Aranybulla (2022– ) User Reviews

"Peasant Blinding!"😂😂😂

[milestonedigitalpicture · 1/10 · 1 January 2023]

As we Hungarians would say, this production is totally a "paraszt vakitàs!" considering how the Hungarian government is using public funds creating propaganda "movies or TV series".

The real authentic Hungarian film making has died but mainly ignored or either emigrated overseas giving us the audience a magical motion picture experience!

We Hungarians basically give one of the best platform opportunities by making motion picture for Hollywood and thats where it ends unfortunately!!!😔 At the moment the latest political regime in Hungary has cancelled the free arts and culture institutes despite of make it larger and greater.

Compared to this Sacra Corona is a masterpiece

[tkohun · 1/10 · 1 January 2023]

This was "crowdfunded" from our taxes, at least good actors/actresses were chosen, but the script, cinematography, direction is awful #NERgasm.

Some have certainly benefited from their contribution to the film. It's pathetic that anyone would compare it to the Game of Thrones , but nothing is surprising anymore in this orange haze that is enveloping the country.

Hopefully this will never be broadcasted again on television and will not take up server space anywhere for streaming/VOD purposes.

"We have also decreed that if We or any of our successors should at any time seek to go against this settlement, both the bishops and the retainers and the nobles of the kingdom, in common or in singularly, now and in the future, have by this authority for ever more the freedom to resist and speak against Us and our successors, without the taint of infidelity."

Its a national shame.

[rdyjspdxr · 1/10 · 1 January 2023]

This is the most embarrassing and demotivating movie I ever seen. I do not recommend to watch, unless you're going to die in the next couple of days. I never thought our history could be even worse, than what we learned in school. Those actresses and actors should change occupations after producing a totally valueless product. Where are our great artists from those old movies??! Should be another generation to go on with their fantastic heritage! I'm so bored to watch black and white movies from the 30'- whenever I want to have fun, but it's still the best idea in 2022 in Hungary. Watching films from the 1930'

This is not a work of art

[ikoos-1975 · 1/10 · 30 December 2022]

This is not a work of art. There is no srcipt, no scenery, backgrounds are missing. A dozen horseman crawl on the meadow (episode 4, 5), the king passes laws with three (!) lords on the meadow, too (end of episode 5.), sometimes you can see a wall of a cathedral, a well or a tree. Experts relate what happened instead of showing it on the screen. From time to time drawings, maps, little banners or tin soldiers subtitute the real scenes.

Narration is boring like some kind of a dreary lesson from an old and dusty textbook; dialoges are lifeless, they aim only to illustrate the ideology of the producers: King II. András was a great and wise christian leader, hungarians are christians, they protect Europe against the islam. This message directly refers to the ideology of the recent political power: Orbán Viktor protects the christianity against the rotten liberalism of the western countries.

Instead of poor man's Game of Thrones...

[avangionhu · 1/10 · 2 January 2023]

This supposed to be the Hungarian Game of Thrones. In local media this is refered to as a "hollywood quality production" and "it outshines even Game of Thrones". I always thought this would be a "poor man's GOT" but considering the money spent on the series from Hungarian taxes and the quality of the product this is rather a "rich man's Xena".

However some talented actors - only God knows why - decided to participate in this disaster still the majority of the acting reminds me to a former local soap opera called "Barátok közt".

The narration is incredibly boring, the costumes, the fight scenes and the visuals all look very cheap. The topic and historical period could make the series interesting at least but it is not even historically accurate or authentic.

If you don't want to waste a few hours of your life don't watch this disaster.

Stay away

[oroszj · 1/10 · 2 January 2023]

This mini-series is a humiliation not only of an important event in Hungarian history, but also of the art of cinema. The incumbent Fidesz, a far-right party and its Putin's lapdog PM in power ordered a propaganda mouth piece that has become a visual garbage funded by taxpayers' money, and is characterized by utter incompetence and ignorance.

The characters move like puppets without understanding or even inhabiting their roles, and the direction and the visual realization of the series is completely amateurish. What is more, to portray the Hungarian kingdom in the early 13th century as the sole defender of European Christianity is tantamount to falsifying history. There is a succession of "great kings", "wisest rulers", "most successful periods" in Hungarian history, kings who were "no greater warriors", and one need not bother to find out what exactly this means.

Stay away from watching it at any cost.

Worst than any amateur miniseries..

[pvojnisek · 1/10 · 2 January 2023]

I recently watched the miniseries "Aranybulla" and it was a complete waste of time. The directing was abysmal and the story was so boring that I found myself struggling to keep my eyes open. The actors were equally awful and seemed to be just going through the motions without any real emotion or depth to their performances.

The plot was completely predictable and unoriginal, and it seemed like the writers didn't even try to make it interesting. The dialogue was clunky and forced, and the characters were one-dimensional and unlikable.

I found myself fast forwarding through most of the episodes because I just couldn't bear to sit through another minute of this poorly made miniseries. The special effects were also subpar and added nothing to the story.

Overall, the miniseries was a complete disappointment. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone and I can't believe I wasted my time on it. It's a shame that such a poorly made miniseries was even made in the first place. Avoid it at all costs.

Boring

[bahamut-34720 · 1/10 · 9 January 2023]

Even if we disregard the claims of the creators about the historicity of this miniseries (which is clearly false), or that it is an utter waste of taxpayer money (since its entire budget of $4m is state-financed, with a nearly zero box office), it is also badly written, features mediocre acting and is terribly boring!

These kinds of idealistic series or movies were typical in communist Hungary between 1950 and 1980. But those at least had some viewers, as there was only one television channel in the country.

The script is completely braindead. Lacks any character development. The actors were chosen according to their loyalty towards government officials. It doesn't feature any of the famed and generally accepted Hungarian actors, since those are regarded to be too "liberal" who "cannot be trusted". Just look at the fact that one of the main actors Balázs Bölkény attended the same faculty on the same university as half of the current government: The faculty of law on the Pázmány Péter Catholic University. And this is the guaranteed recipe for bad quality products: contraselection!

True pain to watch.

[roliroli-43353 · 1/10 · 4 January 2023]

I had high expections since I knew the hungarian goverment spent tremendous money to make this movie. My family and I (bare in mind we are a conservative, history respecter family) sat down and watch the whole series in 3days during the Christmas holidays. If only we would do something else... It was long, borring, full of fake historical facts, not to mention the bad actors.. 😞 It was honestly, pain to watch!

If you dont want to suffer, do a favor for yourself and do not spend your precious time to watch this movie.

You were warned. God bless Hungary and its people, but gosh it was probavly the worst series I have ever watched....

Corruption and history falsification

[kataajin · 1/10 · 28 December 2022]

Utter waste of time, the screenpay is mediocre, writing is horrendously bad. It pretends to be a historical story but the plot has not much to do with the real historic events or characters. A sorry attempt to romanticise the non existent Hungarian greatness for a big load of govt. Financial contribution. It dares do compare itself with Game of Thrones, that is the best joke in the series, nevertheless if it is referring to the alternative history than I understand the link. This is the same disgusting agit-prop type story about imaginary and sugarclad history which was flourishing during the imfluzof USSR, but wait in those days Hungarian directors has balls and dared to write things like: the Russians are already in the storage room. Nowdays they truly are...

Art used for propaganda

[lipsi_provokator · 9 January 2023]

Just some quotes from the document that inspired this movie:

Section II: "Nobles shall not be taxed and no free denars shall be collected from them. (...) Members of the Church shall not be taxed either".

Section XXIV: "Ishmaelites and Jewish shall hold no offices. Exchangers, counts, salt traders, customs officers shall be nobles of our country. Ishmaelites and Jewish shall be prohibited from that."

Section XXVI: "No land shall be given to people outside the country."

This document also laid down feudalism, a system we, Hungarians desperately aimed to tear down later in our history in 1848, as in many European countries. We had many interesting historical kings, inheritance stories and battles that could be depicted in a great way, but no, we had to pick an obsolete legal document on feudalism and discrimination.

This is movie shows where the Hungarian government is heading to, a system where only a few are privileged, while also excluding some ethnicities from the elite.

To prove my point: this document was recognised as official law in Hungary just a few weeks ago.

The message this movie carries already deserves to give a "1" on it.

Enjoy the movie.

It is a documentary

[Kovarmi · 8/10 · 2 January 2023]

First things first: Yes i know that one of the producers is involved in politics, but art should be above that! So about this documentary, it is a somewhat unusual format with a mix of historians, narrated scenes, and live action scenes. But as far as i am concerned it is working, it tell the story, and keeps it interesting. About the visual, it brings the maximum that it can, with a budget of around 2.500.000 million dollars! This budget is a very small one compared to movies and series like this. A movie set in the middle ages usually costs 10times the amount! Thanks to imdb, and hungarian film laws, we have a pretty good idea about the price. My personal opinion is that the color grading could be better, but the shots are working. About the acting, the movie has some pretty good actors, and they are doing their job right, but as it is a documentary the characters don't have the time, to develop. I hope they will let them play more in the movie version. So we can get attached to them and immerse ourselves more into the film! In a nutshell, this is a good documentary, with some room to improve. And as I already said I don't understand the hate and art should be above politics. So I encourage everyone to try and look above one persons political ideology, and involvement, not just in this case but every time you are looking at art!

Good actors suffering in a stupid documentary

[tulipppan · 7/10 · 1 January 2023]

I agree with those who say it was waste of money. The basic problem is that the producer has no clue of film making, but has some stereotypical political ideas which appear in this film. However, the rating 1.1 is not fair, because the actors are really good.

It would have been good to see an exciting movie about this historical period. But this is a mixture of pathetic sentences and boring explanations from experts.

Good and outstanding actors appear - unfortunately always just for a few minutes, and telling some banal words. Trill Zsolt is in my opinion one of the best contemporary actors. We shouldn't waste his talent like this :(

The narrators text is sometimes really ridicolous, with those pathetic, exaggerating statements. I don't think that everything was so black and white.

High budget, aimed low

[bwana21 · 1/10 · 29 December 2022]

This movie had virtually unlimited resources, but unfortunately this cannot make up for the low aim of the story, script and overall propagandist approach.

When released some already called it the Game of Thrones of Hungary, even before it had any reviews. This is typical of state run movie projects, but when I watched the first episode I was even more stunned by the idiocracy with which this movie tries to be everything, the best, the biggest, the most christian, the most hungarian etc. But fails at even the most basic standards.

It gives you the feeling of a socialist "live action documentary" in which you get short blocks of teachers (modern day experts) who add some historic review, making it even more silly and annoying, on top of the constant narration.

You can feel how the main purpose is to indoctrinate certain religious and political values, in the very distant shadow of well known series.

Cheap trick for a high price, paid largely by public funds.

Sheep feeding with public money

[Azriel96 · 1/10 · 4 January 2023]

The main problem is that the Golden Bull projects the conservative politics and concepts of our time back 800 years.

The experts interviewed try to present the period accurately and to be objective, but the narrative is often completely contradictory, biased and pathos-laden, which is completely alien to the principles of documentary film.

A forgery of history made with Hungarian taxpayers' money. This series has been compared to the GoT series, but the difference between the two is sky and earth. Overpriced gimmick. Nothing else. The billions spent could have been spent on more useful purposes.

Would give -10 if possible

[racznor · 1/10 · 9 January 2023]

If you'd assign this to a bunch of elementary school students or to a group of apes even they could make a more decent show.

Billions were spent in Hungary to produce this big pile of unwatchable s**t and they were still not able to come up with something that at least could have been mocked as a Tv show or something that you can maybe listen to as background noise.

Horrible shots, terrible scenes, everything is so weak, so under even basic standards that you would rather binge watch the worst B category films and movies or Bollywood stuff than this atrocity.

Maybe if they would remove the untalented idiots who mock themselves as producers then Hungary could come up with something that does not embody shame and disgrace itself.

Szar !

[ildikomercedesztoth · 1/10 · 3 January 2023]

Horrible! Unwatchable! It cost a lot of money and it seems that all the money was stolen. There were 6 horses in a huge equestrian battle! Eight people fought in the giant battle scene. It wasn't a normal place! The lighting was bad. It cost a lot of money and it seems that all the money was stolen. There were 6 horses in a huge equestrian battle! Eight people fought in the giant battle scene. It wasn't a normal place! The lighting was bad. It cost a lot of money and it seems that all the money was stolen. There were 6 horses in a huge equestrian battle! Eight people fought in the giant battle scene. It wasn't a normal place! The lighting was bad.

Wrong choice of directors

[Cauliflower_ · 1/10 · 9 January 2023]

The marvellous director of the series, the one and only Philip Rakay, who's famous for his techniques with his tongue made this series. Scientist estimate he had to please it's owner (PM of Hungary) approx. 10-16 hours on end in order to get an approval for production. The entire production was made using taxpayer money, but as the majority of people foresaw, the series came out mediocre and boring. Mr. Philip's response to the reviews was that the users who gave it 1 star are from the USA and they get paid for the defamation of the series. Poor clown just can't realise he's not good at anything, and he's a state-supported talentless corrupt wannabe. Oh and this comment wasn't paid a single dime to state the truth.

NER and the Holy Grail

[andreak-23388 · 1/10 · 9 January 2023]

Considering this "piece of art" in a historical context I would just say, Monty Python did it better...

It would be better as a fantasy, because it is historically absolutely inaccurate. The choose of the interviewed historians are very poor, the flowing of the story is very hectic and not so understandable. According to another historical sources there are so much misunderstanding in this series.

Furthermore it contradicts itself so much ways, making unenjoyable not just as an educational series, but also as a fictional movie too.

This is also shameful, because it was possible to create such a meaningless and undemanding work, full of errors, from an era of Hungarian history that was actually very significant.

Incompetent filmmaker spends taxpayers' money on state propaganda

[egyszer-71243 · 1/10 · 9 January 2023]

This was a cheap effort to boost a navel-gazing, yearning-for-the-past propaganda.

A cringy, low-budget production, cheap in its every detail. Even the actors who, due to their average performances, stand out high above all the other aspects of the production, they sold out themselves cheap. Some of them were able to deliver more authentic performances in the past. Guided by a filmmaker. Of some sort. Of any sort.

Unfortunately, Mr. Rakay had neither the vision, nor the means, let alone the capability to make this a watch-worthy piece.

It happend to be another kind of piece. Rather a heap, of.

There was not much money spent on it, and it shows.

Cringe-worthy. Pathetic. Wouldn't call it an effort, though.

For those, who like eight-horse heroic grand-battles:) and the like.

goals that are not really understandable, difficult to watch acting, hard to get to the end of it

[stedko · 1/10 · 7 January 2023]

This series was born at the time when Hungary was trying to rebuild its upper social class by capitalizing it with EU funds and bringing back elements of the monarchy. The relation to the original story ends here. Directed by a person who had no experience in movie/film making with close to unlimited budget and time the expectations were high.

The result is a really hard to watch series with a lot of unnecessary dialogs and scenes. The viewer often feels stupid, in some places there are references that aren't clear what they have to do with the plot. With all the respect but the actors are playing like they aren't even in this series. There is an awful lot of poorly written fictional content, which gives the key message a completely different meaning. Chaotic, incomprehensible, busywork.

The photography is good quality, sound/music is just boring.

I wish the problem was it's boring as hell

[merovera · 1/10 · 9 January 2023]

Well, I actually took the time and watched it, cover to cover. The biggest problem is not that the visuals are weak, or that there is tragically little talent in the script and that the few dialogues we have here are so painfully papery. You can also survive that, according to the film, the Fourth Crusade took place in the Holy Land instead of Constantinople. What is really embarrassing is the falsification of history that is so brazen, we have to waste time to watch how the government's propaganda slogans used nowadays are used in the narration to describe events of the time. It is obviously incomprehensible as a film, since we cannot speak of direction and story management in the first place, while even those few of otherwise talented actors also give a poor performance, since they obviously have nothing to play. However, the exploitation of our common history for undisguised propaganda is offensive to all Hungarians. Even to those who are in favor to our government.

American troll

[afxv-50375 · 1/10 · 9 January 2023]

For the sake of authenticity, sometimes a historian seated in a chair placed in a terribly undemanding visual environment explains the situation, while there are also live-action illustration scenes that sometimes evolve into fictional form. But I wish it wouldn't happen! If we were to stick to the dissemination of knowledge, then Aranybulla could have been a public service TV production, but since it wants to be a big movie, the viewer has to endure a confusing mixture.

In the absence of a real director, cinematographer and screenwriter, even in a theater environment, situations that are considered theatrical follow one another, poorly instructed actors suffer with elementary school-level dialogues in terribly ugly shots.

The III. After this, Zoltán Seress, who plays Béla, will certainly not be able to get rid of the casket of the dying great Hungarian man, II. Tamás Veréb, who plays King András, is thrown off the screen, he gives such a bad performance - there could be many professional problems in the background, since such bad performances are usually only done as a joke.

Kálmán did it again!

[szaszbulcsu · 1/10 · 9 January 2023]

What a waste of time and public money.

Dumb version, lack of historical facts.

Lame acting and script.

Needed more action and romantic line to the story to worth it.

Please do a favour to you and skip this.

The Hungarian filmmaking deserve much better quality than this selfmade thief who has made only crap from the public money.

Please do next time a real watchable series instead of this crap.

Kálmán should have stayed at the Z+ television as he did not grow up to the adult world and making quality art.

This is something that cann not buy for money.. The acting could save the show, but needed more quality actors to pick.

Wasted time and money

[nagyorsolyaszilvia · 1/10 · 9 January 2023]

It's terrible like the whole regime. Mr Kálmán Rákay made a huge mistake in thinking that the theft of money in bulk could be covered up by some pathetic rubbish. This film is a prime example of the dilettantish, incompetent, meddlesome arrogance of the government's sycophants. It has zero professional and artistic value, and the historical aspects are not worth mentioning. After the marginalisation of skilled, talented Hungarian actors and artists, this whole production is a seance of bootlickers who will do anything for money. One had better not waste a single minute of one's life on this disgrace of a historical production.