Tarkan Versus the Vikings

Not a knockoff of anything, for once. Tarkan is a homegrown Turkish pulp hero lifted from Sezgin Burak's comic strip, and Kartal Tibet plays him as a Hun warrior who guards the old ways with a sword and a wolf named Kurt. Here he takes on a Viking warlord and his scheming daughter, which mostly means fur costumes, energetic stunt tumbling, and the single most treasured effect in Yesilcam history, a giant rubber octopus that visibly wobbles as it menaces sacrificial maidens. It was shot fast and cheap on the standard Turkish schedule, and every lira is up on the screen, none of it well spent. The action is enthusiastic, the gore is more than you expect, and the octopus alone is worth the ticket.