Dearest Blog, today it was off to the movies for one of the strangest
double-bills ever, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and The Hundred-Foot
Journey.
Spoiler level here will be mild, nothing you wouldn't
know from the trailers...er...let's face it, you weren't planning on
seeing either of these anyway, were you?
First on my agenda was the newest screen incarnation of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
Michelangelo, Donatello, Raphael, and Leonardo try to save New York from the evil Shredder.
Here's
a true fact: I am wildly excited for every Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
movie, and this one was no exception. First time those words have all
been together in the same sentence? Possibly, but, despite the world of
hate being rained down on it from all sides, I looked forward to TMNT,
and I was not disappointed.
It's always fun to see such familiar
and well-loved characters again, and I was pleased with how each turtle
was represented here. The new look is okay, if not my favorite, and the
martial arts moves are pretty cool in 3D. Will Arnett is entertaining,
Megan Fox is smokin' hot, and no movie or TV show was ever worse for
having the magnificent William Fichtner. Sure, the humor's juvenile, the
story's done to death, and the effects are nothing to write home about,
but, somehow, I still enjoyed this from beginning to end.
Teenage
Mutant Ninja Turtles runs 101 minutes and is rated PG13 for "sci-fi
action/violence." If it's a terrible movie, that didn't keep me from
having a great time with it.
Of a possible nine Weasleys, Teenage
Mutant Ninja Turtles gets five. I'd honestly love to score it better,
but at some point I have to acknowledge it's probably a bad movie, no
matter how much I like it!
Next on the docket was The Hundred-Foot Journey.
Fireworks
ensue when an Indian family moves to the French countryside and opens a
restaurant across the street from a hoity-toity local establishment.
Whoa!
Bickering restaurant owners...sounds like the most boring movie ever,
huh? What's next, two dentists trying to lease the same office space?
While The Hundred-Foot Journey is a little long, it's a cute story
that's elevated by a solid and likable cast. Helen Mirren is, as always,
brilliant in the lead, and Manish Dayal and Charlotte Le Bon are
appropriately adorable as young chefs at the two restaurants tip-toeing
around the possibility of romance. The story is serious when it needs to
be and funny when it means to be.
There's enough cooking and eating
going on in this movie that restaurants neighboring cinemas are probably
seeing a nice uptick in business this weekend. There are also plenty
lingering shots of the picturesque French countryside, if that's your
thing, and a nice anti-racism message as a bonus.
The Hundred-Foot
Journey clocks in at 122 minutes and is rated PG for "thematic
elements, some violence, language, and brief sensuality." If the movie
is predicable and a bit overly-sappy, that's not hard to forgive in such
a genuine and sweet picture.
Of a possible nine Weasleys, The Hundred-Foot journey gets six.
Until next time...COWABUNGA!!!
It's official: my mental age is five.