TMNT 2014 – Nostalgia Critic

The Angry Video Game Nerd joins the Nostalgia Critic to take on the Michael Bay produced mess-terpeice. It’s time for the 2014 Bay Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

About Doug Walker

Creator of 5 Second Movies, Nostalgia Critic, Bum Reviews and more.

237 comments

  1. Holy shit! People other than me remember SeaQuest?

  2. Great Review Doug.

  3. Blaze The Movie Fan

    I personally find the movie hell of a lot of fun, and don’t agree with the hate for it.

    Having said that, seeing two people I’m a huge fan of doing a crossover is hell of a lot of fun to watch as well.

  4. In spite of the otherwise great review, I’m just genetically inclined towards nitpicking, and have to point out that the 1980’s cartoon still wasn’t the original Ninja Turtles. I really wanted to see Nerd and Critic riffing on the original, ultraviolent parody of the grimdark comics of the Dark Age of comic books.

    Anyway, the central problem of this film was that it tacked on the things that are iconic to the Ninja Turtles franchise like they were from a checklist (like they probably were), rather than organically integrating them to the story. The love for pizza, the rivalry with Shredder, even the Ninjutsu was just halfheartedly tossed in without any kind of connection to the story. All those things could have been left out, the turtles could have been changed into any generic superheroes and nothing fundamental about the film would have changed.

  5. You know, the same thing you said at the end about Turtles you can say about Transformers.

  6. This movie definitely goes into the bad TMNT bin.

  7. Very great review. I especially love the NES moment at 10.05. That cracks me up. XD

    But, honestly, I think the Turtles design in this movie is damn great.
    Yes, there are ugly but what did you expect about “Mutant” and “Turtles” beings?
    And for this aspect, I think they’re beautifull.

    • I also like the CG motion capture on the Turtles. And the nostrels on their beaks make sense, because A. turtles have nostrels, and B. how else would the turtles breath with their mouths closed?

  8. That was pure awesome. That’s all I have to say.

  9. Awww, I wish I could be in Chicago. I wasn’t allowed to talk to you when you did Shadocon in Florida. I still like Space Jam. Maybe you should review that Next Mutation thing. I thought Santa Christ would be Michael Bay in disguise. I guess you already did that with M. Night Shyamalan.

  10. It should STILL be noted that Michael Bay did NOT direct this film; he was only one of SIX producers. The director of this film was Jonathan Liebesman, the man who brought us Darkness Falls (that Tooth Fairy horror film reviewed by Film Brain in one of his first episodes), Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning (which was also both CO-PRODUCED by Bay and reviewed by Film Brain, Battle: Los Angeles (which iks a far better alien invasion movie than that POS Skyline), and Wrath of the Titans. My point is for people to STOP BLAMING MICHAEL BAY FOR EVERYTHING. I like this movie, because it’s like a live action version of an episode of the 80’s/90’s TMNT series. The Ninja Turtles were done in motion capture, not just CGI. I like the designs of the Turtles, because it help describe their character. I have no problem with the turtle’s noses, because it makes sense of how they can breath with their mouths closed. Oh, and can we please drop the whole Megan Fox hate, because it’s becoming as overrated as the Michael Bay hate. I’m okay with The Shredder wearing a mechanized suit, because it makes him look as menacing as Super Shredder from Ninja Turtles II from 1991. I don’t care if Johnny Knoxville DID play the voice of Leonardo in this movie, because I couldn’t tell it was him. I think it’s pretty obvious that you guys are turning into senile old farts who hate movies and TV shows of today (no offense).

    It’s been recently announced that they will film the sequel to this film in April for a 2016 release because of the box office success of this film, and I will see that film as well, regardless of how you nitpickers think of people like Michael Bay, Megan Fox, and so on.

    • It still has the basic look and feel of a Michael Bay production. Jonathan Liebesman is more or less a director for hire. He previously worked with Bay directing “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning.”

    • Oh my goodness, you’re always trying to justify the the inexcusable actions of the hack wannabe director, Michael Bay in every repeatable post regarding him aren’t you?, Well, I got news for you buddy….Bay is an incompetent director and producer, regardless of his lack of directing, it still reeks of horrendous writing and lazy storytelling, and maybe we wouldn’t “Hate” on Bay so much if he was not and egotistical douche who solely relies on the stupidest tropes that are widely overdone and also, he make pathetic suckers out of you who are completely oblivious about the special effects to distract the lowest common denominator for two hours , In short, this movie blows, the sequel will blow and you need to get over yourself about that “Bay shouldn’t be hated” Whine-fest you blab about, and for the record, Bay doesn’t have haters, many can’t stand his bull crap, so don’t go around to every related Michael bay Post and utter your suck up poorly attempt to defend him, it makes it more pathetic than you let on…….P.S. What did Bay’s ass taste like when you started to kiss it alot?

  11. For what it was worth, I liked this one for the same reason I liked the new Dredd and Robocop: it stuck to core concepts and themes, but didn’t let anachronisms and continuity hold them down. For a cheesy action movie starring humanoid turtles as a parody of its genre, this was pretty damn good for being a Bay film. Sure it’s dated, but most things inevitably are. It’s not the Turtles movie of a lifetime, but it’s the Turtles we need for this decade.

  12. Kind of a bore. The crossover review of Transformers 4 with The Blockbuster Buster was way better.

    • Agreed. That crossover had something we’ve never seen before coupled with a lot of great banter and great chemistry between reviewers.
      This review had something that was done before all leading up to a final argument that every Turtles fan already knows in their heart of hearts: that TMNT is fucking stupid and it’s BECAUSE it’s so stupid that we love it.

  13. Critic From The Future

    I didn’t laugh super hard at most of the video, but I was dying at the end with the bit about the turtle talking hyper-fast in real time.

  14. The worst Shrek movie yet.

  15. Hey I’m no sexist, and I love her personality and the performances she gives in the NC-Episodes, but someone has to say it:

    Kendra looks fucking hot in that Jumpsuit… damn…

    Hilarious review by the way 😉

  16. Three Degrees of Bacon

    I’m slightly disappointed your look back on the other iterations of TMNT didn’t include the version that crossed over with Power Rangers (In Space), and included a 5th turtle, Venus.

  17. Is it just me or is the framerate from the video of the movie completely fucked up?
    Great crossover none the less.

  18. Federico Iachetti

    Awesome!!!!!

    But it needed Andre (Black Nerd) on the singing secton of the video.

    Aren’t you guys planning a crossover soon? =)

  19. This was a truly hilarious episode.

  20. You make such a great team.

    You guys should definetly do this more often.

  21. This was one of the best reviews out there !!! I laughed so hard !!!

  22. Ok, no, this I need to comment on: It is *NOT*, in any way, shape, or form, “clever” to give the turtles a connection early on. This is a crutch of bad writers everywhere, connecting characters that have no business being connected. And it needs to stop.

  23. I overall liked the new movie and it didn’t “ruin my childhood” though at the same time I realize and think it had numerous problems in it. Mostly with overlong action sequences, the design of the Turtles and the use of April. And it’s not a “good” movie by any means but it wasn’t nearly as bad I feared or as bad as it could have been.

    I would have liked to see more “subtle” designs to the Turtles. There was no-need to make them 6-feet tall and weigh 600-lbs. And some elements of their origins mirrors the current comics but they could have added in one huge one that would solve a lot of the problems in the movie. Splinter and the turtles are reincarnations of a father and his four sons from ancient Japan and they’re aware of this enough to retain, regain, their memories of that time via the mutagen.

    I didn’t think this movie was bad but it certainly could have been better.

  24. You guys do realize that the comic books came first, right? And not only that, but it was made as a satire of Darevdevil. The heart of the Ninja Turtles isn’t to sell toys, it’s to be silly. The idea of the Shredder came from a cheese grater for crying out loud!

  25. Called it. The heart of the franchise was selling toys.

  26. I think that Megan Fox did the best that she could but it just wasn’t right casting. I didn’t have an issue with the design of the turtles. I just thought it was mediocre. I thought that the new background was okay. The comedy was okay. In my opinion, that’s actually the biggest problem of this movie: mostly everything was mediocre. Except for the action scenes: those were AWESOME! Anyways, this review was pretty good. You guys brought up the best in each other comedy-wise because I usually don’t like Nerd videos.

    I already watch Ursa’s videos. 😀

  27. What makes this movie unbearable is not how, like previous failures, was an honest mistake or milking; it was intentionally supposed to be 2 things,

    1) like Bay did to Transformers, a ‘F*ck You! My way is more awesome’ message
    2) a pathetic excuse to show off modern day special effects. And nothing gets butts in seats better than nostalgia.

    They didn’t make decisions based on what would be in the best interest for a live-action adaptation of TMNT to make it a good movie.

  28. Where the hell did the comment about “Space Jam still sucks” come from? What did that have to do with this review? Anyway, great review! I would love to come and see you guys but neither are really that close to where I live and I can’t afford it unfortunately. I would love to be able to go to Chicago and talk to you guys face-to-face, especially since a week ago I made a video telling all the people who were trolling Tamara to leave her ALONE, it’s called “Leave Tamara Chambers ALONE” and Tamara even commented on it. I would love to be able to meet her in person after that. Plus, considering I watch A LOT of your videos Doug, I would love to be able to debate with you because I LOVE to debate and I would LOVE to meet you, though I would probably end up being dragged out by security for holding up the line and probably for annoying you (I try not to be annoying though but when I am I’m a really pain in the butt lol). I love how you acknowledged that just because something is just made for commercialism it doesn’t make it bad.

    Also will everyone calm the hell down? If you look at Doug’s review as himself you see that he’s not nearly as over-the-top about it as he is here. The reason for that is because that’s part of the Nostalgia Critic’s character. It’s Doug’s opinion in an exaggerated form. Get over it already people!

  29. RedMilleniumRanger

    Can someone please tell me what version of the turtles that was with the spiked masks, because I have never seen that one?

  30. Hey Doug, I know you have a really tight schedule, but I wanted to ask you if you could visit a Con in Oregon the next time one comes around. I’m a huge fan and I would really like to meet you in person.

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