Turkish for Beginners (2012)

Pretty Good

People are voting emotionally.

Admirable film.

When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

"Türkisch für Anfänger" is a German film from 3 years ago that is actually a spin-off from a really successful German television series. I have not seen that series, but it's really hard for me to believe that they made it work looking at how big a mess this film has become. The writer and director is Bora Dagtekin and he was also the creator of the television show. You may know him better from his recent film "Fack Ju Göhte", one of the most commercially successful German movies of all time and of course they will make a sequel soon. But back to this one here. The biggest problem is definitely the script. Hardly a single line feels authentic that it's really coming from the character and not just an actor pretending to say it. Of course this also has to do with the talent (or lack thereof) from the lead actors Josefine Preuß and Elyas M'Barek.They thought to make this somewhat special by putting all the action on a tropic island, but they really failed here. The banter by the protagonists and the constant question on how masculine is too masculine and how emancipated the female character has to be in order to be respected but not annoying is pretty bad. It's sad to see how this film actually takes itself so seriously at times and at other times is trying so hard to be funny. And it fails on all fronts. One of the worst parts would be when that guy kisses the mother of Preuß' character at the end, but it still can be worse. The worst moment of all is when the mother tells the daughter that she is glad that her daughter finally did drugs. Like wtf? Then again, it's just the tip of the iceberg. There are embarrassing scenes every couple minutes. Truly embarrassing. Not just uninteresting and unrealistic, but really even way worse than that. Probably the worst German movie of 2012 and it's quite a shame it's actually among the most known from that year too as it really gives a bad name to German cinema. Highly recommended to stay away.

The acting was nice, not too enjoyable, but still nice. The story was pretty plain, but in a good way, thought, I don't remember how it started, so I have no idea what to say about that strange old(?) lady with blonde hair and her transition into the main story.To me, the characters were very interesting, but not enough to remember their names. The main cast (as I understand - the 2 males and 2 females) was different enough to enjoy them. Overall (not like I said much anyway), the movie was funny enough for me, but to be honest, I wouldn't suggest it to anyone else.

In fact, there is no measurement HOW bad this is!It starts with the most dreadful "acting" I have seen in along time, and this goes for every single character in the movie. It's like they asked random people right off the street if they'd like to be in a movie.The story is harebrained and stupid. Not a single line of the dialog is even remotely funny, every second of it is so embarrassing, you feel ashamed for watching it.It's playing with the lowest of clichés possible and failing even at that. I admit, I walked out after 20 minutes of pain but I am absolutely sure it did not get any better after that.Oh, and did I already mention how bad the acting is?

There are two main reasons, why i've chosen to see this movie - first there's the funny TV-Show, finished a while ago and the very well chosen scenes from the trailer shown in cinemas. Compared to the TV-Show, the movie isn't less nor more funny - refreshed with new jokes according to the present situation in Germany (and the world).The actors are the same - it's the story that's told in a different way - awesome decision and thrilling plane crash (like seen in trailers). Actually, the crash let me go out of the movie with a bad attitude towards flying... Nevertheless, that's where the fun begins and you start to enjoy the movie, the Germans, the turks and the Greek. The end is predictable for those who've seen the show, but it is not taking the joy.Funny, funny, funny and entertaining 'til the credits!