Movie Review Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem 

Directed by Jeff Rowe

Written by Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg, Jeff Rowe, Dan Hernandez, Benji Samit 

Starring Micah Abbey, Shamon Brown Jr., Hannibal Burress, Rose Byrne, Nicolas Cantu, John Cena, Seth Rogen, Paul Rudd, Jackie Chan, Ice Cube, Post Malone

Release Date August 2nd, 2023 

Published August 6th, 2023 

I watched the 1990 live action Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles recently for a review timed to the release of the latest attempt to rebuild the Turtles as a viable movie franchise. What I found was a movie that I absolutely loved. I was too old when Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was released in 1990, I was 14 and I thought it was for much younger kids. Look back now, with the wisdom of more than 30 years, I can say, yes, it is a product for young children, younger than 14 even, but it's a wonderful product. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 1990 is a ridiculously fun movie. It's filled with wonderful invention and kid friendly action. 

Everything that came after that movie, not counting the television shows that I've never seen, has been a dreary slog. Each new film iteration of the Turtles has carried with it the very obvious burden of corporate exploitation. Each of the various filmmakers who tackled the franchise appeared to be doing so with a studio held gun to their head that dictated exactly how the movie should be geared toward selling merchandise and creating sequels was the only reason these movies existed. Thus, we got a series of joyless, unpleasant live action and animated attempts to leverage a popular I.P into a cash making machine. 

I say all of this to demonstrate the bias that the latest iteration of the Turtles on the big screen was up against in my mind. To say that I was cynical about seeing the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles on the big screen again would be a grave understatement. What a lovely surprise it is then to report that the newest Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles adventure, subtitled Mutant Mayhem, doesn't completely suck. In fact, it's actually pretty alright. The team of Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg and director-co-writer, Jeff Rowe have found a tone and spirit that does well to hide the high level corporately leveraged truth behind its creation. 

Mutant Mayhem is yet another Turtles origin story. We have the back story courtesy of a flashback to the origin of our antagonist, a fellow mutant named Superfly. Superfly was the creation of mad scientist Baxter Stockman. Baxter created the ooze but was killed not long after by an evil organization who wanted to steal his ooze and use it to create their own mutant army. A very young Superfly fought off the baddies, rescued his fellow mutant babies, and fled into the night. He left behind one last tube of ooze which breaks and drips into the sewer. There, it finds the Turtles who are rescued by Splinter (Jackie Chan) who gets into the ooze himself. 

Splinter is rightfully afraid of humans. His first time taking his turtle babies to the surface world nearly ends with them being killed. Thus, Splinter becomes deeply overprotective. He spends the next decade training his Turtles, Leonardo (Nicolas Cantu), Donatello (Micah Abbey), Michaelangelo (Shamon Brown Jr.) and Raphael (Brady Noon), to fight. Using old, abandoned VHS tapes, Splinter trains his Turtles to be able to defend themselves against humans. As the Turtles grow up into their mid-teens however, they've only become more and more curious about humans. They wonder if humans arent't as bad as Splinter claims. 

Read my full length review at Geeks.Media

Movie Review The Green Hornet

The Green Hornet (2011) 

Directed by Michel Gondry

Written by Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg

Starring Seth Rogen, Jay Chou, Cameron Diaz, Edward James Olmos, Christoph Waltz

Release Date January 14th, 2011

Published Janurary 13th, 2011

Seth Rogen does not exactly cut the figure of a superhero. Luckily, that is kind of the point of this reboot of the old school masked hero “The Green Hornet;” he's not the real hero. Though he wears a mask and rolls around Los Angeles in a seriously pimped out superhero car, “The Green Hornet'' is a make believe hero while his martial artist, super-mechanic pal Kato is the real hero; beating down bad guys with a superhuman fighting sense while the Hornet grabs the glory on the front page.

Faux heroism is played for terrific laughs in the at times uneven but overall entertaining “The Green Hornet 3D.”

Seth Rogen stars in “The Green Hornet” as Britt Reid, a 30 something child of privilege who uses his father's wealth as an excuse to remain a teenager for life. Then, suddenly his father (Tom Wilkinson) is dead and Britt has an empire to run. Dad was the founder and editor of the last family owned newspaper in Los Angeles, The Sentinel and though Britt has never even read a newspaper, it's now his to run.

Meanwhile, Britt meets the man who has made his coffee for the past decade. Kato (Jay Chou) was his father's mechanic and coffee hound, he invented a latte machine, and now he works for Britt. Together, Britt and Kato share a disdain for the late Mr. Reid and a bitch session turns into a night of vandalism and then accidental crime fighting. The night is a life changing moment for both Reid and Kato as after saving a couple from some gang members they get a taste for the rush of the hero biz.

The twist in this hero story however is that instead of being good guys, Britt and Kato will be good guys who pose as bad guys in order to get to the bad guys. Using the editorial power of The Sentinel, Britt creates the persona of “The Green Hornet '' as the ultimate big bad in Los Angeles. Naturally, the current big bad, Chudnofsky (Christoph Waltz), is none too happy with some nobody usurping his front page headlines. Chudnofsky has spent the past decade shedding blood and selling drugs to get where he is and he's not about to cede the bad guy spotlight.

That's the table setting of “The Green Hornet,” the meal as prepared by director Michel Gondry is a tweaking of the superhero formula that is both true to the classic adventure hero stories and a sly send up of the same in the casting of comic actor Rogan as the pseudo-hero. Rogen, with writing partner Evan Goldberg, wrote the screenplay for “The Green Hornet” and plays wickedly on his lack of hero traits. Some of the biggest laughs in The Green Hornet come cleverly at the star's expense

and as Rogan and Gondry cleverly twist the hero they give new life to the role of sidekick. Jay Chou's Kato is a rather ingenious invention as he bounces well off of Rogan while being a total badass fighter. Chou is a walking special effect and with Gondry’s artful eye for demonstrating his talent, Chou breaks the mold of not just the sidekick but of Asian American movie stars in Hollywood features. 

Badder than Jackie Chan and more fun than Jet Li, Chou may be a martial artist but he's not so serious about it that he can't bust out a chorus of Coolio's “Gangster's Paradise” prior to whipping out some nunchucks and breaking bad guys faces and limbs. Interesting to note, Chou is a pop star in Asia and has a killer closing rap over the credits. Trust me when I say the song is no mere novelty and even fans who don't speak the language will be hard pressed not to nod along to this groove. 

”The Green Hornet '' is not without issues. Christoph Waltz works hard not to be the same colorful villain he was in his Oscar winning role in “Inglorious Bastards and winds up coming off a little flat for the effort. The final action scene set inside the walls of the newspaper as the bad guys chase the good guys, car and all, through the cubicle lined floors of the newspaper goes on a little too long and doesn't pay off strongly enough. 

That said the good more than outweighs the bad in “The Green Hornet.” Seth Rogen's sense of humor is smartly played against a familiar superhero story turned ever so slightly on its ear. Audiences will have to really like Rogan for much of the movie to work but fans of the “Knocked Up” star will be rewarded with a unique evolution of Rogan's clumsy, good hearted galoot character.

Movie Review Pineapple Express

Pineapple Express (2008) 

Directed by David Gordon Green 

Written by Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg 

Starring Seth Rogen, James Franco, Gary Cole, Rosie Perez, Danny McBride, Craig Robinson, Bill Hader

Release Date August 6th, 2008 

Published August 5th, 2008

Pineapple Express is arguably the Citizen Kane of stoner movies. In this tiny comedic sub-genre there is little competition to overcome, nevertheless this witty, oddly violent pot comedy squeezes more laughs out of its stoner heroes than 2 Harold and Kumar movies combined. That is likely because of the behind the scenes all star team involved.

The guys behind Superbad and Knocked Up, writer, actor Seth Rogen, his writing partner Evan Goldberg and producer Judd Apatow combine their talent for stoners with a heart of gold with the tremendous directorial skill of indie veteran David Gordon Green to create a stoner comedy that, at the very least, is better than any of the stoner comedies to come before it.

Dale Denton (Seth Rogen) is a pot smoking, talk radio loving, process server who spends his time in costume delivering subpoenas for a living while really living for his next hit. Dale's dealer is Saul (James Franco) a sweet, good natured drug dealer who thinks Dale is his friend when in reality, they wouldn't know each other if Saul didn't sell pot.

Saul has just come into possession of some new weed called Pineapple Express. It is supposed to be grown in such a unique way that it actually gets you higher than any other pot in existence. Saul sells some to Dale who is unfortunately smoking it in front of the home of another drug dealer, Ted Jones (Gary Cole), when he witnesses the dealer kill a man.

Leaving behind his rare weed, Dale is convinced that the joint can be used to find Saul and if they find Saul, that would lead to finding him. And he's right. Ted and a corrupt police officer, played by Rosie Perez, identify the weed and go after Saul who goes on the run with Dale and well, a whole lot of stuff happens and a whole lot of stuff gets smoked.

Pineapple Express is the rare comedy that zigs when you think it will zag. Unpredictability is the film's hallmark as instead of just bumbling through a series of gags, director David Gordon Green goes for edgy comedic violence and often leaves your jaw dropped with it. Some of the violence is painfully funny, some of it is shocking but all of it serves the purposes of the plot that propels from one entertaining scene to the next.

Seth Rogen and James Franco make for a terrific comic team. Exhibiting the kind of male bonded performance that is now the hallmark of the Apatow brand of comedy, Pineapple Express has given rise to the term Bromance to describe the extraordinarily close yet platonic bond between two male best friends. Rogen and Franco do everything short of make out to demonstrate how much they care about each other and the more they push the line, the funnier it gets.

Pineapple Express doesn't reach the comedic highs of Superbad or Knocked Up but as stoner comedies go, it doesn't get much better than this. Terrifically funny, surprising and shockingly violent, Pineapple Express never goes where you expect it to. Rogen, Apatow and now David Gordon Green are at the forefront of modern comedy and now with Pineapple Express they can continue to write their own ticket in Hollywood.

Write it, roll it up and smoke it, if they want to.

Movie Review Superbad

Superbad (2007) 

Directed by Greg Mattola

Written by Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg

Starring Michael Cera, Jonah Hill, Emma Stone, Christopher Mintz Plasse, Bill Hader, Seth Rogen

Release Date August 17th, 2007

Published August 16th, 2007

There are moments of the teen comedy Superbad that remind me so much of my own teen years that I would have been red faced embarrassed if I weren't laughing so hard. This latest brilliant comedy from under the shingle of Judd Apatow is the movie that Porky's and American Pie wished they could have been. Smart, funny, and balls out filthy, Superbad has a heart as big as its love of penis drawings.

Written by the team of Seth Rogan, star of Knocked Up, and his childhood friend Evan Goldberg, Superbad is so true and authentic that guys between the ages of 18 and 34 will be in hysterics at just the familiarity of the characters and the situations.

Superbad tells the story of one night in the lives of two best friends. Seth (Jonah Hill) and Evan (Michael Cera) have been friends for over 10 years, something you get quickly from the shorthand of their conversation that seems as if it began a decade before the movie began. This is their last night of High School and the boys have been invited to their first High School party.

The party is being thrown by Seth's longtime crush Jules (Emma Stone). By promising to get alcohol for the party Seth hopes he can entice Jules into a drunken, last night of High School tryst. Also attending the party is  Evan's longtime crush Becca (Martha MacIsaac), she is into Evan but he is clueless how to handle that. He too hopes that a little alcohol will grease the wheels, though his intentions with Becca are slightly less puerile.

To get the booze the boys must rely on Evan's friend Fogell who has promised a fake I.D. Unfortunately, when Fogell produces the I.D his name change threatens to blow the cover. Fogell decided to call himself "McLovin", no last name, just McLovin. Nevertheless, McLovin is the boy's only hope to get the drinks and thereby, get the girls.

On my surface level description Superbad sounds like nothing more than American Pie Redux or maybe Porky's 15. In reality however, Superbad, under the skilled direction of Greg Mottola, is much smarter than the American Pie movies and even more outlandish than Porky's. Superbad is the rare teen comedy that delivers strong characters with the extra strength of low brow humor.

Seth Rogan and Evan Goldberg wrote the script for Superbad based on their experiences as teenagers. The two have been friends since junior high and that friendly shorthand lends the film authenticity that most other teen comedies can only imitate. Despite having to compound a high school lifetime of experiences into one night, Superbad never feels overstuffed. Director Mottola along with Rogan and Goldberg escape this trouble by simply ignoring it.

The bedrock of Superbad is the loving friendship of Seth and Evan. This is really a platonic male love story about two guys overcoming social pressures to confess that they love each other. Men in this culture are not allowed to admit their feelings for one another, not without a joking reference to Brokeback Mountain or some anti-gay slur to break the awkwardness.

Superbad throws off the social shackles and allows Evan and Seth to be honest with each other, with the aid of a little booze. They are headed to different colleges in the fall and they are going to miss each other more than even the girls whose hearts they hope to win. Now, before you start to think that Superbad is some touchy-feely, male bonding comedy, trust me, there are plenty of dick jokes. In fact, there is almost a dick subplot. I don't want to get too detailed, just keep an ear out for Seth's reasons for not liking Evan's crush Becca.

A great group of actors mixed with tremendous behind the scenes talent, Superbad is among the best films of 2007. Yes, some will be put off by the truly low brow humor but trust me, they will be missing the point. The lowbrow stuff comes from a good hearted place within these terrific characters. It's all in good fun and only occasionally is it gratuitous. In a year where we have seen The Simpsons Movie and Knocked Up it is Superbad that takes the crown as the funniest movie of the year.

Movie Review The Interview

The Interview (2014) 

Directed by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg

Written by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg

Starring Seth Rogen, James Franco, Randall Park 

Release Date December 25th, 2014 

Published December 24th, 2014

I was more than halfway through watching the new comedy "The Interview" on my computer when the darn thing just shut off. I had just reached the scene where Seth Rogan's Aaron and James Franco's Dave Skylark are about to interview Kim Jong Un (Randall Park) and are coming to terms with their potential executions when my computer simply shuts down. Thankfully, the issue was not a cyber-attack, but merely an aged laptop overheating. But it does make for a perfect story about watching "The Interview."

No film in 2014 has been discussed in print and by pundits than "The Interview." Having taken center stage in the cyber attack on Sony Pictures, "The Interview" finally arrives for audiences to finally judge just how offensive the film truly is. To the film's credit, there are no holds barred in attacking the myth and legend of Kim Jong Un. That said, the film is not exactly weighty, with most jokes surrounding a concept called "honey-dicking."

"Honey-dicking" is a term used when one man is attempting to seduce another man by pretending to be all the things that the seducer wants in another person. In this case, Kim Jong Un pretends to be cool and gives Skylark his dream friendship based on what he knows about Skylark's affinity for basketball, women, tanks, etc.

So you can see this is not exactly high-minded satire that earned the ire of North Korean leadership. Still, it's not hard to identify what the real Kim Jong Un might find offensive about "The Interview" beyond the simple matter of the premise, which is his assassination. The Supreme Leader of North Korea is portrayed as a borderline psychotic manchild who loves Katy Perry songs and has serious daddy issues.

For his part, Skylark is an easily misled doofus who falls for Kim Jong Un's act very quickly, only to watch in horror when the dictator shows off his crazy side. James Franco is a pure joy to watch in the role of Dave Skylark with his big goofy grin, oddball slang and general flightiness.

It's up to Seth Rogen to ground the humor of the picture and he does an admirable job. Though I would not in any way call the film realistic, Rogen and co-writer/co-director Evan Goldberg create a strong pace and energy for this off-the-wall premise to exist. In front of the camera Rogen is his typically goofball self, only slightly more mature than usual. Slightly more mature.

"The Interview" is quite funny at times, drawing most of its humor from Franco's unique line readings and the terrific enthusiasm of all the performers. Park is a true scene stealer as Kim Jong Un. Park has the same joy of performance that seems to drive Franco, and the two have an exceptional comic chemistry.

Does "The Interview'' deserve to be some kind of celebrated cause? No, it was merely thrust into the midst of chaos rather than actually being the cause of it. The film is rather slight overall, less memorable -- aside from the controversy -- than Rogen and Goldberg’s far superior films "This is the End" and "Superbad."

Take "The Interview" out of the context of the current controversy that swirls around it and it might not have made much of an impression. It's not a bad movie. It's actually a pretty good version of the bro-comedy we've grown accustomed to with Franco, Rogen and Goldberg. It is, however, aside from the controversy, not that much more than a typical bro-comedy that likely would have faded quickly from theaters over Christmas without North Korea choosing to act as an accidental press agent for the film.