Okay, you�re probably thinking, how old is this fool? Why is he reviewing this kiddie fodder? I�ll tell you why; its quite good. If you can�t remember the story, here�s a quick recap: four pet turtles are dumped into the sewers, they manage to find, along with a rat, a broken canister of suspicious toxic waste. After a quick dip they mutate into 5ft walking, talking, pizza eating, surfer dudes. Except the rat that is, no no, his name is �Splinter�, and after naming them after his favourite artists � �Michaelangelo�, �Leonardo�, �Donatello� and 'Raphael' (what good taste he has!), Splinter teaches the heroes the way of the ninja from what he remembers from mimicking his former owner (as rats do) and begin kicking ass all over a crime infested New York City.
The master behind the huge crime wave is the evil �Shredder� (look at his suit and you�ll see why) who is recruiting young, rebellious, delinquents and training them as his thieving clan called �The Foot�. So its up to the Turtles, along with TV reporter (there�s always a female reporter!) April O�Neil and vigilante Casey Jones, to save the day.
Sounds crappy doesn�t it? Well you�d be pleasantly surprised, this movie isn�t the usual OTT, hyped up summer blockbuster. Its got a good, sound plot, and the dialogue isn�t too tongue in cheek. The acting is good all round from a strong cast of fairly unknown actors (including Corey Feldman providing the voice for Donatello), and the Turtles themselves are far from laughable, thanks going to the late (genius) Jim Henson. The Turtles provide plenty of expression and carry out the action scenes with great agility, the action scenes being well choreographed and very violent for a PG, despite the UK release being heavily cut taking out the extreme stuff, I�d like to see a full uncut version on DVD.
The movie as a whole, has a nice atmosphere to it, an antiquated feel balanced with the eastern blend which works very well against a gritty New York Suburbs backdrop. Rent it out if you haven�t already seen it, just don�t bother with the awful sequels.
Oh, by the way, a revival of the Turtles has been strongly mooted in Hollywood, action director veteran John Woo has expressed deep interest in taking the Turtles into a fully CGI animated feature film, sounds promising. |
