Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie review - Aussieboyreviews
IS TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES FOR FANS OF THE CARTOONS?
These pizza-loving, crime-fighting teenage mutant ninja turtles come to the big screen with a live-action movie. General audiences will forgive the flaws and plot holes, and be able to enjoy this action-comedy as an entertaining, fun pizza-worthy time.
Storyline
The crime-fighting, pizza-loving teenage mutant ninja turtles must put their training by their rat sensei to use in order to stop the evil criminal known as Shredder from taking over the world.
Movie Images
Movie details
Director: Steve Barron
Cast: Judith Hoag, Josh Pais, Brian Tochi, Robbie Rist, Corey Feldman, Kevin Clash, Elias Koteas, James Saito
Writer: Todd W. Langen, Bobby Herbeck
Release Date (Australia): 2 August 1990
Runtime: 93 minutes/1h 33m
Genre: Action, Comedy, Sci-Fi
Country: USA
Language: English, French
CONTENT GUIDE (warning: May contain spoilers)
The film contains themes of crime that are mild in impact and features a sustained sense of threat, frequent action sequences and a character implicitly being crushed in a garbage truck compactor.
The film frequently features fight scenes, as well as combat and beatings.
The film includes several uses of the word “damn” and occasional use of the word “hell”.
The film contains a verbal reference to steroids.
None.
None.
mpaa rating
PG (for an unknown reasoning)
Aussie boy's thoughts
Probably not the brightest decision on the filmmakers’ end to hire costume designers who do a flawless job, but take on a weak script that beholds no surprises or fresh ideas. If you’re here just for the joy of seeing these four protagonists eating pizza, joking around and eventually teaming up against a baddie, you’ll probably enjoy this movie a lot. Their goal here is to take down the evil villain known as Shredder, who’s developed a plan to take over the world with his gang of teens. If that sounds appealing to you, then it probably will be appealing to you, especially if you’re a fan of the cartoons.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles has an abundance of positives and notable talent that make it an enjoyable viewing, other than the fact that kids and most adults will find it very watchable. For example, it’s well-casted; imagining an actress other than Judith Hoag as April and different voice performers for the ninja turtles and their rat sensei is kind of difficult. Humour is also sprinkled throughout, both for kids and adults, although not all of it lands very well. But the best aspect by far is obviously the effort that went into the costume designs for these humanoid turtles and rat, because they absolutely steal our attention when they’re on screen. Unfortunately though, some of the voice syncing is way off and it can be very distracting.
However, if the creators of the live-action Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie wanted it to be perfect or at least a film worth sitting through, it could definitely make use of feedback, mainly related to the script, concept and development with the characters and their stories. Yeah, the film technically has a plot synopsis, but it feels like it lacks story whilst you’re actually sitting there and watching it. There is no character development and we never get to know much of their thoughts or ideas in their mind. As a result, we don’t really care about them winning and eventually finding success. You could at least do the opposite with the villain and his motives, but no, Shredder is a very boring and forgettable villain who just ends up being defeated easily. In addition, there’s also plot holes and bigger themes that they bring up, but never really dig further into. You don’t need to worry about seeing this movie, even if you’re a fan of the animated series. They could’ve made a really awesome action-adventure comedy for families, but TMNT is just not that.
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