Ölüme Son Adim

Although far from being a subject matter expert, I understand that Turkish exploitation cinema from the early 80s was all about taking a random successful cinematic blockbuster, filming their own national version of it and then unleashing it with the original title but with "Turkish" in front of it. "Turkish Mad Max" is different, however, and it makes a lot more sense to use the alternative title "One Step to Death". In the other examples that I've seen, the original film formats were logically copied and shamelessly ripped off (like "Turkish Superman" or "Turkish Rambo"), but "Turkish Mad Max" has absolutely nothing in common with George Miller's Sci-Fi landmark from 1979. The setting isn't apocalyptic, the lead hero isn't a lone avenger and there aren't any deranged psychopaths on motorbikes running around. Okay, admittedly the Turkish action here wears a leather jacket similar to that of Max Rockatansky, but apart from this tiny detail, the film might just as well have been named "Turkish Dirty Harry," "Turkish Death Wish" or even "Turkish Cinderella". Furthermore, this is the type of "bad film" that is hysterical and entertaining for about 15-20 minutes, and then it mainly becomes dull and insufferably inept. The stupidity of the dialogues and tackiness of the action sequences provide chuckles at first, but soon you'll be looking for the fast-forward button. Someone also really ought to tell the scriptwriters in Turkey that running jokes (like the "head or tails" or the "you're a terrible friend, Kaan") don't necessarily have to be repeated sixty-seven times!

Well, this is certainly something else! The seeming painfully low budget, the overlong fights and the non-involving beginning had me reaching for the remote very early on but gradually this won me over. Mr Inanc, who I had never even heard of, turns out to have helmed over 70 films and his male lead in this one, Cuneyt Arkin, has more than 250 films to his credit and is still working. The female lead, a rather attractive, if chunky, Emil Tumer, has not been so active but certainly excels in this. I suppose this looks a bit like Mad Max at times with the mixed bag that comprise the costumes and there are trucks and lots of explosions but this is really nothing more than a series of fights, fists, feet, knives, guns and hand grenades except it never quite runs the way we expect. There is a line of humour and for a brief moment when I switched from hating it to quite liking it, even wondered if it were supposed to be a comedy. But no and whilst not to be taken seriously it is pretty strong on the violent and sometimes bloody killings. One other thing, the girls wear very short skirts or tight shorts and not once is an opportunity missed for an up the skirt shot. Every time there is an uphill struggle, a rope to climb or an opponent to kick, where the camera would normally be expected to shy away here it revels in it. Very strong and effective ending ensures you cannot feel too bad about this non stop caper.