Recep Ivedik

Popular Turkish comedy writer and performer Şahan Gökbakar ("Dikkat sahan cikabilir") recruits his younger brother Togan Gökbakar ("Gen") to direct the big screen début of his titular comedy character in this crude farce that was the year's box office number one in Turkey and has spawned two equally successful sequels.

Recep İvedik (Şahan Gökbakar) is a fat, aggressive, unibrowed slob who is put up in a classy Antalya hotel as reward for returning the owners lost wallet and proceeds to reek havoc with his uncouth ways as he tries to win over his childhood sweetheart Sibel (Fatma Toptas) in the set-up to this rather uninspired class-clash comedy.

Şahan Gökbakar creates an inspired burlesque exaggeration of the modern Turkish peasantry at large in the city while superb support comes from the likes of Fatma Toptas. Tulug Cizgen and Hakan Bilgin as the westernised "White Turks" whose mores and manners he violently collides with to give the film its comic edge.

The film-makers quickly eschew any deep social-commentary on the class-clash at the heart of their film in favour of broad farce and crude behaviour that sets the comedy creation among the likes of Mr. Bean or Borat except that here they are driven by a misguided romantic endeavour that requires us to actually empathise with this boorish buffoon.

"Hear me well; I'm aggressive, I have complexes."

I think my understanding of comedy has changed as time has passed. Farting didn't seem funny to me anymore, when I first watched it I was a kid, a teenager and the first movie was funny to me. I watched other movies too -_- What did I do?? The Movie is very, very bad.

Best movie ever. People who don't laugh are normie.

I really enjoyed this film. I had some doubts (prejudice rather) about it previously, due to a lot of people around me despising it. Therefore I haven't seen it until I saw bits of the sequel, and realised that I've really missed out on a remarkably funny movie. Yes it has elements of toilet humour, balls humour etc... But it's a comedy and it's bloody funny! The fact that some people of more "ordinary" taste in cinema might enjoy it too does not make it a lousy movie. Obviously it's not up there with the best of its genre, but it does what it says on the tin. Sahan Gokbakar has created a rather primitive character that is all but too familiar to Turkish audiences, thanks to similar movies and -what the heck- the man on the street! But the character also has a genuinely funny (not talking about the toilet humour) and sometimes surprisingly intelligent side to him.

I have a good taste in movies, but I'm not ashamed to say that I really enjoyed the 100-minutes I spent watching Recep Ivedik. I must say though, that it primarily appeals to a Turkish audience who would be familiar with the context. It may be perceived as a low-budget Borat copy by others.

Some films are so bad that they are actually good. And occasionally we feel affection for them because if nothing else, they invoke feelings of nostalgia when imagination and creativity were almost commonplace and the bottom line. However do not be fooled into thinking that because you found old Kemal Sunal, Sener Sen or Zeki-Metin movies or other well-written Turkish comedies funny, you'll respond similarly to this Recep Ivedik.

Sahan Gokbakar is not a very "funny" guy. At least for me.. He tries so hard to be funny, it is impossible not to be annoyed by him. I can maybe watch some 5 minutes of him and that would be it. This is 90 minutes and that was harsh.

If you don't count the continuous swearing and its unbearable annoyance, there is supposed to be a joke hiding somewhere in this film but obviously I blinked at the wrong time. If you have the sense of humor of an emotionally retarded orangutan you might just enjoy it but be sure not to blink..

If you are into Turkish humor or want to see a Turkish movie, please pass this. Try some old Sener Sen movies... Otherwise get ready to see some solid toilet humor without any endowment.