Arif V 216

If you want unterstand this film you must watch G.O.R.A. and A.R.O.G.

If you are a non-Turkish moviegoer, most of this movie might make no sense at all. For the uninitiated, it's just another sci-fi comedy revolving around an odd couple who goes back to the past and messes everything up hilariously. However, for a Turkish person, it is full of references to black-and-white melodramatic movies, colorful yet still melodramatic musicals and so forth. In addition, Arif and 216 are already well-known and much-liked by the Turkish audience from their previous roles in GORA and AROG.

The movie uses many cliches of old Turkish films by twisting or combining them in a weird way to create comedy plots. And, it is clear that particularly Sadri Alisik has a special place for Cem Yilmaz, because the film heavily borrows themes and stroylines from his works.

It's a solid 5 for the internationals and 7 for the Turkish audience.

In a country where the first university was established in the 20th century, this film is a milestone, a turning point and an enlightenment in terms of its capturing storyline, acting quality, excellence in terms of the technicality of cinema, the messages it gives and so on!

Since I work in the US, I am aware of how important the art, literature and lately the film industry is in scientific developments. Remember how many years submarines appeared on the stage of history after Jules Verne's book Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea. Unfortunately, Turkey is not even at the stage of dreaming about science and technology yet.

As a scientist who believes that many Cem Yilmaz films should be included in primary, middle and high school curricula, I believe that even thinking that this film is only a tribute to Yesilcam is a result of this lack of imagination of science.

As many Cem Yilmaz viewers agree, since Cem Yilmaz never made films for money or popularity, his films are 40-50 years ahead of the country's level of education, consciousness, imagination and creativity.

Perhaps those who will invent and produce Turkey's first one-of-a-kind artificial intelligence some decades from now, I am sure, will remember ArifV216 with gratitude and a big smile.

I just watched the film, I have to say, it suits its purpose perfectly. I will try to analyze it as I can but I have to say, people who criticize it here, really are bad at it. Either they don't understand CEM YILMAZ and they don't know his style or they are just so bad at reviewing films, this is just one of them. This review will not have any spoilers.

It started slowly at the beginning, I think it was just for preparing the audience for the story behind it. It's not a movie that you will continue watching after the first 10 min, but it builds up afterward. The story is normally, in my opinion, would be boring if someone else did it. It had so much good referring and pointings, only the people who know about them would notice. So, It's not for everyone in that sense. In some scenes, I laughed pretty hard. Not because of the jokes but because of the way the film is moving and because of the abnormalities that are shown in the film. It was processed so well that it would give an expression as if a "Turkish" guy would do this, this would be the way he would do it. It crashes the cliches of Holywood with cliches in Turkish Culture. So, people who don't see this or find this funny might seem this is another cliche. It was actually entertaining.

Most of the people should understand, CEM YILMAZ uses his stories to make people laugh in his stand-ups and in the film industry he uses his imagination and creativity and blending it with Turkish Culture. So, ofcourse expecting it to be like in stand up shows, you will end up not understanding him and his movies. Eventually, you would think that they are not funny, therefore. My suggestion, just let it go all of your expectations and wishes and enjoy a different perspective. I think people can't enjoy because they forgot their own cultures or they are ashamed of it.

About the fight scenes and their qualities, the graphics etc. : It's perfectly normal that they are not that good. It's not a holywood film and we have seen too much before that we are not realizing, in the Turkish film industry, this is better than gold.

I have seen some people saying the speech on the last scene was meh... It is his style. It's not the first time he did it and I don't think it will be the last time. In my personal opinion, it shows where he comes from. It shows how sincere he is when he does his thing. I enjoyed every minute of the movie. Congratz...

Arif v 216 is a bit of a back step considering the previous films AROG and GORA. Yet I firmly believe it achieves what it sought. The film is mainly about traveling back to 1960s and experience the naive sentimentality of those times through the lens of Turkish movies of that time. Thus, one could enjoy the luxury of meeting all the greats of Turkish cinema in 1960s as if one were in a parade. The directing of the film is quite satisfactory. The acting of the lead actors is also quite good. The plot flows quite smoothly, which makes the viewing very enjoyable. Technically speaking, the film was almost flawless. All in all, I could say that with all the reference to our nostalgia included, the film is absolutely a nice and easy watch. However, I cannot state that it is a great film. It is a good film worth watching and enjoying oneself.