There is a Turkish cinematic phenomenon of ripping off well known blockbusters. These 'interpretations' usually depict American icons in a uniquely local way (for lack of a harsher term), and the intentions probably lose a bit of their significance given a limited understanding of Turkish culture, but these exploit movies are probably the unintentionally funniest movies that you can ever catch. They are 'serious' movies, by the way, and not parodies.

Known rip-offs include the Turkish Star Wars, Superman (Supermen, more like), Star Trek, and even a version of the Wizard of Oz. What's interesting about all this is the fact that most of the time, they only bother to rip off the costumes - badly at that - without particular regard for the actual characters' stories. It also merits mentioning that these movies usually splice in actual footage from the films they are aping (sometimes from other related movies), especially for tricky effects shots. Not only that, these exploit movies are especially violent, which is where most of the humor comes in, given that the level of violence they portray is similar to that of 70s B-movies but done with an even smaller budget. Lastly, there is the local action hero, Cüneyt Arkin. Arguably the Turkish equivalent of FPJ, Jackie Chan, Carlo J. Caparas and Errol Flynn combined, he's practically in every Turkish movie ever produced (IMDB lists 244 actor credits). It's a quirky cinematic culture, to say the least, but I'm quite sure that the Ottomans will have a good time laughing at Filipino movies as well, as they seem to have a weird sense of humor anyway.

Anyway, thanks to a link my friend sent me a long time ago, I'm sharing a personal favorite, pitting Captain America and Santo (a well-known Mexican luchador) against the evil Spider-man. The review is particularly funny. Enjoy!

http://www.i-mockery.com/minimocks/3devadam/default.php

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