'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles': Film Review

 

The Bottom Line

The mythic comic book characters make a long-awaited return.

Opens

Aug. 8 (Paramount Pictures)

Cast

Megan Fox, Will Arnett, William Fichtner, Danny Woodburn, Noel Fisher, Jeremy Howard, Pete Ploszek, Alan Ritchson

Director

Jonathan Liebesman
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Screenwriters Josh Appelbaum, Andre Nemec and Evan Daugherty devote a substantial amount of time to setting up April’s investigation of the mystery vigilantes, which results in a frustrating delay before the turtles finally appear onscreen. Extensive use of flashbacks and explanatory dialogue that reveal her lifelong connection with the mutants also have a dilatory effect (while laying groundwork for future sequels), but provide an authentic account of the turtles’ origins while keeping the humor pitched at an appropriately juvenile level.
Not much of that easygoing style rubs off on the human characters, however, as Fox spends much of the movie acting bewildered as April tries to keep up with rapidly shifting plot developments, and Fichtner delivers a generically styled, simplistically motivated baddie. Arnett has the only role that comes close to matching the turtles’ verve, but doesn’t get enough time onscreen to create a lasting impression. The castmembers portraying Splinter and the turtles achieve a persuasive level of realism that was never possible with the elaborate puppetry required for the original film series and adequately fulfill expectations for their characters.
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Liebesman relies on his genre-film résumé to keep events moving at a brisk clip and the motion-capture process employed to facilitate live-action integration with cutting-edge VFX looks superior onscreen, sharply and smoothly rendering some thrilling action scenes and delivering impactful 3D character detail. However, the drawn-out 101-minute running time and the nonstop cartoonish violence may deter some would-be fans, or perhaps the adults who pay for their movie tickets.
Production companies: Nickelodeon Movies, Platinum Dunes
Cast: Megan Fox, Will Arnett, William Fichtner, Danny Woodburn, Abby Elliott, Noel Fisher, Jeremy Howard, Pete Ploszek, Alan Ritchson, Minae Noji
Director: Jonathan Liebesman
Screenwriters: Josh Appelbaum, Andre Nemec, Evan Daugherty
Producers: Michael Bay, Andrew Form, Brad Fuller, Galen Walker, Scott Mednick and Ian Bryce
Executive producers: Denis L. Stewart, Eric Crown, Napoleon Smith III and Jason T. Reed
Director of photography: Lula Carvalho
Production designer: Neil Spisak
Costume designer: Sarah Edwards
Editors: Glen Scantlebury, Joel Negron
Music: Brian Tyler

Gaza deadline looms as six die in ordnance blast

 

Gaza City (Palestinian Territories) (AFP) - Five Palestinians and an Italian journalist were killed in Gaza Wednesday when Israeli ordnance detonated as experts tried to disable it just hours before the end of a 72-hour truce.

The blast occurred in the northern town of Beit Lahiya as Egyptian mediators scrambled to persuade Israeli and Palestinian negotiators to extend a three-day ceasefire, which expires at midnight (2100 GMT).

Without agreement on an extension or a long-term truce, the two sides risk a resumption of the deadly fighting, which began on July 8.

The Associated Press confirmed that one of its journalists and a freelance Palestinian translator had been killed in the blast, identifying them as Simone Camilli, a 35-year-old cameraman from Italy, and Ali Shehda Abu Afash, 36.

Besides his work as a translator, Abu Afash also worked part-time as an administrative assistant with AFP's Gaza bureau. He leaves behind a wife and two girls, aged seven and two.

Camilli, who is survived by a wife and three-year-old daughter, had worked for The Associated Press since 2005.

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Two boys walk past destroyed homes in the northern Gaza strip a few miles away from the border with  …

Both men were killed as they covered the story of experts dismantling unexploded ordnance. One of AP's Palestinian photographers, Hatem Moussa, was also badly wounded in the explosion along with another four people, medics said.

The Gaza interior ministry said its top bomb disposal expert in the north had been killed, naming him as Taysir Lahum.

Camilli is the first foreign journalist die in the violence in Gaza, which has killed more than 1,950 Palestinians and 67 on the Israeli side.

- Deadline looms -

As the night fell on three days of calm in and around Gaza and with no concrete word on the talks in Cairo, both sides were readying for a possible resumption of hostilities as the midnight deadline drew closer.

"We have already sacrified 64 men and it is possible we may have to sacrifice more," Israel's Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Benny Gantz said at a military ceremony on Wednesday evening, his remarks broadcast on army radio.

"It is possible that the operation is not ended and is not completed," he said.

And on the ground in Gaza, many were concerned that violence would resume.

"We're all worried, it's natural," said Hussein Abu Haseera, sitting outside his air conditioning shop in Gaza City's Rimal neighbourhood.

"We want this to be finished, for the blockade to be lifted. No one likes dying do they?"

In Cairo, the truce talks at the General Intelligence headquarters were expected to run until late as Egyptian mediators raced to bridge the gaps between the two sides.

By the time the deadline passes, the two sides must have agreed on a permanent ceasefire, accepted an extension of the truce or risk a resumption of more than a month of bloody fighting.

A member of the Palestinian delegation told AFP there would be an official announcement by their negotiating team at 9:30pm (1830 GMT).

Ahead of the announcement, Ismail Haniya, the top Hamas official in Gaza insisted that a longterm ceasefire would only be achieved if Israel lifted its eight-year blockade, the Islamist movement's Al Aqsa TV quoted reported.