My review was written in July 1990 after watching the movie on Magnum video cassette.
"Istanbul" is a low-energy, mindless thriller made by Sweden for the international market.
Best thing here is the theme song accounting for its subtitle: "Keep Your Eyes Open".
Timothy Bottoms, soon to be back in A-level movideom in "Texasville", walks through his role as a New York Times correspondent based in Sweden who travels to Istanbul with his preteen daughter (Emma Kihlberg) on a secret mission.
Having received a videotape from the boy's father, he's seeking mysterious information about his stepson of half-Turkish descent (mama is Swede Lena Endre). Preposterous plot gimmick kills the film early on, as Bottoms on his wife's advice takes Kihlberg with him rather than his son, and the young girl is the victim of endless kidnapping attempts.
Equally unbelievable is the appearance in Istanbul of Twiggy with her own daughter. She befriends Bottoms and manipulates him as a part of a murky plot. Robert Morley is also along for a brief cameo to deliver pointless exposition about illegal arms trading.
With this unpromising material, director Mats Arehn bungles the climax which makes no sense as presented.
Acting is weak and the film is further sabotaged by variable sound recording which creates a synthesizer distortion in dialog scenes that is annoying.
"Istanbul" is a low-energy, mindless thriller made by Sweden for the international market.
Best thing here is the theme song accounting for its subtitle: "Keep Your Eyes Open".
Timothy Bottoms, soon to be back in A-level movideom in "Texasville", walks through his role as a New York Times correspondent based in Sweden who travels to Istanbul with his preteen daughter (Emma Kihlberg) on a secret mission.
Having received a videotape from the boy's father, he's seeking mysterious information about his stepson of half-Turkish descent (mama is Swede Lena Endre). Preposterous plot gimmick kills the film early on, as Bottoms on his wife's advice takes Kihlberg with him rather than his son, and the young girl is the victim of endless kidnapping attempts.
Equally unbelievable is the appearance in Istanbul of Twiggy with her own daughter. She befriends Bottoms and manipulates him as a part of a murky plot. Robert Morley is also along for a brief cameo to deliver pointless exposition about illegal arms trading.
With this unpromising material, director Mats Arehn bungles the climax which makes no sense as presented.
Acting is weak and the film is further sabotaged by variable sound recording which creates a synthesizer distortion in dialog scenes that is annoying.