A.R.O.G

First of all I'am a huge fan of cem yilmaz, I adored his stand-up shows and the movies he played in. The first movie he made himself was G.O.R.A. He did play in it, write it and did the directing with Ömer Faruk Sorak(Vizontele). The movie was about Turks in space, it was a very good movie, the jokes were hilarious and I gave it a 10. Now he made the sequel A.G.O.R. with another director Ali Taner Baltaci which was a co-assistant at vizontele. The sequel is this time about Turks in the pre-historic time. The movie wasn't what I expacted at all. The effect were lots of better than the first part, but the movie was boring and the jokes weren't funny expact 2 or 3 jokes. I really wonder why this movie was so bad was it because of Ali Taner Baltaci? or is Cem Yilmaz not so funny as he supposed to be?

It's great I still know the jokes by heart.

Cem Yilmaz.....

Arog is by far the worst movie that Cem Yilmaz has ever made. He used a simple plot, amateur actors like in all his other movies. But unlike others, he could not get a warm, entertaining movie. There were not big laughs in any of the jokes which were mostly about Turkish idioms. The plot was boring, I counted minutes towards the end. Lot's of money spent and they used the technology right. However, if the story is bad and the jokes are bad, this cannot help the movie out.

I feel that Cem is not very funny any more. He should spend more time to find jokes and construct a movie. Writing a script in a short time is not working out for him any more.

A.R.O.G is the sequel to G.O.R.A (2004) a Turkish mega budget sci-fi comedy and follows on from it really quite well.

Our hero Arif is back safe and sound at home with his cosmic love Ceku, but Logar isn't done with him and he finds himself sent back in time one million years!

Considering that G.O.R.A was Turkey's biggest movie to date and the amount of time and effort that went into it I wasn't impressed at all. I found it to be an unfunny two hours of silliness and campness, so I expected the absolute pits from A.R.O.G.

To my surprise it is better, but not by much. Unlike the first it has lost most of the campness and more jokes hit the mark.

The first movie was a standard sci-fi affair, all set in space with the usual tropes so writing A.R.O.G in this way was a huge gamble. This is barely sci-fi, the majority of the movie is set in the stone age so it's a very different creature altogether (And personally that suited me better).

Sure it's still silly and most of the jokes are terrible but I found myself cringing considerably less so that's something, right?

With most of the original cast, following on directly from the previous movie and the same "Charm" I'd say despite my low rating this is an accomplishment. I'm not the demographic, but I do see the appeal.

The Good:

Cem Yilmaz's ability to play two very different characters without me even realizing it was him!

Some funny moments

The Bad:

Too much western pop culture, it feels forced

Still plain silly

I don't understand why Cem Yilmaz insists so much in making movies. He is a very funny man. He is extremely successful in his stand up shows. He can entertain thousands when he is on the stage with his black shirt and trousers. With minimum investment, no decor, no make up, he generates maximum return in his shows. But when it comes to cinema I think he does not take his business as serious as it should be. It is as if he finds the jokes and starts the movie without any fundamental preparation. He needs professional help in creating a good story, writing a satisfactory script, finding a reasonable team of actors, needs a good cinematographer, editor and director. We expect really good movies from him as he has talent to contribute to a good movie. But he can not do everything by himself, this would be an insult to cinema. If he thinks that he will be successful in cinema so easily I think he is wrong.