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Newish Movies

Papa Smark!

I picked up the new live action Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie, Into The Woods (Disney version), and The Penguins of Madagascar. Curious if you've seen them; I found TMNT was pretty good, but could have been way better had it lost a few of the mustache twirling lines.

Into The Woods was interesting in that I'd never even heard of it prior to the Disney release (there was another version that caused The Lady Amanda™ and I a bit of confusion at the video store). Overall I liked it, though the frenetic and fun Gilbert and Sullivan first half overshadowed the somewhat melancholy and bittersweet second half, which to me felt like it lost a bit of steam as it finished.

Penguins was a hoot though; I laughed a heck of a lot more than any of the Madagascar movies combined, and while perfectly fine for the kids, had a ton of in jokes for the adults, particularly the constant celebrity name dropping (Nicholas, cage them! Drew! Barry! More power!) Very funny, and has moved into place as one of our household favorites, along with Pitch Perfect (sequel next month!) and Butter.

Isn't there a PPV happening this Sunday or something?

Thanks for reading,
CJ Ambrosia

Ugh, HATED Into the Woods.  Thankfully I used a free movie pass on it, because it was not my cup of tea at all.  The advertising was pretty misleading, as it didn't really make clear that it was a MUSICAL and not just the usual Disney occasional-song type of musical.  It had some cute moments, like Chris Pine and "I'm trained to be charming, not sincere" and his duet with the other prince.  But holy shit, once you hit the fakeout happy ending and it turns into Death March Into Wonderland for the remaining HOUR, the movie goes off a cliff completely and never recovers.  Bleargh.

TMNT was just a movie.  I'm not of the age group that holds any particular nostalgia for the TV show or comics, so it didn't move me or offend me one way or the other.  My wife loved it, though.

The Penguin movie was brilliant.  I have to go see pretty much every kids movie now, and this was by far my favorite.  I liked it way more than my daughter did (she felt Spongebob was the superior choice) and I actually bought it for myself.  It's definitely funnier than any of the Madagascar movies and has a totally different sense of humor.  I lost it at the camera crew shoving the baby penguins over the edge and pretty much laughed for 90 minutes straight after that.  

And yes, there's a PPV on Sunday, which I couldn't even be bothered to do a Sporting News preview for.  That's how jazzed about it I am.  

Comments

  1. The praise being lavished on TMNT throughout this post is unbelievable.

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  2. Two positive things said about that movie is two too many. Fuck thst ugly CGI, unfunny humor, and Megan Fox's Real Doll face.

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  3. You didn't know Into The Woods was a musical? WTF?

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  4. That reminds me of hearing stories of people walking out of Tim Burton's Sweeney Todd because they didn't know it was a musical and not a horror movie. I'm not a guy who frequents my local community theatre troupe, but even I knew Sweeney Todd was a musical

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  5. That's exactly what happened when me and my friend saw Sweeney Todd. The other two people in the theatre walked out.


    Sweeney Todd ruled

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  6. I will agree with them that Into the Woods does stumble a bit in its last act when it gets morose as shit.

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  7. I saw Into the Woods as a stage show in a local theatre that a relative of my wife had a bit part in. It was fine I guess. I didn't realize that they'd made a major motion picture of it.


    I watched Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs the other day with the lad. It was the second picture that we've let him watch, and it was fairly good I thought. Better than Despicable Me, which was the first.

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  8. I didn't know people didn't know that either. That's why I was surprised Disney did it

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  9. Never even heard of it before the movie came out. Not sure what context I'd have for ever knowing about it (or Sweeney Todd, which I did love but also didn't realize it was a musical) since I have no exposure to that part of pop culture.

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  10. Seeing a preview of the movie? Reading a review? General knowledge of culture? Going outside?

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  11. I go outside. All of those other things seem unnecessary.

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  12. My daughter and girlfriend's daughter have to be two of the rarest little girls around in that they had absolutely no interest in Frozen whatsoever. It doesn't save me from the constant ear beating I take listening to Veggie Tales on Netflix but i'll take it.

    I am of the age where TMNT nostalgia should be right up my alley and I just have no interest in it. It says something about modern culture that I feel like the weird one for not liking the same cartoons I did in Kindergarten, though.

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  13. Stage version of ITW is better. Because, Bernadette Peters.

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  14. If you want to see a GOOD modern TMNT, watch the Nickelodeon series.

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  15. I didn't know it was a musical either. I was on the fence about seeing it, but now I definitely won't bother.

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  16. They really hid it well

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  17. I'll give Scott a pass since he's a Canuck; the only theater they have up there is "There's A Moose Loose Aboot The Hoose"

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  18. I was just in Canada! I saw four movies while I was there

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  19. That was a good one, but all major pictures are released here.

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  20. Stranger in the AlpsApril 25, 2015 at 1:45 PM

    I was in my late teens when the original TMNT was first brought to television. I never found the appeal there as it was apparent it was more for the pre-teen set. When the first of the original films came out, I saw it with a friend at his request, but I didn't care for it. I never saw any of the subsequent sequels.


    It's such a retarded concept. Baby turtles covered in ooze mutate into full grown talking turtles that are then trained in martial arts by a giant talking rat. I mean, I love a good b-movie and all, but even this went over my head.


    Now if you'll excuse me, I need to re-watch Beastmaster.

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  21. Stranger in the AlpsApril 25, 2015 at 1:51 PM

    Bernadette Peters in The Jerk.


    Raaaawwwwrrrr.

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  22. Stranger in the AlpsApril 25, 2015 at 1:54 PM

    It's incredulous, isn't it, when someone is not as informed as you.


    Newsflash: we all have our own little worlds that we tend to and don't carry the same current events radar that others seem to have.

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  23. I'll defend the new Turtles movie to the grave. I thought it was a lot of fun.

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  24. It is, especially when someone didn't know about the Kanye West thing for almost 10 years

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  25. I tried watching TMNT 3 different times and all 3 times I could not get through it. Definitely for a younger audience. Although the sequel looks a lot better with Bebop, Rocksteady, and Stephen Amell as Casey Jones. I going to try and give that one a look.

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  26. Stranger in the AlpsApril 25, 2015 at 2:07 PM

    Kanye West? First off, who cares. Please.


    If someone has the time to care about celebrity news, they obviously have nothing else going in their life to devote attention to.

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  27. My knowledge of New York state geography is sketchy, but I'm still trying to figure out how, where & when you could have moderate weather in the city, yet drive an hour or so away to the mountainous winter area the bad guy lived in. Also not sure how they were able to sewer surf all the way from atop a mountain cliff back to the heart of Manhattan to the exact skyscraper basement the bad guys were in. Speaking of skyscrapers, I'm baffled as to how they survived falling off the top of one inside that antenna array.

    Guess what I'm saying is TMNT was a ridiculously stupid movie.

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  28. This isn't about celebrity news. Neither was the Kanye West issue

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  29. There are mountains less than 35 miles from New York City. Once you leave Westchester County, the state becomes very rural.

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  30. The current IDW comic is amazing as well. Definitely for an aged audience.

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  31. But is there snow in them when it seems to be mid fall in the city?

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  32. I cannot imagine watching a new TMNT movie unless it went very very fan-servicey towards exactly the time when I was really into them. And that is not a thing I can reasonably expect. Hmm, if only there were a comparison to professional wrestling here. Oh well.

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  33. Hmmmm, maybe? The climate in NYC is a lot milder, so it wouldn't be out of the question for there to be barely any snow in the city while other places get hit

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  34. Stranger in the AlpsApril 25, 2015 at 2:15 PM

    If a celebrity speaks, it's celebrity news. World events don't balance on the edge waiting for a celebrity to speak up about it.


    With that said, the issue was Scott's lack of knowledge that In the Woods was a musical. More than likely he didn't know it was a musical because the movie was not on his radar so why do the research? If Disney didn't promote it as a musical it's probably for that very reason: to get people to see it.

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  35. I don't think hyper-realistic specificity is a real calling card of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

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  36. I guess it's possible, but they could have done a better job in laying out the geography to non-New York residents. As it was it seemed like NYC shares a border with Colorado. Or Narnia.

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  37. You clearly don't know what you're talking about with the Kanye West issue, given it took you 10 years to hear about it.


    Disney did promote it as a musical.

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  38. In a way, it kind of does. Drive an hour in some locations and it's like you're in a different universe.


    I've always advocated splitting the state into two, but that's because I'm a snob.

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  39. It's pretty much the opposite. They radically changed everything. Like Splinter is now an Italian guy who teaches the turtles karate from a book that someone flushed down a toilet.

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  40. Well yeah, but even within the rules it sets for itself they cheat. They all think they're going to die as they are falling through the sky, and have ample time to say their goodbyes. Then the thing hits the ground and they're like "oh... that wasn't too bad."

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  41. Oh I'm sure it was dumb but seriously for weather and shit they play by rules that are a notch above like, He-Man.

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  42. Really, Oliver as Casey Jones? Yeah, that could work.

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  43. Yeah I'm out already. I had a lot of fun with TMNT but I don't feel a void in my life without them.

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  44. I think it's fine if you kind go "well, it's just a kids movie." As an action film to appeal to teens or adults, eh. And totally fails as nostalgia because they changed everything.

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  45. I'd say Sweeney Todd and Phantom count as horror musicals.

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  46. I guess it left me cold because I don't really have a strong attachment to the original, so I just went in hoping for a decent action movie. I ended up feeling like I was 35 years too old to appreciate it.

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  47. I'm of that age that appreciated the original comic book for the spoof of Daredevil comics that it was, but was too old to get into the original cartoon. I actually thought the first live-action movie was decent. Everything since then I've pretty much ignored (though I did see that crossover cartoon the did several years ago and thought that was fun).

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  48. With all the singing and dancing in the commercials, and hiring an actress that's best known for her singing to play the (sorta) lead, and having people talk about how Meryl Streep is singing again and having it based off of a musical written by a guy who writes musicals.


    I (mostly) kid, I hang around theater kids and I'm actually fairly cultured when it comes to this traditional "high" art stuff. I've seen a bunch of symphonies, a couple operas, been to a bunch of galleries...

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  49. Stranger in the AlpsApril 25, 2015 at 2:40 PM

    if I had kept up with the Kanye West thing when it actually occurred, I would have thought myself dumber for even paying attention to it.


    Hooray for Disney marketing.

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  50. I think it raised a lot of important issues about what was going on in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. I don't see how that's a dumb thing to pay attention to.

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  51. Many young men figured out their special purpose to her?

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  52. It's amazing what people don't know and then get incredulous when called out on it

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