Hunting Season (2010)

Av Mevsimi (Hunting Season) is in certain terms as good as a production can get in Turkey: great cast, great cinematography, great sets, state of the art technology unfortunately though the great production could not be translated into a good movie. Yavuz Turgul is a masterful screenwriter, the best in Turkish cinema history for sure. He knows his mathematics very well. He was time and again proved this since Muhsin Bey. There is no hole in his scripts which is impossible for other Turkish films and scripts that contain more holes than swiss cheese. Mr Turgul has had the self made fortune of collaborating with Sener Sen for over 30 years now! Sener Sen has not appeared in any movie that was not written by Turgul. Hopefully after this his mind will change. Because as masterful as Mr Turgul is with script mathematics he is just as unimaginative and lacks creativity when it comes to tuning that mathematics with great story lines, engaging characters and witty developments. Unfortunately he keeps repeating himself and regardless of whether he is writing about an old time bandit (eskiya), a teacher who has returned to his Istanbul home after years at Anatolia outskirts (gönül yarası), a Mafioso who still embraces old ethic codes like a samurai (kabadayı) or as with this picture about a forensic chief he is depending on the same main character and similar web of story lines. Every main character Mr Turgul created since Eskiya have been the same and unfortunately he alone has access to Turkey's tour de force actor Sener Sen. The acting and directing in the movie has been the most disappointing aspects of the picture for me: at times the acting is raw, at times authentic and at other times comical (Çetin Tekindor's delivery of last lines). The Turkish media and critics that is composed of a few monkeys scratching each other's back and never writing anything bad about bad movies made by influential people has of course spoken of this picture too as a 'masterpiece'. Unfortunately it is not! Especially the acting of Cem Yılmaz, a loved persona by myself too, doesn't get better than any of the characters from Turkish police TV series such as Arka Sokaklar. The storyline never gets interesting or clever. At an age when CSI and similar TV series are putting such emphasis on the storyline, Hunting Season manages to be as interesting as an episode of CSI NY, and nothing more. Compared to Millennium Trilogy it is a movie for people who have no idea about the genre. The music selection was good but Mr Turgul has for the first time agonized me with his use of music as a mood pusher. The music always makes itself more than apparent! Which is very sad as the use of music has always been one of Mr Turgul's strenghts. Editing and the overly washed light footage are other inconsistent elements of the movie. At times the editing reminds one of Svankmayer's pieces: creating an alter persona through blurring of images and movement of the camera close to the face however this (as with Tekindor's last scene) makes the movie more comical than anything! The worst aspect yet of the movie was the unnecessary voice over! If anyone catches the meaning of that voice over please explain as all it did was push feelings down the throat of the audience in arabesque ways and it didn't even have a finely tuned closure. 5 stars for what Mr Turgul means to Turkish Cinema and regardless of how disappointing he has been still the contribution Cem Yılmaz will have to the same art.

Fmovies: This movie is an attempt to create a modern Turkish detective movie, which also aims to demonstrate a moody atmosphere. There's almost no Turkish detective movie to trace back that would help us to compare, so we can assume this movie tries to accommodate an approach. It's not an easy task, since our view is hugely affected by Hollywood movies. The movie indicates Turkish lifestyle, traditions, relationships and death.

The very thing you might appreciate about this film is probably acting - but not the acting by minor characters. Cem Yilmaz, in particular, exhibits the most notable performance in this movie. Other major characters' performances vary from "almost good" to "so so". Minor characters' performances are generally "below so so" with some exceptions.

While the plot is not the strongest aspect of this movie, the revealing of the story makes things a little more mediocre. You may even sense the atmosphere is crumbling beyond a point. Nevertheless, there are no unnatural absurdities, no unnecessary exaggerations and no forced heroes. Some of the nuances and references are amusing or interesting and they're enhancing the experience.

The genre is somewhat new for Turkish cinema. What do I mean? First of all, expectations should not be high. And second, introducing a movie in an unexplored genre makes things interesting, makes it a different experience. Yes, there are so many better movies from Turkish cinema, from Yavuz Turgul or from this genre. But just don't keep your expectancies too high, you may actually enjoy this movie.

Well, to be honest I was expecting much more of this from Yavuz Turgul, after Gönül Yarası and Eşkiya. Besides some certain wrong connotations and wrong ways of acting, the movie's overall fluctuating search for a rhythm make me said this. What you expect from a police thriller is tension and curiosity, but I've lost both in the middle of the movie. The story of the homicide policemen took its place in the core, and I forgot the story of late Pamuk. The good part of the movie was its uniqueness, while Turkish cinema followers are not familiar to watch such genre in Turkish Cinema. I hope it'd be a good start and the level goes up every time. For Turgul, I hope there will be another masterpiece in two years. For Sener Sen, there is not much to say, however in the start the preaching part seems so artificial, it seems Sen is reading from a prompter, but for the rest, he's the best. Cem Yılmaz is still striving to become an actor, but he's done a good job also, especially the sad moments. For the rest of the cast, there seems not so brilliant acting to me. In conclusion, the movie is worth watching for Sener Sen and for its being unique for Turkish Cinema. And if you want to enjoy it more, forget it's a Yavuz Turgul movie, than you'll expect less. Best Wishes

Hunting Season fmovies. Perfect acting, perfect musics, perfect story. Before everything it's have best atmosphere in Turkhis movies. It's so funny and same time so sad.

After many boring worthless Turkish movies Turgul made his latest masterpiece. Perfect story and storytelling, extra ordinary casting, wonderful photographing... Cem Yilmaz who is best Turkish Stand-up comedian shows us very ordinary Police officer with excellent acting. People who is waiting any joke from him during 2 hour may be disappoint. Sener Sen is also another Comedy player but after movie I am sure that no one will remember him as a comedy player. There is many word to tell about the movie. My writing skill in English is not enough to express my critics. Sorry. Finally I hope we will not wait long time for another Turgul Movie. Thank you Master Turgul

Well, let me be brief. There are downsides but the overall movie is quite good. Especially the beginning was very well done. The acting was pretty good but the story was not as strong as it could be. At the middle of the movie, the reason of the murder was so clear that I must say it ruined the rest of the movie. They could add a twist at the end but they follow a straightforward story line and the movie ends exactly where you would expect. Apart from this, the movie fulfills the expectations. The soundtracks are quite nice, the cinematography is stunning, the atmosphere is given very well and the character development phase is pretty good. If you are bored of crappy Hollywood movies, this one is a quite nice alternative.