High Weirdness and Amy's B-Day
Mar. 25th, 2007 07:09 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dunmurderinYesterday was Amy's birthday so Friday night Rob and I took her out for dinner and a movie. Dinner was the Spaghetti Warehouse in downtown Dayton and the food there was OMG good. Service was fast, the toasted ravioli I got were the size of my palm and Amy and Rob each got the lasagna and chicken parm which we are still eating off of.
The movie was TMNT 'cause dude, it's turtles! Amy used to be a turtle fan back when she was a kid and I first discovered them in college. We figured it out even, we both saw the first TMNT live action movie when it came out back in 1991. I saw it for my 21st birthday and Amy would have seen it around/near her 16th birthday. And here's where the high weirdness kicks in: if you add 16 and 21, you get 37 -- which is what I turn on my birthday this year. What does this mean? Nothing, except I'm apparently more of a math geek than I thought.
The movie seriously kicked ass. We open with just a little backstory on the turtles -- enough to fill in the folks who've been living in a cave since 1991 and/or the kids who haven't seen the newer cartoon series which apparently this movie ties into somewhat. I thought it was pretty gutsy of them not to rehash the Turtles' origin stories since most superhero movies seem to think that's the way to go. Then again, most superhero movies are aimed at mainstream audiences and TMNT was aimed at the kids who already know the origins.
The movie's prologue concerns the story of an ancient warrior who, with his band of companions, attempted to take over the kingdoms of the world 3000 years ago. There was some business with stars aligning and monsters being released into the world and the companions being turned into stone while the warrior himself is cursed with immortality. According to Amy, this ties into one of the old Mirage comics from back in the day-day so I was pretty impressed by that since it's nice to see older stuff referenced.
The story proper starts a year after some event that caused Leonardo to leave the Turtles on a training mission (Master Splinter sent him). April O'Neil (voiced by Sarah Michelle Gellar) tracks him down in Central America and tells him that his brothers need him to return. He asks what they're up to and we find out that Donatello has been working in tech support (I FEEL YOUR PAIN DON!) and Michelangelo has been working as "Cowabunga Carl" and entertaining at birthday parties (shades of Ghostbusters 2) while Raphael has been doing the brooding loner bit and going out at night as a vigilante. (It's probably symptomatic of how far the Turtles have fallen apart as a team that Mikey and Don don't figure out that Raphael is the Nightwatcher).
Leo tells April that he's not going to come back to New York but...dude, you know he does. And once he does, his brothers welcome him -- except, of course, for Raphael, who is pissed that Leo left them and the two square off in a battle of wills for most of the movie that finally comes to a head in a knock-down/drag-out fight between the two of them.
And again, in the meantime, there's monsters running around the streets of New York and statues chasing the monsters and the Foot clan -- led by Shredder's daughter -- working for the statues and Patrick Stewart and helping to catch the monsters.
The turtles learn of the curse after Raphael and Casey Jones (who now has his balls back! YAY!) run into the Statues and the Foot clan capturing one of the 13 monsters. Raphael takes an ancient South American shuriken in the back and Casey recognizes the statues as the ones he and April delivered to Winters (Patrick Stewart).
We get Leo and Raphael angst, Raphael has an awakening, the Turtles join forces to rescue Leo from the bad guys, things turn out to be not what they seem and the Turtles, naturally enough, save the day. Overall, I give the movie a definite "Worth my time at after-six prices!" and a "Would see again at the theatre!"
What's funny is the local free culture paper had a small blurb about TMNT that seemed to express concern that the movie was not going to be live action because...because...I got no idea. I will bet virtual cash money, however, that TMNT isn't going to be one of their spotlight reviews. And if it is, they'll likely poo-poo it for being a cartoon/toy tie-in film because, as we all know, those are the devil incarnate.
ETA: Almost forgot the other high-weirdness of the week: Last night before work I started looking up videos on YouTube and for some reason decided to look up Kidd Video (a show only the 80s could have made) for the song "Come Back To Me". Well, I found the videos and I noticed that Whiz (blond, chubby faced, glasses) did most of the singing in the songs I listened to -- and he was the character I liked when I was a kid (even then, I knew, nerds were hot). Turns out Whiz is really Robbie Rist who was originally Cousin Oliver on the Brady Bunch and was also the voice of Michelangelo on the original TMNT live-action movies.
The movie was TMNT 'cause dude, it's turtles! Amy used to be a turtle fan back when she was a kid and I first discovered them in college. We figured it out even, we both saw the first TMNT live action movie when it came out back in 1991. I saw it for my 21st birthday and Amy would have seen it around/near her 16th birthday. And here's where the high weirdness kicks in: if you add 16 and 21, you get 37 -- which is what I turn on my birthday this year. What does this mean? Nothing, except I'm apparently more of a math geek than I thought.
The movie seriously kicked ass. We open with just a little backstory on the turtles -- enough to fill in the folks who've been living in a cave since 1991 and/or the kids who haven't seen the newer cartoon series which apparently this movie ties into somewhat. I thought it was pretty gutsy of them not to rehash the Turtles' origin stories since most superhero movies seem to think that's the way to go. Then again, most superhero movies are aimed at mainstream audiences and TMNT was aimed at the kids who already know the origins.
The movie's prologue concerns the story of an ancient warrior who, with his band of companions, attempted to take over the kingdoms of the world 3000 years ago. There was some business with stars aligning and monsters being released into the world and the companions being turned into stone while the warrior himself is cursed with immortality. According to Amy, this ties into one of the old Mirage comics from back in the day-day so I was pretty impressed by that since it's nice to see older stuff referenced.
The story proper starts a year after some event that caused Leonardo to leave the Turtles on a training mission (Master Splinter sent him). April O'Neil (voiced by Sarah Michelle Gellar) tracks him down in Central America and tells him that his brothers need him to return. He asks what they're up to and we find out that Donatello has been working in tech support (I FEEL YOUR PAIN DON!) and Michelangelo has been working as "Cowabunga Carl" and entertaining at birthday parties (shades of Ghostbusters 2) while Raphael has been doing the brooding loner bit and going out at night as a vigilante. (It's probably symptomatic of how far the Turtles have fallen apart as a team that Mikey and Don don't figure out that Raphael is the Nightwatcher).
Leo tells April that he's not going to come back to New York but...dude, you know he does. And once he does, his brothers welcome him -- except, of course, for Raphael, who is pissed that Leo left them and the two square off in a battle of wills for most of the movie that finally comes to a head in a knock-down/drag-out fight between the two of them.
And again, in the meantime, there's monsters running around the streets of New York and statues chasing the monsters and the Foot clan -- led by Shredder's daughter -- working for the statues and Patrick Stewart and helping to catch the monsters.
The turtles learn of the curse after Raphael and Casey Jones (who now has his balls back! YAY!) run into the Statues and the Foot clan capturing one of the 13 monsters. Raphael takes an ancient South American shuriken in the back and Casey recognizes the statues as the ones he and April delivered to Winters (Patrick Stewart).
We get Leo and Raphael angst, Raphael has an awakening, the Turtles join forces to rescue Leo from the bad guys, things turn out to be not what they seem and the Turtles, naturally enough, save the day. Overall, I give the movie a definite "Worth my time at after-six prices!" and a "Would see again at the theatre!"
What's funny is the local free culture paper had a small blurb about TMNT that seemed to express concern that the movie was not going to be live action because...because...I got no idea. I will bet virtual cash money, however, that TMNT isn't going to be one of their spotlight reviews. And if it is, they'll likely poo-poo it for being a cartoon/toy tie-in film because, as we all know, those are the devil incarnate.
ETA: Almost forgot the other high-weirdness of the week: Last night before work I started looking up videos on YouTube and for some reason decided to look up Kidd Video (a show only the 80s could have made) for the song "Come Back To Me". Well, I found the videos and I noticed that Whiz (blond, chubby faced, glasses) did most of the singing in the songs I listened to -- and he was the character I liked when I was a kid (even then, I knew, nerds were hot). Turns out Whiz is really Robbie Rist who was originally Cousin Oliver on the Brady Bunch and was also the voice of Michelangelo on the original TMNT live-action movies.
