I always like to see off the beaten track cinema, and Karamurat is some way off even what I would term the beaten track. A Turkish historical adventure, it deals with the conflict between Turkish and Byzantine forces, with Turkish warrior Karamurat as its hero. On a mission of vengeance after evil Byzantine behaviour, he ends up beating, slicing and at times stabbing his way through an impressive quantity of foes, bringing laughs and occasional excitement. The film runs out of steam a little before the end but for the most part keeps up the right level of amusement, oddity and occasional inspiration. The sets and costumes are fairly impressive and there are a good number of extras, though the budget is clearly low the film has a nice sense of scale. Action is frequent though never especially well choreographed and the film relies on its star, Cuneyt Arkin to hold things together. He has a suitably tough physical presence and a good glower, he can swing a sword around OK and convinces somewhat as an action hero, so keeps things going OK, even at times where the action is really lax. There isn't much in the way of gore or outrage sadly, save mild bloody moments from the odd arrow and some of the slicing. What's there is pretty amusing though, especially in the climax. The lack of any nudity is a downer as well, it's the sort of film that could have done with some to boost its trashy credentials. This said, with the emphasis on the Turks being Muslims and occasional display of ceremony perhaps that sort of thing was never going to be on the cards. The inherent interest of seeing a film where Muslims are a force for good (relative to the films world at any rate, they at least aren't as sneaky as the Byzantines) at least slightly makes up for the lack of sleaze I guess. Director Natuk Baytan keeps things going pretty well, I wouldn't call his work inspired but it certainly does the job. Fights are perfectly visible, editing is deployed mostly in the service of fantasy rather than as a tool to make the fights look more impressive, an OK if ineffectual effort is clearly visible in distracting from more notably inept moments, its fair work. There are obvious pulled punches, rubber swords and bits where stabs or slices aren't connecting with their targets, but its good fun in an amateur sort of way. I kinda like being able to see the joins (as it were) in films like this, it may not do well for suspension of disbelief but its just plain fun to me, the amateurish artifice full of good intention if not ability. To many, this will just be too cheesy and badly done, and its not quite mental enough to be a true bad cinema classic, but I still had a pretty rocking time with it, so 6/10 or so.
