throw sand (!) and cardboard discs at him) in a heroic manner. All this topped off by a brief smattering of gore too. Action, stunts, fights, romance, tragedy, and a heroic good vs. evil plot, THE MAN WHO SAVES THE WORLD has it all in spades. One of the most insane, bizarre, and just plain off beat (not to mention incredibly tacky) adventure yarns you'll ever see, this is startling entertainment from start to finish, an enthusiastic B-movie which is impossible not to love and gets the big (golden) thumbs up from me.
To make matters more amusing, the footage is edited together in a very frenetic way and constantly repeated, so we get to see the same shot of a planet exploding about six different times during the course of the movie and the same piece of music over and over again in the poorly-filmed action scenes, which are plentiful throughout the film's running time. Shots of the two Turkish "heroes" of this film flying through space were achieved by donning the actors with motorbike helmets and sitting them in front of a screen again showing clips from STAR WARS. The effect is awful and terribly unrealistic with it, but for bad movie lovers it's a must. The non-existent production values of this film are a riot, from the exceptionally cheesy costumes to the sub standard effects, but these are the things that make this a classic for all the wrong reasons. THE MAN WHO SAVES THE WORLD - one of the best worst films you'll ever witness! From the opening credits - painted on a black cloth and waved shoddily in front of the camera - you just know that no expense was made in the creation of this movie masterpiece. Two of Turkey's finest actors - Aytekin Akkaya and Cuneyt Arkin - portray the film's dashing heroes with more than a touch of Han Solo about them, and the brightly coloured silk shirts they occasionally wear are most fetching. And even if they can't act to save their lives, at least they can run around and do athletic things without getting tired. Much of the new footage has been filmed in a Turkish desert somewhere, inhabited by villagers, Muslims and the Sphinx! So now you know what an alien planet looks like...
Highlights include an evil wizard Darth Vader rip-off in a brightly-coloured mask who gets split in two at the film's conclusion and a giant cardboard robot which goes around and squashes small children to death! I certainly didn't see that in George Lucas' kiddie-friendly film. The evil minions include furry red and black monsters, a giant growling Chewbacca-type creature with no discernible head, mummies, zombies, robot soldiers, and old-fashioned skeleton horsemen. Elsewhere we have a blonde Princess Leia clone who keeps on smiling inanely, unexplained hieroglyphics and corpses which magically transform into mummies. The fun doesn't end there either: guys tie rocks to their legs and practice running and jumping to the Indiana Jones theme, rocks are kicked through the air like in a cheesy GODZILLA film and they even occasionally explode too. There's a bar-room brawl which rips off the canteen scene in STAR WARS yet again and a gang of guys in rubber monster masks who run around and leer at the camera.
Arkin finds a mysterious golden temple and a gold sword and heart (!). After beating two golden guards he uses the spiked sword to kick backside against some tin-helmeted kung fu warriors in the desert (yes, kung fu too: no stone is left unturned in this all-out crazy style movie). Later on, in the film's coolest and most imaginative moment, he melts down the sword and dips his hand into the molten gold to form powerful golden gloves. This leads to the fantastic action-packed finale with a full fifteen minutes of incredible fighting prowess as Arkin takes on the forces of evil, single-handed, and wins; monsters are ruthlessly chopped in half, have their arms and legs and heads torn off with the power of Arkin's gloves. A mummy's head explodes, robots attack using laser beams which are scratched onto the film itself, and a series of cheap explosions enliven the action-spectacular.
Arkin also seems to be auditioning for the world trampolining championship as endless shots of him jumping up and down through the desert (while people occasionally throw sand (!) and cardboard discs at him) in a heroic manner. All this topped off by a brief smattering of gore too. Action, stunts, fights, romance, tragedy, and a heroic good vs. evil plot, THE MAN WHO SAVES THE WORLD has it all in spades. One of the most insane, bizarre, and just plain off beat (not to mention incredibly tacky) adventure yarns you'll ever see, this is startling entertainment from start to finish, an enthusiastic B-movie which is impossible not to love and gets the big (golden) thumbs up from me.