Staff Pick: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (35mm)

Catie’s Staff Pick!

A co-production between Hong Kong’s Golden Harvest and US-based New Line Studios, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles finds the reptilian martial arts heroes of Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird’s comic books—and their hit Saturday morning cartoon adaptation—squaring up with the evil Shredder (James Saito) in a live action war zone New York City. The astonishingly flexible, battle-ready turtle suits are among the last creations to come out of Jim Henson’s Creature Shop during Henson’s life. Crash (1996) star Elias Koteas digs into his role as hockey-masked vigilante Casey Jones like he’s campaigning for an Oscar. “For when you die it will be… without honor,” remains easily the finest line readings spoken by a large humanoid rat in the history of motion pictures.