If you’re looking for complete and utter mindless fun, with a good helping of nostalgic genius, then you can’t go too far wrong with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out Of The Shadows. It does its origins fairly proud and makes for an infectious joy to watch if your a fan of the cartoon TV series, the 1990s movies or comic book action comedies in general. Admittedly, if you don’t fall into any of these then there’s going to be little to entice you, but if you do then it’ll be the kind of film that keeps you entertained from oozy beginning to inter-dimensional end.
Getting its release on DVD, Blu-ray and digital download on the 24th October 2016, it makes for enjoyable viewing, giving you free reign to relax, wind down the grey matter and let it steam roll over you with its dumper truck intensity. It’s also going to be a big shout for Christmas present stocking filler for any T.U.R.T.L.E. POWER lovers out there and with so much action, comedy and pizza, it’s one that will get more than just the one play over the years.
The story picks up a little while after the opening movie, which culminated in the Turtles’ first climactic battle with Shredder and the Foot Clan. This time around, their destructive arch-nemesis manages to bust out of prison and begin a new attack on the city of New York thanks to the scientific know-how of Dr. Baxter Stockman, played with good balance by Tyler Perry (Gone Girl). However, in the process they manage to cross dimensions, drawing Kang into the mix with high impact results, which, along with the introduction of Beebop and Rocksteady, does a lot to escalate the film to make the sequel worth the effort.
The cast works out well with yet more imperfect charm from Megan Fox (Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen) as April Oneil. Will Arnett (Lego Batman Movie) is pretty funny as Vern Fenwick, who’s been eagerly taking the credit for the city-saving heroics of Leonardo, Raphael, Donatello and Michelangelo since the end of the first film. The addition of Stephen Amell (Arrow) as Casey Jones is decent enough, but it probably needed a bit more serious intent to really bring the role to life. Luckily, Pete Ploszek, Alan Ritchson, Noel Fisher, and Jeremy Howard are pretty much perfect as the voice actors for the Turtles.
Beebop and Rocksteady are preposterously brilliant, played to silly comic perfection by Gary Anthony Williams and WWE wrestling star Sheamus (AKA Stephen Farrelly). They work well as Splinter’s new Ooze generated weapons of massive destruction, and also counterbalance Brian Tee’s stone-faced delivery as the Japanese supervillain.
The CGI special effects and stunts look pretty cool for the most part, especially where the Turtles are concerned. Beebop and Rocksteady are probably a bit too cartoon-like to stand the test of time, but they’re good fun and work well enough as things stand now. It’s all strung together with high speed action and adventure to create the thrills and spills needed to hook you into the story.
As big Turtles fans from back in the day, we were always going to give the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out Of The Shadows DVD a favourable review, so we’ve had to tone it down a little to cover both the lovers and the haters standpoint. However, if you are a fan of the previous movie, or anything remotely related to the young adult, genetically evolved, MMA fighting amphibians, then you can easily add an extra score out of five to our review.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out Of The Shadows DVD review: 3/5
