The story of Kuzgun is, well, not something you can find in Turkish series so often. It is packed with action, intrigue, twists, careful plotting and enacting of revenge against organized mafia members hierarchy who caused Kuzgun to become separated from his family and suffer unimagined ordeal for 20 years. The main actors played their characters superbly, as if they were going through all the emotions and experiences for real. Kuzgun is, in a way, a modern day Spartacus; courageous, cunning, fierce and unforgiving towards his marks, yet torn between his love for Dila and revenge against her family. Backed up by the splendid soundtrack work of the famous Turskish composer Toygar Isikli, this stunning story will have you pinned to the screen and in a complete emotional spiral.
Reviews
7 Reviews
Mutluluk Zamani
(2017)
A wonderful movie, you will have great emotions while watching it!
29 March 2023
This is a real gem amongst the Turkish cinematography releases. The movie is modern, with a funny, romantic but inspirational story, beautiful characters and astonishing locations which simply compel you to visit Turkey and meet its people. The chemistry between the main characters is great, but then again, many Turkish actors are quite convincing and professional, very natural in acting, and the starring actors are nothing less. A wonderful script about real life problems, properly balanced with comedy and romance, funny moments, beautiful relationships between people, all accompanied by a great music score. Everyone carries within themselves that special door for the possibility of being happy and successful - you just have to find that special someone who holds the key for unlocking it. I live in Serbia, and this movie has never been broadcasted here - but I could recognize many culture details in the movie similar to ours, which makes it even easier to connect to. Although some people here hated the movie because it resembles Crazy Stupid Love, Mutluluk Zamani still has its own magic moments and is actually quite good.
Love for Rent
(2015–2017)
Catchy and lovable to watch, but to a point...
28 February 2023
First of all, I had mixed feelings about this series. It started off as a really intriguing plot, although "the gold digger" premise could not be left unnoticed - still, it was for a good cause, so we can forgive that. What I liked about this Turkish comedy drama was the fact that the filming was really technically perfect, the panoramic scenes and views of the locations were outstanding, vivid and colourful, showing the modern city of Istanbul and making you want to visit and experience it. I also liked the traditional elements, mahalah houses and neighbourhood chemistry and relationship; this was also very well done. The different sound themes of the awesome intro song were also perfect, although not all of the other songs used for the soundtrack were catchy or even interesting to hear more than once or twice. They had interesting lyrics for the required scenes, but were played too many times. The score section of the soundtrack was, however, superb. Especially the deep, love/suffering themes which, although a bit too serious for the otherwise comical show, were very emotional and would make you cry just by listening to them. The composer did a great job with these.
What I didn't like about the show was the overall lack of telling the truth and the over-exaggerated longevity. Not even after ten two-hour episodes do you hear the main characters say "I am in love with you". Although beautiful, the main characters seem to assume too much, and you know the old saying "assumption is the mother of all mistakes", thus leading to false conclusions on too many occasions. They were not direct or they couldn't say honest things to each other. Especially Defne, who comes up with all sorts of lies and false statements just to justify her attitude, not to mention her transformation from a snappy girl to a business woman with a dose of feministic demeanor - but she somehow still can't transcend into honesty, even with all the change she undergoes. And this lasts for too long and is repetitive throughout many episodes. It was like the characters were incompetent of saying what was actually on their minds - which eventually led to Omer being hurt at the wedding to the point of rightfully not wanting to see Defne ever again. There are a few good characters, like cool Ismail, warmhearted Sinan, and Omer - the only decent, consistent man of integrity, depth and professionalism. But, alas, the aunt and Koray... She never gets punished for her plotting. Too much and too long. Koray was actually amusing with all the faces he could display and snappy comments he would make, backed up by cartoonish sound effects and music. But if all this had been a lot shorter or properly dosed, it would have been just about right. I fast-forwarded many of these parts. In some segments the series resembled those Indian TV dramas where the scharacters significantly stare at each other forever with dramatic music and thundering sound effects, or start a sentence in one episode and finish it some time in the next. Dragging a lot.
Overall, I think the creators did a great series, but fell under the hype when the pilot episodes became popular, so instead of pacing the story in a normal and natural way, they unnecessarily prolonged the series, making irrelevant episode segments and long scenes in their efforts to maintain the viewership and ratings.
What I didn't like about the show was the overall lack of telling the truth and the over-exaggerated longevity. Not even after ten two-hour episodes do you hear the main characters say "I am in love with you". Although beautiful, the main characters seem to assume too much, and you know the old saying "assumption is the mother of all mistakes", thus leading to false conclusions on too many occasions. They were not direct or they couldn't say honest things to each other. Especially Defne, who comes up with all sorts of lies and false statements just to justify her attitude, not to mention her transformation from a snappy girl to a business woman with a dose of feministic demeanor - but she somehow still can't transcend into honesty, even with all the change she undergoes. And this lasts for too long and is repetitive throughout many episodes. It was like the characters were incompetent of saying what was actually on their minds - which eventually led to Omer being hurt at the wedding to the point of rightfully not wanting to see Defne ever again. There are a few good characters, like cool Ismail, warmhearted Sinan, and Omer - the only decent, consistent man of integrity, depth and professionalism. But, alas, the aunt and Koray... She never gets punished for her plotting. Too much and too long. Koray was actually amusing with all the faces he could display and snappy comments he would make, backed up by cartoonish sound effects and music. But if all this had been a lot shorter or properly dosed, it would have been just about right. I fast-forwarded many of these parts. In some segments the series resembled those Indian TV dramas where the scharacters significantly stare at each other forever with dramatic music and thundering sound effects, or start a sentence in one episode and finish it some time in the next. Dragging a lot.
Overall, I think the creators did a great series, but fell under the hype when the pilot episodes became popular, so instead of pacing the story in a normal and natural way, they unnecessarily prolonged the series, making irrelevant episode segments and long scenes in their efforts to maintain the viewership and ratings.
Stargate Universe
(2009–2011)
A poor excuse of a Stargate brand
3 August 2015
Well, well... I can't believe somebody actually gave Mr. Wright a green light and financial means to make this poor excuse of a Stargate name franchise. What a waste of money, budget and time. Not to mention the fans' nerves and hopes.
Even though the introductory episode did provide some hope for an interesting plot, the story has continued to unfold so slowly and, unfortunately, it continued to do so along other episodes as well. Most of the episodes duration is about the crew's personal characteristics, social behavior, inter-human relations and problems, and all this goes in a boringly slow pace... Did I mention boring? Oh, yes. Right.
Visual effects of the Ancient ship are OK, but they are scarce. There is very little dynamic, no real plot, characters are slow and uninteresting, no real enemies or aliens as a common brunt... The Ancients' ship Destiny, in all its glory and magnificence, gives the impression of quite a crude "mechanical" vessel, with not so much of an advanced-looking technology (although the concept of flying through a sun's corona in order to recharge its power supply is quite interesting). A ship that was built by such an advanced species has only one slow, crude-looking shuttle which uses rocket boosters for maneuvering?! I mean, come on. Also, a poor and almost completely absent soundtrack contributes little to the overall uninteresting flow of action. And what's with all that hand-held camera shooting?
In my opinion, the producer of this show has had a habit of introducing relatively unnecessary episodes and plots before; spend the money on an episode that is not important at all to the overall story, only to later cut short on the ending of a series without providing a decent conclusion. And here in the SGU we have the whole season of it. Even SG-1 and Atlantis weren't spared of that, but at least they had the action and the dynamic a science fiction show should have.
Simply, the only relation this SGU show has with Stargate is the appearance of Stargate itself, and that's it. Pathetic. No wonder its ratings had plummeted and the show got canceled after only 2 seasons.
Even though the introductory episode did provide some hope for an interesting plot, the story has continued to unfold so slowly and, unfortunately, it continued to do so along other episodes as well. Most of the episodes duration is about the crew's personal characteristics, social behavior, inter-human relations and problems, and all this goes in a boringly slow pace... Did I mention boring? Oh, yes. Right.
Visual effects of the Ancient ship are OK, but they are scarce. There is very little dynamic, no real plot, characters are slow and uninteresting, no real enemies or aliens as a common brunt... The Ancients' ship Destiny, in all its glory and magnificence, gives the impression of quite a crude "mechanical" vessel, with not so much of an advanced-looking technology (although the concept of flying through a sun's corona in order to recharge its power supply is quite interesting). A ship that was built by such an advanced species has only one slow, crude-looking shuttle which uses rocket boosters for maneuvering?! I mean, come on. Also, a poor and almost completely absent soundtrack contributes little to the overall uninteresting flow of action. And what's with all that hand-held camera shooting?
In my opinion, the producer of this show has had a habit of introducing relatively unnecessary episodes and plots before; spend the money on an episode that is not important at all to the overall story, only to later cut short on the ending of a series without providing a decent conclusion. And here in the SGU we have the whole season of it. Even SG-1 and Atlantis weren't spared of that, but at least they had the action and the dynamic a science fiction show should have.
Simply, the only relation this SGU show has with Stargate is the appearance of Stargate itself, and that's it. Pathetic. No wonder its ratings had plummeted and the show got canceled after only 2 seasons.
Meet My Mom
(2010 TV Movie)
A very warm movie about the power of love and family values
22 August 2011
Warning: Spoilers
After seeing a lot of Hallmark-made movies, this one really stands out. The story is somewhat original, but is very realistic at the same time. Here we have a 10-year old boy Jared (Charles Henry Wyson) and his mom Dana (Lori Loughlin) who have just moved to her mother Louise's (Stefanie Powers) house after Dana divorced Jared's father. As a school project, Jared writes a "support letter" to a randomly selected soldier who is in Europe on a peace keeping mission. Little did this boy know that this will be a start of a wonderful friendship with sergeant Vince Carrera (Johnny Messner), an oversea soldier he was writing to. Vince also has one bad marriage behind him, after his wife left him while he was on a mission. Jared and Vince strike out a good time while training baseball after meeting each other in person. Vince soon starts to fill in all the emptiness in Jared's life induced by his biological father who never had time for him. The story then puts a romantic flavor between Dana and Vince, who soon start dating. Even though a romance is involved, there are no sex scenes. Vince is a soldier, yet there are no violent scenes shown. All this adds to a very likable story with unnecessary sex and violence parts. The characters are highly likable, the act is very natural, although with a bit too fast-paced scenes sometimes, but it also adds to the realism and natural performance. Vince is somewhat presented as a very positive male figure in this boy's life, and an understanding man for his mom Dana. You can really connect with the main characters and care for what will happen to them. Also, the movie is very well orchestrated, the soundtrack is nice, and the movie gives an ever-present sense of gratitude to God and thanksgiving. A wonderful touch, and a really lovely family values themed movie showing that love can overcome any obstacles.
Bosco Adventure
(1986–1987)
One of the best story anime.
12 March 2009
Bosco Adventure is something you don't see so often these days, regarding the cartoon stories and plots. The title of this excellent anime says it all. The story takes part in places where citizens are talking animals, forest creatures, all living in their cute little houses and villages, surrounded by beautiful forests and landscapes. It really is an adventure, where the main character, princess Apricot, must travel to Fountain Land and try to restore the Water of Life. Her friends are helping her to achieve this, while constantly being pursued by some evil yet comical characters.
But besides this, one of the amazing things (at least in my opinion) are the beautiful landscapes and nature places shown in this anime where the story takes places. Combined with the beautiful yet nostalgic Japanese '80s music incorporated into the story, there is no way you won't be dragged into the story and feel happy or sad along with the main characters. Believe me, there are some moments where tears will come from your eyes. It's really, really very good combination of plot, characters and music. I suppose there are many users who have already seen this anime, and like myself, like it even today.
There is something magical in this anime, yet there aren't any spells or magics used in it. It is magical and beautiful in its own way. I watched this for the first time when I was a little boy myself, and still remember the enchantments of the "Bosco Adventure" even today.
But besides this, one of the amazing things (at least in my opinion) are the beautiful landscapes and nature places shown in this anime where the story takes places. Combined with the beautiful yet nostalgic Japanese '80s music incorporated into the story, there is no way you won't be dragged into the story and feel happy or sad along with the main characters. Believe me, there are some moments where tears will come from your eyes. It's really, really very good combination of plot, characters and music. I suppose there are many users who have already seen this anime, and like myself, like it even today.
There is something magical in this anime, yet there aren't any spells or magics used in it. It is magical and beautiful in its own way. I watched this for the first time when I was a little boy myself, and still remember the enchantments of the "Bosco Adventure" even today.
Bed & Breakfast
(1991)
Roger Moore and Thalia Shire are brilliant in this storyline
22 March 2008
This is one of the best romantic comedies I have seen. More of a romantic, and less of a comedy, never the less, Roger Moore is brilliant in his role of a "handy-man". The storyline is fine, and there are many moments in the movie that are simply very enjoyable. The performance is great, and the events and character's feelings in this movie are excellently backed up by David Shire's music. Overall, the movie and the music is great. I saw this movie on a local TV once or twice. Too bad I couldn't find this movie anywhere to buy, and after finding out that it had a very limited release on VHS/DVD... I think it's just too bad, because this is a movie worth having in the collection.
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