Review – Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows is complete and utter chaos.  A movie structured into three explosive half hour action sequences and a whole bunch of of exposition giving us necessary plot points and story structure.  This is the perfect mindless summer action movie and one that slapped a smile on my face the entire movie.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows starts with the recently detained Shredder (Brian Tee) breaking out of jail with two knuckle-heads, Bebop (Gary Anthony Williams) and Rocksteady (WWE stat Shameus) and partnering with the talking brain in a machine, Krang (voiced by Brad Garrett) to open up an alternate dimension and destroy the world.  It is up to Leonardo, Donatello, Raphael, and Michelangelo to stop this plan from happening while also dealing with internal issues amongst the group.

Usually after the synopsis, I talk about the acting the film.  In Out of the Shadows, acting is all irrelevant.  Megan Fox as April O’Neil is just useless.  She’s only there for her looks and delivers her lines about as well as a block of wood.  Stephen Amell is the new Casey Jones and he, much like Fox, is just a pretty face.  It would have been better if they recast Elias Koteas, the original Casey Jones from the original 1990 film.  Will Arnett is kind of funny.  Kind of.  I will say, I did like Williams and Shameus.  They were just goofy enough to make me laugh a couple times.  But like I said, these performances are irrelevant.  Oh, and Oscar nominee Laura Linney is in the film because, I don’t know, paycheck film?

The action in this movie is spectacular and the reason to see this flick.  It’s balls-to-the-wall, physics defying action at its finest.  Things explode, people get hit, sparks and colors fly, and it is all glorious.  I also loved seeing the new characters in the film.  Seeing Krang on the big screen was a childhood dream of mine.  He was scummy, gewy, and perfect.  Bebop and Rocksteady, like I said above, were a blast and hilarious.  And even though I bashed Amell’s performance as Casey Jones, the idea that we have Casey Jones in this universe is still cool.  We also get to see the nuntruck, the suped-up garbage truck filled with tons of gadgets like firing off manhole covers and having robotic arms with giant nunchucks come out the sides and destroy anything in its path.  This brought me immediately back to my childhood and made me the happiest person in the theater.

Look, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows isn’t a great movie.  It’s in fact very stupid.  But I’ll be damned if this isn’t one of the funnest movies of 2016.  If you were a fan of the cartoons or the originals from the 90’s, you’ll probably like this one.  It exceeds the first one and leaves room for sequels that I am actually excited to see.  It’s explosive, funny, incredibly entertaining, and the perfect summer escape.

MY RATING: 3/4

Did you see Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows?  What did you think?  Comment below or hit me up on Twitter @kevflix or on Facebook at Kevflix.