Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret Of The Ooze Film Review

While the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are still everywhere there biggest heyday was without a shadow of a doubt the nineties. As while we not only had the successful TMNT animated show still going on but we have the comics , we have video games and even more obscure stuff like the concert tour and the LA bus PSA we also had the live action Christmas special , The Mystery Of The Cliffs PSA and of curse we had the live action movies and with the first one being a huge success it does make sense that just one year later we'd get a sequel and so then join me as I review the film that draws more from the cartoon then the original comic with the film in question being called simply just "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret Of The Ooze" enjoy.

The plot of this film believing that they have beaten The Shredder for good the turtles are shocked to find that he is back and this time he has two newly mutated animals with him with The Shredder being hell bent on ending the turtles and Splinter for good. Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty OK at best. With the films plot yes being cheesy and more kid friendly but it in a way that is also fun to watch like the films plot is cheesy in the same way that a Fast & Furious plot is cheesy. The thing that does let this films plot down tho is the fact that it is such a stark departure from the style of plot from the first film as the first film yes it did have a cheesy plot but it also wasn't afraid to go to those more mature places whereas this film due to no fault of its own seems to shy away from everything that made the plot of the first film work as well as it did in the first place as this is a plot that should have been more darker as it delving more into the turtles own backstory and yet everything in the plot is played safely and all that ends up doing is creating a plot that whilst yes it is still a fun plot to watch it doesn't feel like it's set in the world of the first film as the first film had a plot that took risks and that made you feel things whereas here in this film none of that can happen due to how safe it's being played with the plot of this film also being really rather entertaining and as well as being really rather engaging as well in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.

Starring in this film is Adam Carl as the voice of Donatello , Brian Tochi as the voice of Leonardo and Laurie Faso as the voice Raphael. Also starring in this film is Robbie Rist as the voice of Michelangelo , Kevin Clash as Splinter , Paige Turco as April O'Neil , François Chau as The Shredder , David McCharen as the voice of The Shredder , Toshishiro Obata as Tatsu , Michael McConnohie as the voice of Tatsu , David Warner as Professor Jordan Perry , Ernie Reyes Jr. as Keno , Kevin Nash as Super Shredder , Mark Doerr as Freddie and Frank Welker as the voices of Tokka and Rahzar. 

Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty OK at best. The films acting whilst it isn't as good as the acting in the first film it's also not as poor as the acting in the third film either as there is a clear amount of effort going into this films films and while Paige Turco isn't as good as Judith Hoag was as April O'Neil Paige is still passable in this film and heck while Adam Carl doesn't make for a good Donatello Laurie Faso does a good impression of Josh Pais's Raphael voice that it was hard to say if it was a different voice actor or not. With the best actor in this film being François Chau as The Shredder as while David McCharen does do a really good voice for the character Francois brings a certain physicality to the role with him making The Shredder look threatening just by giving you a look and while this is no doubt helped by the vocal performance it doesn't mean that the actor that played him on set wasn't any good as the two need to be matched perfectly in order to work and they work really well here even taking int account that Francois only really has to relay on body language and his eyes to get across everything that the character is thinking and feeling he does all of this so good that you could still tell what the character is thinking without the dialog telling you with him even having a certain charisma about him that really does shine through in this performance. With the acing that's in this film not really being helped by the fact that this films script is just so bad as it gives none of this films actors absolutely anything to work interms of what it is that there actual characters personalities are even meant to be in the first place which is something that really does harm the overall quality of the acting that's in this very film.

As with the first film all of the suits for this film where made by the legends and the greats that are currently over at Jim Henson's Creature Shop. It really doesn't need to be said but the suits in this film look just as good as they did in the first film with the suits looking better then then the suits that we would get in latter TMNT live productions with there being alot of care in just doing the simple things like hiding the suit performer better or making that the suits are not only finished but work properly these are small things abut there also thing that the suits in other TMNT live action productions just don't do and yet here and in the first film they managed to set the bar for good that these characters could look on screen and it's a bad that as of this year has yet to be reached. With even Tokka and Rahzar looking pretty good as while yes you can't really tell not only who is who out of those two characters but you also can't tell what animal they are mean to be mutated from the suits for those characters do still look really good with there being alot of thought and effort put into making all of the suits for all of the characters look really good, with there being a very minimalistic approach taken with the suits as all of the things that you need to be told about the characters and who they are as characters in made into the suit itself therefor the makers of this film didn't need to add thing to the suits of the turtles suits that make it painfully clear what the personality of each turtle as you can see by the fact that Raph always has a scowl on his face that he's the angry or that Donny is the more quizzical one due to the fact that he looks like he's always ready to ask a question, with Splinter he does to looks really good with his puppet not really changing all that much in quality from the first film and heck even in the third film he still looks really good and here he is made to always look more wise which is something that is oddly befitting his character.

Whereas the first film took more of an inspiration for it's tone and plot from the original comics whilst only borrowing the turtles names , colors and personalities from the show. Here this film gets its inspiration more from the tone of the show and not the original comics which is something that does make this film out to be a tonal mess of a film as you can see that the makers of this film do try to make a more dark and gritty film that's in line with the first film with them even referencing the fact that The Shredder was good as well killed by Casey at the end of the first film but then they would interrupt that moment with a dumb joke or a dumb sound effect when all this does is make the film feel like a live action version of the show and not a sequel to the more dark gritty original film as that film took risks by asking you to invest in these characters and to cry for them. With the reason for this complete change in tone being the fact that the parents of the kids who first saw the original film were appalled by how violent it is as they thought that it was going to be like the cartoon and therefor when it came to this film being made parents groups demanded that the films violence be trimmed down and that the turtles not use there hard to find and buy in real life weapons with oddly enough the exception of Donny who does get to use his bow staff in the third act of the film and even then he very quickly gets beaten by either Tokka or Rahzar and yet those same parents groups were OK with these characters advocating for an all Pizza diet as every meal that the turtles have is Pizza just to be clear the incredibly hard to find and buy ninja weapons was a big no no but the easy to buy all Pizza diet that was something that they were OK with and heck even the opening the film is just shots of random people eating Pizza that's not going to send a good message to kids, with the adults trying to remove the thing that was never a problem and yet kept in the thing that very easily could have been problem.

To give this film some credit it is cheesy and fun all of the best ways possible and one of those ways is in the films more comedic moments. As we do get to the see turtles just being lovable goofball brothers alot of the time with Donatello and Michelangelo being the goofiest out of the four as Leo and Raph do have there usual arc or always fighting with each other and yet with Donny and Michelangelo we do get to see them making fun of each other alot of the time and we do get to see them just having fun together this is was something that we did see some of in the first film but it is something that we get to see alot more of in this film with it being there moments together that do give the film some of it's more funnier moments this is not to say that Raph and Leo aren't funny in this film as they can be but alot of the time there not given anything funny to say or do due to the fact that they end a good chunk of the film arguing with each other again. With the perhaps the most goofiest moment in the film being when the turtles and Tokka and Rahzar break into a club where Vanilla Ice is performing a concert with all six them having a this pretty well done fight scene all the while the song "Ninja Rap" is playing in the background with this scene yes being cheesy and goofy but it is also a really fun scene and part of that is because of the fact that it is this fun and goofy scene that does tell you that the makers of this film were in on the fact that they knew that this scene was going to be bad and they just decided to have fun with it and it is something that does help to make the film out be alot more fun with the only thing that would have made this scene a bit to goofy for any ones taste being if Vanilla Ice himself got involved with the fight.

Perhaps the biggest waste of potential in this film out of Tokka and Rahzar is the Super Shredder as really you could have had the whole film be about the turtles trying to stop this more mutated Shredder and it would been awsome to watch. Yet Super Shredder only appears for a few minuets neat the end of the film when he causes some debris to fall on him and kill him and yet if the film featured more of this version of the character even making him the main villain of the film then the film would have been more better as yes it wouldn't fix the fact that the character doesn't really have a goal in this film outside of the fact that he wants revenge on the turtles but it is something that would make the character more of a threat as he doesn't het to do all that much in this film. This is something that very easily could have been fixed as all you'd need to have is have The Shredder drink the mutagen say after the Foot capture the Professor and then get rid of Tokka and Rahzar all together and just replace the things that they do in the film with the Super Shredder only now you have a Shredder that can barely control his powers and therefor the turtles have to get creative to beat him with this then leading to the confrontation on the pair with that scene playing out exactly how it does in this film only now it would make more sense as The Shredder was undone by his own greed and want to hurt the turtles whereas in this film it just makes him look dumb as he would know that it the stuff falling on him would kill him to where as if he was more a vocal point in the film was able to do more in the film then it would seem like he had truly lost control of his sanity yes it is still a weak way from hm to go out but you'd also have had him the turtles fighting in the scrapyard next to the club and them fighting in the club itself before that therefor we would have gotten to see Super Shredder do alot more damage to the turtles and force them to be better heroes because of it.

Now then this film has / had an exactly grand total running time of exactly one hour and twenty eight minuets and thirty four seconds. This is pretty much the bogstandard running time for these live action Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles sequels and to be fair this is a pretty running time for this film as the film doesn't have to set up the world and that main characters it only has to set four main characters and the plot of the film and that's it and that's not really something that needs alot of time dedicated to it and it is something that does allot for the film to just get right to the plot which in all fairness to this film is something that it is does with the film having the right amount of plot there to cover that amount of running time in the first place. Yet even so the film doesn't use its running time all that wisely as the film doesn't take the time to fully develop its plot as the film doesn't explain two things the first of which being what the actual secret of the ooze is even meant to be and it doesn't explain why The Shredder wants it so so badly both of those things are key plot points in the film and yet neither of them get explained when its something that would have required just one line of dialog to do and yet due to the fact that the makers of this film cared more about giving Vanilla Ice a cameo in the film it does mean that the films plot can't be that well developed. This is something that does also effect the films character development as not only do none of the turtles get any kind of character development but neither do ay of the films other characters with them all ending the film in the exact place that they started the film in with this being something that could have been a result of the parents groups demanding the film be more lighter in tone but if so the makers of this film still could have given even just one of the turtles any kind of character development with the makers of this film putting more thought and effort into showing random people eating pizza at the start of the film then they did in giving the films character some actual character development but I really will admit that this film really does have some really good pacing to it tho.

So now then as this is an action film tat really does mean that I have to actually talk about the actual action that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual action that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty really good. The films whilst it isn't better then the action that we got in the first film it was still fun to see as we do get to the turtles working together in a lot of creative ways and we get to see some really good looking martial arts moves alot of the time with those moves making even the dullest of action in this film seem all the more better as the moves that the characters do are just so cool to see in the first place. With the best action scene in the whole film being the films opening scene as we get to see all of the turtles fighting of these bad guys in a shopping complex with the turtles using creative methods to use anything other then there weapons with the whole scene being this very high energy action scene and whole the characters don't get to use actual marital arts in that scene we do get to see them spouting one liners and just doing these funny things that work because of the fact that they do feel true to who alot of the turtles are as characters and heck given the fact that the we see Kano start the scene by beating three of the bad guys up before the turtles get there you could argue that that's when the action in the scene truly starts as Kano does get to show us some pretty cool looking marital arts with the turtles themselves giving us the kind of fun action that you want to see in a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles film with the rest of the film action being just as good as well in my freaking opinions anyways / at least. 

Overall this film is still a really fun film to watch as while yes it is very much more geared towards kids it is also a film that does feel more true to the spirit of the first film as there was an attempt made to make this film still be a good as what the first film was something which couldn't be said for the next film in my freaking opinions anyways / at easy. Now then i've talked about all of the good and as well as all of the bad things hat are in this very film in this very review and as such that really does mean that this film really does earn itself a grand old score of exactly a 6.5 out 10 from me.

Now then as for where I personally got all of the mages that I personally used in this very review well then boys and girls and as well as ladies and gentlemen I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review from IMP Awards . Com and Google Images. With my personally preferred website to use to get images really from this very film being the really great Google Images this is really because of the fact that really all of the images that I really indeed got and really used from Google Images are all really high quality really with all of the images that really are all and of course really currently up and on the really great and the really solid Google Images really are all being really fairly high in quality and as well as them all really being fairly high in definition.