TMNT in Wizard
 

I picked up the latest issue of Wizard Magazine this week (it's a magazine for comics enthusiasts, for those that may not know), and one of the main features was one that ranked the Top 50 Comic Book Movies of All-Time. To my pleasant surprise, all three TMNT movies were not only included, but also had a decent showing.

#39: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze
"You know you're in trouble when Corey Feldman won't even reprise his role. However, for the rush-released sequel to 1990's 'TMNT' blockbuster, producers proceeded with such offbeat casting as an unseen Kevin Nash as the Super Shredder and Vanilla Ice as himself. (Best Scene: Vanilla apparently ad-libbing the shoulda-been classic 'Ninja Rap' while the Turtles battle a giant mutant wolf and a snapping turtle.) Not as much fun as the original flick, the sequel relies too much on repeat gags (They like pizza! Splinter makes another funny!) and a thin plot, even by Turtle standards (it's a movie about ooze). At least gifted thespian Ernie Reyes Jr. pops up as Keno, the Turtles' sassy new ally."

#27: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III
"By the time the third installment of the 'TMNT' movie franchise hit theatres, the Turtles' popularity had pretty much gone the way of the Rubik's Cube. However, diehard Turtles fans still shelled out cash to see the four pizza-scarfin' mutant amphibians travel back in time to feudal Japan to take on a gaggle of samurai and other assorted baddies. Plus, the surprise return of Elias Koteas as Casey Jones is a welcome treat, even if he doesn't beat people up with sporting goods. If only the kid-friendly 'TMNT III' took on a slightly darker tone (like in the comics), it woulda made more of an impact."

#14: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
"God, we love watching these turtles - and we're not ashamed to admit it! Despite the fact that by the time this movie hit theatres the Turtles had ascended from gritty, underground anti-heroes to kid-friendly, Saturday morning fodder, 'TMNT' still captures what makes the Turtles mythos so cool: the origin of our heroes, wisecracks that are actually funny, badass Casy 'Wayne Gretzky on steroids' Jones and kick-ass action sequences where the Turtles take on the Shredder's Foot Clan! The turtle costumes (created by Jim Henson's Creature Shop) not only look like actual amphibians, but they actually allowed the martial artists wearing them to fight fluidly. As Splinter says at the end, 'I have always liked... Cowabunga!' Us too, dude!"

For anyone curious, here's the full ranking (50 being worst and 1 being the best):

50: Batman and Robin
49: Steel
48: Red Sonja
47: Virus
46: Fantastic Four
45: Superman IV: The Quest for Peace
44: Conan the Destroyer
43: Captain America
42: Tank Girl
41: Supergirl
40: The Crow 2: City of Angels
39: TMNT 2: The Secret of the Ooze
38: The Crow 3: Salvation
37: Superman III
36: Batman Forever
35: Barb Wire
34: Judge Dredd
33: Return of Swamp Thing
32: Bulletproof Monk
31: Men in Black II
30: Spawn
29: The Punisher
28: Howard the Duck
27: TMNT III
26: Mystery Men
25: Batman Returns
24: Swamp Thing
23: Batman (1966 Adam West version)
22: Daredevil
21: Timecop
20: Conan the Barbarian
19: The Mask
18: Blade II
17: From Hell
16: American Splendor
15: The Crow
14: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
13: Batman: Mask of the Phantasm
12: Men in Black
11: Akira
10: Blade
9: Batman
8: The Rocketeer
7: Ghost World
6: X-Men
5: Road to Perdition
4: Superman
3: Superman II
2: Spider-Man
1: X2: X-Men United

Seems pretty accurate to me, but I personally think Batman should be higher than 9, maybe 5. Anyway, debate and discuss. :P

I agree with most of the stuff on the list except maybe one you said. Batman should be higher on the list. It's at least better than the Rocketeer and Ghost World. I'm not really sure those movies are in teh right place. The top movies I agree with though even though I vaguely remember any of the Superman movies. X2 was the best by far. :)

Robin Hood - Men In Tights
was a good movie.........
but if TMNT is on the list then im OK with it

Batman: MotP should be the highest ranking Bat-movie...

Im suprsied Secret of the Ooze is that high on the list, but then again Batman & Robin IS on the list.

LOL :lol: :P

Its kinda wierd that 3 is listed higher then 2 considering how many people here seem to hate it more.

At least Balde is where it belongs in the top 10. Nothing like a move that blows up vimpire heads

I can't believe Steel is on that list. That movie sucks no matter which way you cut it. Superman II should be number 1 though.

If I wear to decide, Balde would be number one, and TMNT would definetly be in the top 10.

I guess they ranked TMNT 3 higher since it does not have so kiddy feeling, they use weapons again and such but the Horrible suits and Splinter puppet spoil it for most people. I would not put neither of the sequels on top 50 list tough.

I think tmnt II should be higher then number III, I dont care if Vanilla Ice was in it, and yes it was completly fabricated but look at the costumes. Jim hensen did such a great job with the first two movies, but when the third movie came out the had a complet overhaul (in a bad direction). This is only my opinion, but I'll stick by it. The 3rd movie was ninja turtles so I'll always like it but my prority is the same as they were released.

Yes, the suits are definetly the best part of TMNT 2.

I'd definitely still have all three TMNT movies on the top 50 list. I mean there aren't tons of comic book movies anyway, what would you replace them with? I don't care how cheesy 2 and 3 are, they deserve to be ranked higher than the Fantastic Four movie. :P

True, in fact I don't think I can think of many comic book movies outside that list... But since 2&3 have little to none connection to the comics, Maybe they shouldn't be called comic bokk movies.

I think their definition of a "comic book movie" was simply a movie based on characters created in a comic book, or part of a much-reknowned comic series. Arnold's version of Connan had little to do with the Conan comic books, for example, but they still consider it a "comic book movie".

Yeah, thats true I guess.

well the list only has big screen movies (minus Batman-Phantasm), if they had included TV movies, the # does increase a bit, 2 'biker' Captain American Movies, several Hulk Movies, Nick Fury, Gen X, (I think this was a movie first) Nightman, Witchblade JLA (live action), ect

Most of the TV comic book movies fall far below avarage, so it's no suprise none of them is on the list. Especially Nick Fury with David Hassehoff. Well I got good laughs from that one.

YIY! X2 is in the first place! I think it is the best movie ever... i mean, that was based on a comic book

aren't these all the comic based movies ever made? ;-)

........Was Timecop even a comic? I bet it failed after the movie....

I think The Crow: Salvation should be a lot higher, maybe 22. And how can DD be worse than Time Cop?! IT HAD KEVIN SMITH IN IT FOR GOD'S SAKE!

Im suprised Daredevil is even that high, but It's understandable if you look what are on the list behind it. Except I tought Bulletproof Monk would have deserved a better place. Didn't know it was based on a comic book By the way.

Yea... i liked tmnt II. It was awesome! I dont like tmnt III.... but if i had it my way #1 would be tmnt!!!!!!
(because it did rule)

WHO-HOOO!! X2 is #1! Uh-huh...uh-huh...uh-huh, uh-huh, uh-huh!!! :lol: :D

Yeah first one was the best of the three. And I also enjoyed the second one because I liked it even with Vanilla Ice and the TMNT were just great. But the third one the costumes were not good in my opinion. I still liked the movie but it is last on the list. So the order should be just how the movies go: first, second, third.

the long list has many good comic book movies on it. I agree that TMNT #1 is the better one of the three. But I would say that the second one is more entertaining than the third one.

Wasn't Fantastic Four unrealesed because it was so terrible? And it still placed higher than Batman & Robin? Oh, that's rich. That's just great.

I think Spawn and Daredevil should be placed a little bit higher than what they are, but I agree with most of the placings, overall!

For completion sake, and since there are those (like Shellfox, whose eternal attention to detail amazes me) who mentioned them, the Wizard article also mentioned some of the made-for-TV travesties and abominations fans were forced to suffer:

Captain America-
"Is that Evel Knievel? Nope, it's star Rob Brown, who dons the Cap mantle after he's attacked by spies seeking the secrets of his late father, the original Captain America. He's injected with the FLAG serum and given a keen motorcycle, helmet, and a see-through shield. See-through shield?"

Captain America II: Death Too Soon-
"Cap, still wearing that stupid helmet, battles a purse-snatcher and a terrorist played by Christopher Lee. At one point, Cap even fights dogs - that bend his shield! Gah!"

Dr. Strange-
"Fresh from his performance in 'Orca', impressively mustahced actor Peter Hooten dons a garish robe and sash to star as Doc Strange. Originally aired on CBS as a pilot for a potential series, this teleflick was thankfully banished to Limbo."

Generation X-
"Even though it featured Gen-Xers Banshee, Jubilee, Skin and Mondo (as well as Finola Hughes as a hot White Queen), dirt-poor special effects and the guy who played Max Headroom as the villain killed this Fox flick."

Justice League-
"This unaired CBS pilot (which has enjoyed life as a heavily-traded bootleg) featured Guy Gardner, the Flash, the Atom and 'M*A*S*H' alum David Ogden Stiers as a very portly Martian Manhunter. How low was the budget? Instead of showing action sequences, the events were reported on the 'Metro City News.'"

The Incredible Hulk Returns-
"The first TV movie after the TV series' cancellation, Lou Ferrigno's Hulk teams up with a ridiculous Thor (who has a penchant for calling the Hulk 'Troll') to stop bad guys from stealing the Gamma Ray Transponder... which doesn't do much of anything."

Trial of The Incredible Hulk-
"David Banner gets arrested after hulking out on the subway. Good thing blind lawyer Matt Murdock takes his case! Primarily a would-be pilot for a 'Daredevil' TV series, the Hulk doesn't even appear in the final action scenes!"

Death of The Incredible Hulk-
"For the last TV movie installment, Banner hooks up with a Black Widow-ish foreign spy before turning into the Hulk and plummeting from a helicopter to his death. Wait... what?"

Nick Fury-
"When you think Nick Fury, you think grizzled, badass spy. When Fox TV execs think Nick Fury, they think... David Hasselhoff."

Vampirella-
"Talisa Soto (Kitana from the 'Mortal Kombat' flicks) stars as the titular bloodsucker (a vampire princess from the planet Drakulon, in this case) who travels to Earth in a toy rocket ship to battle Who frontman Roger Daltrey. Need we say more?"


Let it be said, conclusively: Comic book characters on live-action TV: ALWAYS BAD.

And by the way, Shellfox, Batman: Mask of the Phantasm WAS released in theatres.

You're right, FF was SO bad that it was never released.

And yes, it's STILL better than Batman and Robin, without question. I've seen some of FF, and it's awful, but it's STILL better than Batman and Robin.

The difference? The people making FF KNEW that it was never going to be released, so effort all-around was next to nothing. They had a small budget, bad actors, and a crappy script. As opposed to Batman and Robin, which had a HUGE budget, an all-star cast, and.... a crappy script.

FF is awful, but it's better than it had any right to be. Batman and Robin sucked on EVERY level, and they had a LOT more to work with.

I don't care what you guys say, FF was hilarious. The Thing "It's clobberin' time...for real this time."

I think it's availabel on edonkey network, is the movie really worth watching?

I DLed it off iMesh. I haven't seen all of it, but... it's bad. If you want to watch a comic book movie so you can laugh at it and say "wow, that's really bad", then yeah it's worth it. Just don't expect it to be good or anything.

Though I think it's way better than "Dude, Where's My Car?", so maybe you can use that as a barometer.

I think I might pass... David Hasselhoff as Nick Fury made me afraid of bad comic book movies.

The Rocketeer is at 8 I hated that movie! it should be 88

The Rocketeer wasn't that bad.

I did not know that about Phantasm

And in an earlier issue of Wizard, they said someing that stuck with me.
'Biker Thor and Blake the poddle'

what other comic book movies are there besides the 50

Well, there are the TV ones mentioned... other than that I really can't recall. If there are more than the ones on the list I assume they're SO terrible that they're completely obscure, because that list is pretty much the only ones I've heard of without going back to the days of movie serials and the like.

Again what about witchblade, it started as a TV movie and was pretty good (as was the series)

the only thing that I hated about the witchblade serices was they only gave her the gaumlet and not the full suit! damn!

Even though I continue to read it on a fairly regular basis, Wizard never ceases to make me laugh—many times when they're not trying to do so.

The thing that I found somewhat humorous about Wizard's "Top 50 Comic Book Movies of All-Time" list was that it included [almost] every theatrically released comic book movie ever made. (With a few debatable exclusions, like Ghost in the Shell.) That's kinda like having only three skiers compete in the downhill slalom at the Winter Olympics and then making a big deal out of the medal ceremony. Of course, each of the skiers will rank differently, but you know before the skiing even gets underway that each of the competing skiers will be getting a medal . . . so who gets the gold and who gets the bronze no longer seems like that big of a deal.

Maybe the piece would have been more aptly titled "Comic Book Movies: Best to Worst", or something in that neighborhood.

In the end, it's just more of Wizard's typically useless—but sometimes entertaining—filler material.