Film Review: “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem”

“Mutant Mayhem” is packed with undeniable T-U-R-T-L-E power!

The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles animated series and three feature films of the early 1990s that centered around the reptilian mutant fighting foursome were hugely successful and spawned a multimedia franchise of toys, shows, and comics for decades. The hype was tempered by three mediocre films between 2007-2016, with the latter two misfires produced by Michael Bay. Nostalgia was keeping the franchise afloat, despite diminishing returns. So with a huge sigh of relief and a heart full of nostalgic glee, I’m happy to report that the series reboot Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem is an energetic and artistic cinematic take on what makes the Ninja Turtles brand so fun.

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Film Review: Prince Avalanche

‘Prince Avalanche’ takes a humorous stroll down melancholy road.

Where we're going, we don't need lines on the roads.
Where we’re going, we don’t need lines on the roads.

Adapted loosely from the Iceland film, Either Way, Prince Avalanche is a sad, yet, somehow, delightful tale of unlikely friends connecting in an equally unlikely setting.  Alvin and Lance are spending the summer of 1988 re-painting traffic lines on a Texas highway that winds through a burnt out forest.  Their job is repetitive and tiresome, and takes an extraordinary amount of patience to adapt to the disconnect from city life and nearly all social/romantic interactions.  There is a lot of isolation in Prince Avalanche, from within the characters, to the landscape in which they work and pine, yet the film is light and inviting thanks to the humor elicited from a charming script and powerful performances by the two leads.

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Film Review: This Is 40

Paul Rudd and Leslie Mann in THIS IS 40
Paul Rudd and Leslie Mann in THIS IS 40

starring: Paul Rudd, Leslie Mann, Maude Apatow, Iris Apatow, Jason Segel, Annie Mumulo, Robert Smigel, Megan Fox, Charlyne Yi, Albert Brooks, John Lithgow, Chris O’Dowd, Melissa McCarthy, Lena Dunham

written and directed by: Judd Apatow

MPAA: Rated R for sexual content, crude humor, pervasive language and some drug material

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Sketchfest Review: Stella at Mezzanine, 1/21/12

Spinning Platters’ writers Christopher Rogers and Dakin Hardwick both got to enjoy a performance by Stella: Michael Ian Black, David Wain, and Michael Showalter‘s nightclub show.

Instead of boring you with a typical “review” of the show, Spinning Platters is opening the fourth wall, and allowing you into the personal lives of these two legendary journalists. This is a transcript of a private chat between the two, discussing the show on Google Chat.

After the jump, you will learn how a writer thinks.

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