I have inflicted this film on every house guest for the last two years. Why have I done this? First, because I am exceptionally cruel. Really, that's true. But second, I have done this because it is a very clever film from an unlikely source. How many Turkish films have you seen lately? Okay,"Once Upon a Time in Anatolia" should be a must-see for everyone, and you might have stretched to "Iklimer" or "Three Monkeys", but after that? After that is "G.O.R.A." This film is strangely unappreciated. As I tell all those who fall within my grasp, this celluloid baby is the best Turkish sci-fi comedy ever made. Of course, they retort: how many Turkish sci-fi comedies are there? But that's not the point. Instead, you should prepare yourself for an onslaught of charm from the very talented comedian Cem Yilmaz, who also wrote the film. (Which is probably why he gets to kiss the stunning Ozge Ozberk.) No, it's not perfect- there are a few too many moments of physical comedy with Ozkan Ugur, one fart joke too many with Rasim Oztekin, but overall, it's a great antidote for those who don't expect smart comedy from outside the traditional powerhouses of the international film circuit. And for those of you who don't know - the fourth element is not wood.

Cem Yilmaz's best film no doubt.

I still know the jokes by heart.

G.O.R.A is one of the most famous Turkish films ever made, for a combination of interesting and disastrous reasons.

The film ran into a lot of production issues and for that reason it took over 3yrs to make. What caused further complications is that G.O.R.A had the highest budget of any movie to come out of the country, they had a tremendous amount riding on the film.

Did it do well? Absolutely, it was a huge success and spawned 2 sequels. Did I enjoy it? Absolutely not.

G.O.R.A tells the tale of a Turkish carpet salesman who is abducted by aliens and made into a slave. Through his adventure he meets various wacky characters and deeply annoyed me from start to finish.

You see the film is a comedy, a very camp comedy and unlike anything I've seen come out of Turkey before it. This is not exactly a standard Turkish film, they really gambled on this one. I'm glad it worked out for them, but I scratch my head in confusion as to how/why.

The jokes are frequent, this is quickfire humor but very few of the jokes hit their mark. The jokes are silly, puerile, and I definitely wasn't the demographic. Sure I like goofy childish humor, I'd class Baseketball (1998) as one of my favorite films but this was unfunny and overkill.

Considering the budget everything is ugly, the cast join our lead in being deeply annoying and the movie does it's best to parody Hollywood and some of the most well known sci-fi movies such as The Matrix (1999) and The Fifith Element (1997). Sadly in doing so they embarrass themselves, original humor clearly isn't their forte and they have even less acumen for parody.

The film isn't devoid of redeeming qualities but it's certainly very niche.

The Good:

Opening was simply unfunny

A small handful of laughs

The Bad:

Vast majority of jokes are unfunny and childish

Lead walks a fine line of funny and really really annoying

Too long