Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III

The first Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was, for all its faults, a minor miracle. Here, for small children, were heroes who were streetwise, anti-authority, and loved to fight. It couldn't last. In their third film, which is shorn of nearly all the elements which made the Ninjas popular, one turtle pontificates: 'Fighting's for grown-ups, and only if they've got no other choice.' One of the most enjoyable things about the Turtles was their interaction with a modern city. Here, however, writer/director Gillard misguidedly sends them back to medieval Japan. The wisecracks have been cut back, and where once the Ninjas' dude-speak was original (influencing, for example, Wayne's World) it's now merely imitative.