Landmark Theatres launches its new summer season of midnight movies at the Ken Cinema with the original live action version of "Teenage Ninja Mutant Turtles" (playing June 6 at midnight only). The timing for this couldn't be better. If "Land of the Lost" shows how to make a bad TV show worse on the big screen, "TNMT" reveals that you can maintain the same spirit of cheesy fun when adapting to a feature film.
"TNMT" began as an American comic, became an animated series, and for a time its live action film from 1990 was the highest grossing independent film raking in $133 million mostly from young devoted fans. The story involves a team of four turtle mutants living in the sewers of Manhattan. They were trained in the art of Ninjutsu by their sensei who happened to be a giant rat (rats are respected in Asian culture and viewed as wise and clever) named Master Splinter. From their subterranean headquarters they battled petty criminals, megalomaniacs with evil plans of world domination, and alien invaders.
The series and films (there were sequels) were aimed at kids but those kids who grew up with the Ninja Turtles have held them dear and maintained an obsession into adulthood. Hence the upcoming midnight screening that taps into the now-getting-older fan base. In fact almost all the films of the summer midnight series tap into the crowd of people who would have been teenagers in the 80s and have a burning desire to see films of their youth on the big screen now (so we will get "Goonies," "The Muppet Movie," "Ghostbusters," and "Back to the Future," all that's missing is "The Breakfast Club" and "St. Elmo's Fire" but they've played midnight before). My son used to watch the re-runs of the old "TNMT" TV show and the multiple movies, and I have to admit it was goofy fun that I could enjoy. Plus you gotta love a movie with actors in rubber mutant turtle suits and boasting the names of the greatest artists of all time -- Leonardo, Michelangelo, Raphael, and Donatello. So please avoid "Land of the Lost" at all costs and spend a far more enjoyable evening with the "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles." It's also noteworthy for being voiced by Corey Feldman (Donatello) and for having Sam Rockwell as a thug...ummm... "Head Thug" according to IMDb (I don't remember him but it's been awhile).
