Newspapers / Daily Tar Heel (Chapel … / April 5, 1990, edition 1 / Page 19
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Page 10 DTII Omnibus Thursday April 5, 1990 CINEMA ! Figures indicate total gross . ; 1. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles $25.4 million, 1 week 2. Pretty Woman $28.3 million, 2 weeks 3. The Hunt for Red October $76.6 million, 5 weeks 4. Driving Miss Daisy $82. 1 million, 16 weeks 5. Opportunity Knocks $3.5 million, 1week 6. Jos vs. the Volcano $30.8 million, 4 weeks 7. Nuns on the Run $4.2 million, 3 weeks 8. House Party $16.4 million, 4 weeks 9. My Left Foot $10.7 million, 21 weeks ' 10. Lord of the Flies $10.6 million, 3 weeks A look at things to come. OMNIBUS. Thursday. SEs, GM A complete repertoire ffe "t"-''Jp "f of seafood, pasta S v lk il & vegetarian specialties W WO) Aliy Catering Service PYEWACKET RESTAURANT Klegant DesserLs i .A..rf::, y.. -i .U-T.i Cowabunga! It's one shell Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles directed by Steve Barron Ram Triple 967-8284 llll 12 r"l laughed. I cried. It became a part of me. I'm talking about Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles The Movie. No kidding. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is an awesome movie. Not that it's an incredibly deep, complex film it's a dumb movie. Four big turtles and a huge rat kick ing a bunch of guys in black pajamas isn't exactly Oscar material. But taken for what it's worth, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is an excellent film. In case you've been out of touch with reality and don't know what a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle is, a maim quick explanation: the Turtles were created in 1983 by Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird in comic book form and became a big success. A line of action figures and other toys came out, followed by a Saturday morning cartoon that was eventually expanded to air five days a week. And now, there is a live-action feature film, part of which was filmed in Wilming ton. There are four turtles, distin guished by the color of their head bands. Leonardo wears blue; Raphael, red; Donatello, purple; and Michaelangelo, orange. The Turtles' sensei (or ninja teacher) is a giant rat named Splinter. All five of these creatures were once normal animals until they walked through some ra dioactive ooze. Splinter had been the pet of a ninja master, so he knew the art and taught the Turtles. One very important character trait the Turtles love pizza. The plot of the film is simple. New York City is being besieged by a crime wave seemingly caused by silent, invisible perpetrators. Crack TV investigative reporter April O'Neil (Judith Hoag) is investigat ing the crimes when she almost falls victim to one, but she is mysteri ously saved. Of course, the Turtles saved her. After the scuffle, April finds a dagger which belongs to Ra phael, who takes to the streets to try to recover it. He is confronted by street vigilante Casey Jones (Elias Koteas), who uses sports equipment Like a lost episode ... Nuns on the Run Eric Idle and Robert Coltrane directed by Jonathan Lynn Ram Triple 967-8284 ceo a - li """"""X efore Nuns on the Run started, ) I overheard two people talk ie n ing in front of me. j "Yeah, this is the movie 111 1 '"" with Eric Idle, the guy from Monty Python." "So the movie will be like Monty Python, right?" . Wrong. Nuns on the Run has its share of laughs, but if you're expect ing Monty Python, go rent Life of Brian.- ..? t . t . . , ' v " , 3 t t t f t f as weapons. The two fight, not real izing that they are on the same side. Meanwhile, April gets a lead and announces on TV that a group of ninja thieves known as the Foot Clan are responsible for the crimes. The Foot attack April in a subway sta tion, but luckily, Raphael has been following her to try and get his dag ger back. He defeats the Foot and takes April to the Turtles' lair in the sewer. But a lone Foot soldier fol lows them, and while the Turtles go to April's for pizza, the Foot ratnaps Splinter. The Turtles must now mus ter their strength to save their mas ter. They enlist April and Casey Jones to help them rescue Splinter. But the Turtles must fight alone when they face the leader of the Foot Clan, the evil Shredder. Let's get one thing straight: this is not a kiddie movie it's violent for a PG movie and most of the jokes will sail far over the heads of chil dren. I'm sure that there are even some adults who wouldn't understand a joke comparing the Foot Clan to a podiatrist's club. The Turtles use some mild profanity, so it may not be a good idea for a Turtle-worshipping youngster to view the film. Also, there is a small love subplot between April and Casey that may confuse some younger children. Kudos all around to those involved in the production of the film. Hoag and Koteas do good jobs in the lead human roles, but a star who gets no screen time is Corey Feldman, the voice of Donatello. As mentioned earlier, the plot isn't really compli cated, but the screenplay by Todd Langen and Bobby Herbeck does a good job of explaining the origin of the Turtles and an excellent job of giving the four turtles distinct per sonalities. The script is also full of great, snappy dialogue. Credit must Three's Company' it has its moments Bryan Tucker Instead, Idle and his partner, Robert Coltrane, play lovable gang sters, Brian and Charlie, who are tired of their jobs, but afraid to leave them. The pair decide to quit the gangster business and fly to Rio, but not until they steal a huge amount of money from a rival gang. Their plans go astray, and Brian and Charlie end up taking refuge in the local nunnery disguised as, well, nuns. Along the way, Brian meets the film's ditzy-but-cute love inter est, Faith (played by Janet Suzman), with whom he falls in love. After getting shot, Faith ends up in the nunnery as well. Then the wackiness begins. . of a flick be given to director Steve Barron, whose past works include Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean" video and Dire Straits' "Money for Nothing," he transcends the boundaries of MTV. His New York is a dark place, with a sense of mystery. He also does a good job of keeping the fight scenes from becoming confusing. These are all good things, but the real stars of the film are the Turtles themselves. The Turtle costumes were created by Jim Henson's Creature Shop (Henson, of course, is the fa ther of the Muppets) and represent a new high in animatronic technol ogy. Animatronics are remote-controlled facial features used in mechani cal masks. The masks are capable of achieving hundreds of facial expres sions, and this makes the Turtles exceptionally lifelike. You don't think of them as guys in 75-pound suits. The Splinter puppet is impressive, but it resembles your basic Muppet he's a little too cute to be taken as seriously as the Turtles. It's too bad they can't be nominated for an Os car, since the Academy decided that masks don't count as makeup. Where I was a small-time follower before, I have now been converted into a full-fledged Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle junkie. The Turtles are no longer a cult fad. With this mo tion picture, they have proven them selves to be an original force to be reckoned with. They truly are "He roes in a HalfsheU". a grave mistake H it left me cold fi worth undertaking j j j of corpse, I recommend it i j 1 1 people will be dying to see it Brian and Charlie must maintain their identities as nuns while plan ning their escape from the rival gang, their own old gang, the police and even the real nuns at the nunnery. All the mix-ups and mistaken iden tities make Nuns on the Run look less like Monty Python and more like a lost Three's Company episode. However, the movie does have its moments. The best parts come from Coltrane (who has most of the funny lines) as he tries to explain the paradoxes and idiocy of the Catholic church to Idle. "It makes no sense to anyone," says Coltrane, "That's why you have to believe it." Director Jonathan Lynn has done the best he could do with his own predictable screenplay by using off angle camera shots and the integra tion of catchy music by Yello. It comes off as funny, but not with the unique ness we expect from IdJe.
Daily Tar Heel (Chapel Hill, N.C.)
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April 5, 1990, edition 1
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