Wacky Class in Army

Hababam Sinifi Askerde is the second remake/sequel of the 1970s hit films adapted from the great Turkish satire writer Rifat Ilgaz' novel. The original series, with its good and bad moments, was a bunch of heart-warming stories in the memories of many. This, on the other hand, is nothing but an abomination attempting to capitalize on that old, naive memory.

Nothing about this movie is worth the slightest amount of praise except occasional moments when individual actors do something right to get a slight smile from the audience. There is almost no sophisticated comic effort or clever twist, just blatant swearing and fart-jokes targeting the lowest-level intelligence. The cast list is one full of inexplicably popular but painfully talentless names, and Kemal Kenan Ergen fails to produce a script worthy of the late grand master Rifat Ilgaz.

Represents all that fails about the Turkish Cinema of the 2000s. Cheap sexploitation, a cast of randomly assembled semi-talented and semi- famous actors (and non-actors), a series of randomly scattered simplistic pop references, a non-realistic plot which could be written by a 10 year old as summer homework, appeals perhaps only to the kidults who long for their wasted high school years in search of a daydreaming flashback moment.

Lacks the charm, ingenuity and authentic warmth of the original series as well as the chemistry of the original cast which made it work as well as it did. Wasting the memory of a franchise for a quick buck isn't something I'd put past Turkish producers but one expects at least a modicum of care for a piece of work that you put your name on. Alas, it wasn't to be.

Just that horrible, don't waste your time watching it if you're over 12 years old and even if you are there are much better flicks worthy of your time.

Okay, I admit it's a bad movie, but some movies are valuable to you because you watched them as a kid. This is one of those movies that I watched a lot when I was a kid, when I was at school, I still know some lines by heart.

Ferdi Egilmez, the son of the legendary director Ertem Egilmez, has proved in his debut as director, that he is capable of producing a first class comedy, where the audience gets tears in their eyes while laughing.

Hillariously funny... Full of surprises.

The film will definitely overrun the success of "Hababam Sinifi Merhaba (2004)".

It is very encouraging to see that the new episodes of the Hababam movies follow the path of the first one, which is already a cult in Turkish cinema.

A must see.

Ahmet Sen Hamburg/ Germany

One of the modern reboots of a classic series, based on the novel by Rıfat Ilgaz, that first appeared in the late Seventies. The material will seem extremely familiar to non-Turkish viewers, with strong echoes of chaotic classroom comedies such as the ST. TRINIANS saga, and British black-and-white National Service satires such as ORDERS ARE ORDERS (1954) and most notably CARRY ON SERGEANT (1958).

The comedy opens with Bedri the Lunatic (Mehmet Ali Erbil) being outwitted once again by his anarchic group of mature learners. He has acid placed on his head teacher's chair that burns through his pants and leaves his bottom bare. He walks out of school to a chorus of laughter. In revenge he decides to send the whole class on National Service, even though technically they should have left school before they are eligible for this.

There follows a series of gags based on the familiar theme of the incompetent squaddies bossed about by their sergeant (Erbil again). The chief comic conceit is that the learners think the sergeant is actually Bedri the Lunatic in disguise, and cannot take him seriously. They only learn to do so when Bedri unexpectedly turns up at the barracks, claiming that he has missed his class too much.

The comedy is quite old-fashioned, with several gags based around the squaddies ogling their female counterparts in a fashion reminiscent of Benny Hill. There is also a battle-of-the-sexes theme, as the sergeant resents the presence of female squaddies in the barracks under the command of Major Zehra (Hülya Avşar). His antediluvian prejudices are soon put to shame, however, as the girls outwit the boys in a night exercise.

HABABAM SINIFI: ASKERLİK is nonetheless interesting, if only for its underlying nationalist preoccupations. We see several shots of the Turkish flag in the background, as well as the portrait of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. Right at the end a soldier is seen in medium close- up giving the kind of cheer-leading speech that would encourage soldiers to fight in their country's cause, and thereby fulfill Atatürk's vision of a great nation.

The film ends with a surprise twist, but this does not undermine its underlying emphasis on the importance of everyone forming a community so as to ensure their future irrespective of gender differences.