TMNT Mutant Mayhem

 

TITLE-Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Mutant Mayhem

SOURCE-Blu Ray

I bought this Blu Ray  at least a year ago if not longer ago. Had heard it was really good,found  it for 5 bucks new and grabbed it. Opened it  ,redeemed the digital  code. Then  never watched it. Until recently.

We get the standard TMNT origin. Splinter living in  the sewers finds the turtles and the ooze. They mutate and Splinter  raises them  teaching the ways of  the  NINJA. What changed this time is  the teenage aspect  is in  the  forefront. The 4 brothers are in their mid  to late teens. Wanna goto  school,they wanna explore the city. There is 2 other major changes. One is that April O'Neil is  now a high school kid. The other change I will mention near the end of this piece.

Seems someone known as Superfly is getting various pieces of equipment stolen. The TMNT gang along with  April try to  figure this out and fastly learn it is a gang of Mutants. Superfly,voiced by  Ice Cube,is their leader. But you got Rocksteady & Bebop,Genghis Frog,Mondo Gecko,Wingnut,Leatherhead and many of the other mutants. Seems Superfly wants to build a device that will mutate all the other animals and they can then  take over the world from the Humans.

The  animation is gorgeous. Like at first I wasn't sure,it has a very different look to it from any other animated TMNT thing. Once you get use to it it works well. I like how they made each of the turtles look different. Really in this film  there was no need for  each turtle to have a different colored bandana. Each of them  has a distinct body. 

I loved the soundtrack. A  nice mixture of mostly NYC based artists. Wasn't expecting to hear Wu Tang Clan in a TMNT movie!

Now time for that other change I mentioned... Shredder only appears right at the end before the credits start. Yep a TMNT movie with out Shredder. And I was 50 minutes into the film before I realized he wasn't in it.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Mutant Mayhem gets a A-.

The Big Hit

 

TITLE-The Big Hit

SOURCE-Tri Star DVD

This is one of many films I saw back in  the  early days of DVD. Had a buddy who would go every Tuesday and rent pretty much every new release ,on vhs,from Hollywood Video. Pile of us would gather at his home 2 nights a week and  watch  movies.

Mark Wahlberg is a hitman/robber with a heart. He is trying to balance not only his one girlfriend,played by Christina Applegate,but another woman in  his life,who is only there to scam money from  him.

The group of wacky criminals he works with is a pretty decent  group of Hey that guy.
Lou Diamond Philips as the defacto leader of the group.
Antonio Sabata Jr as the ladies man.
Bokene Woodbine as a guy obessses with jerking off.

I said they were wacky.

They kidnap the daughter of an Asian businessman. Not knowing he is now broke from  funding a major movie that bombed. The kidnapped daughter gets dropped off at Wahlbergs house the same day his gf and her parents are  coming  to visit. Oh and we learn the  kidnapped daughter is the god daughter of these criminals big boss!

Che-Kirk Wong is the director and this feels like a Hong Kong action/comedy filtered through a US studio,which was Tri Star. We pretty much  go from  comedy to a stunt piece back to comedy.

And how can you hate a film  where a major plot point revolves around a rented vhs  of King Kong Lives?

No clue if this has a 4k or Blu Ray release? I got the DVD for a buck  and  am happy with it.

The Big Hit gets a B+.