Dag II

A modern Turkish version of the classic. Very good display of military tactics and weapons and, yes, exactly seven guys (albeit Special Forces) to hold off 200+ heavily armed Daesh with a tank who are attacking a previously defenseless village..

Remember this line:

"There is only one righteous reason in war: Defending the innocent."

A Turkish elite military squad commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Veysel Gökmusa (Murat Serezli) is assigned to rescue the Turkish journalist Ceyda Balaban (Ahu Türkpençe) that was kidnapped by rebels in Iraq. They succeed in their assignment but along their return journey they stumble upon a Turkish village that will be invaded soon. Veysel and his team live a dilemma: to accomplish their rescue mission or to defend the defenseless Turkish villagers.

"Dag II", a.k.a. "Mountain II", is an excellent Turkish film with the storyline of a secret military squad in a mission called "Storm Bringer" with the objective to rescue a Turkish journalist from Iraq. The soldiers are submitted to a tough training program but they become like a brotherhood. The non-chronological screenplay entwines past and present but for people like me that have not seen the first film, have difficulties to understand parts of the flashbacks. In addition, the lack of knowledge of the Turkish culture and the ethnic conflicts in that area makes difficulty for the viewer to understand the big picture. But "Dag II" is a great action film with feelings and should be nominated to the Oscar. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): Not Available

I will be honest, 9.9 points too high. There is the influence of nationalism. If you have big expectations, you will be disappointed. If we vote worldwide, this movie 7,5/10 (Ok, OK... Still a little bit of nationalism ^^), but if we vote for Turkish cinema, this movie 9/10. This is a great, and different job for Turkish cinema. Apart from that, it's a classic war movie with some stereotypes, that's all. Don't expect anything different.

Yes, Dag II(Mountain II) a nice war movie. But, don't compare with American war movies that cost 100 million dollar. That would be unfair. Because, Dag II's budget 2.000.000 Turkish Lira, it means ~550.000 dollar. But, Dag II is the best job that can be done with this budget.

Explosion effects can be better but passable(budget). Uniforms, weapons, equipment are real, taken from Turkish Armed Forces.

The movie is starting perfectly. The action is perfect in the second half. The conflict scenes were pretty good.

Dag II isn't like the first movie. The Dag was a struggle for survival. But Dag II a heroic story. Dag II is a different and much bigger movie. These guys are specially trained to kill but they aren't emotionless machines. Dag II shows this very well. They stay in dilemma, do the right thing, or just do your task. It's a tough decision and it can change a lot of things.

I can not wait for Dag III. With a much larger budget, as a bigger movie.

Also, if you want to watch another military movie from Turkish cinema, you should watch "Nefes: Vatan Sagolsun". There is a different, emotional and very impressive theme.

I'm by no means an expert on foreign films or Turkish cinema. I do, however, like a decent war movie. "The Mountain II" delivers.

1) It's always good to see a different take on a current conflict. Sure, this might be some Turkish propaganda, but for instance....the various ethnicities involved and their involvement in Iraq, with ISIS, etc...cool to see.

2) The good guys get major props for authenticity.....mostly. The SF guys' gear is impeccable. I do question, however, some of their tactics. Stick your sniper in the most exposed position ever?? Spray n' pray when you are down to your last mag? Still, they LOOKED good and in a movie, that counts.

3) Decent acting, decent story, decent pacing.

4) Glorious visuals. Not sure where this was shot, but it sure is pretty country.

Loses points for the bad guys getting shabby gear. I mean I can understand not getting a REAL Abrams for the ISIS goons, but those fake machine guns on the tank and the technicals?? Ugh, awful. It's also pretty long for what it is. Part of that is seeing Berik and the other dude (Oguz?) try out for the Maroon Berets. There are also a few snippets hinting at the first "The Mountain" movie. But it does seem to take awhile to get through.

One last thing.....I have never met a Turk, but those actors really came across as nice guys. I love to travel and I will have to check out Istanbul sometime.

The Turkish producers and directors are doing their job well at the moment! Look at this movie! It is just terrific! I liked the first part of this movie, but the second part is much more better than the first one. They used real artillery, helicopters and real machine guns and rifles in this movie! The MPT76 is the first national Turkish assault rifle and they used it in cooperation with the gun factory MKE. The actors got real military training for a few months before shooting this film in order to increase the realness and always used real military gear and equipment during the shootings! Just go and watch it, you won't regret it!