Turbo: A Power Rangers Movie Review

From the Command Center, Episode 7. All right.

Turbo action. Good thing we don't need a licensed

Dremzor. Turbo power. Turbo sword. Megazord morph

sequences are live. Let's shift to the turbo.

That's my man. Wow, cool. Get ready for the ultimate

power trip. Welcome to the collaboration between

the Pop Culture Network and the Geekcast Radio

Network. From the Command Center, the podcast,

Episode 7, I'm Scotty Cash, and of course joining

me is... DFG1 Mike from the GCRN. What's up,

buddy? Exactly. I'm so glad this is behind us.

This is, uh, I bet we get like two listens. No

one even cares about this. They're like, look,

we know it's terrible. I'm not even going to

listen to them talk about how terrible it is.

Today we will be shifting into Turbo as we talk

about Turbo, a Power Rangers movie. Hmm. Oh,

my God. So before we get into, and I'm just going

to say right now, I'm going to try my best not

to curse, but there may be a few dams and hells

and just the general stuff in here, but oh, my.

God. So before we get into that, what have you

been up to? How have you been doing? Pretty good,

man. I guess not really too much. We're starting

to clean out the basement a little bit here and

I'm starting to go through a bunch of my tubs.

Oh, crap. And tubs. Oh, toys. And I'm trying

to put all the, you know, trying to like label

all these tubs and trying to organize a little

bit better because my whole my just my whole

basement is just like packed full of tubs and

tubs of toys and just crap. So I've been on Craigslist

the last few hours. That's why you keep seeing

me online. Googling stuff, eBaying stuff just

to see what goes for what anymore. And it's just

like, I don't know. I don't really have any attachment

to any of it anymore. So I'm just like, man,

I wish somebody would just come in here and just

take this stuff. Why don't you sell it to Killen?

Yeah, I might as well just do that. That would

probably be the easiest way. I've got about 60.

starting lineup figures that I'm just like, why

would I ever buy this many figures of this? Wow.

I remember starting one up. I used to love those

things. Yeah. And they used to be worth a lot

of money and now they're worth nothing. Yup.

There was a, not to get off topic here, but there

was a lot on eBay that like 96 figures at like

26 bucks. And I was like, Oh my God. So I don't

know. I might just give him his gag gifts to

everybody for Christmas. Hey, here you go. Here's

a Ryan Sandberg. Ha, ha, ha. Not even gag gifts.

Give them to people that you absolutely hate.

Yeah, exactly. As for me, we at Geekcast Radio

Network are blasting off with, we are in, by

the time November rolls around, we are already

preparing for 2012. We have four. Brand new podcasts

that are coming out in 2012. One's about Knight

Rider. One's about Masters of the Universe cartoons.

One is a mask podcast. And I forget what the

other one is. But yeah, next year is pretty much

80s year for GCRN. I'm sure it's something to

do with Transformers. Actually, no. We're done

with the Transformers coverage for now. Whoa.

Yeah. Your body's going to melt down. Do what?

I said your body's going to melt down. Honestly,

as much as I love the nostalgia of it, as much

as I love the new cartoon Transformers Prime,

I pre -ordered a bunch of the Transformers Prime

toys from Big Bad Toy Store, and I then watched

some video reviews of each of the toys that I

pre -ordered, and I'm like, yeah, I just don't

care to own these, and I promptly canceled all

the pre -orders. Atta boy. Well, I mean, it's

not because I don't like Transformers. It's just

that I don't feel the need to collect the toys

anymore. Oh, no, I totally understand. I'm totally

with you. I mean, the only... I'm kind of at

that point on the Masters Classics figures, and

I still love them. I'm just like, man, I just...

And it's not even like it's killing my pocketbook.

I'm just getting sick of spending 30 bucks a

pop. You know what I mean? For a toy that...

For an action figure that I might not even want.

I don't really want Flog, and I don't really

want Flipshot, or Icarus, or whatever his name

is. And I definitely don't want to spend $30

on it. Yeah, a buddy of mine who sells off his

2011 subscription to me, I basically have bought

almost every single figure from him between May

and next month. I think the only ones I haven't

gotten are... Snout Spout and Icarus because

I just don't care. Oh, you don't want Snout Spout?

Hell no. Oh, see, I was always a fan of Snout

Spout. I think one of the reasons why I don't

really care for him is because probably at the

time in my childhood, I missed the episodes with

him in it. Like, I don't remember. I know he's

in the Filmation series, but I don't remember

him at all. Mm -hmm. I just don't. And honestly,

next year's subscription, which I've bought already.

Next year's subscription, I'll be selling off

the Star Sisters. I'll be selling off Slush Head.

I'll be selling off... There was a couple other

ones I didn't really care for that they've announced.

I mean, I still love the figures. I'll still

be collecting the figures. I mean, obviously,

the big draw for next year is Shadow Weaver.

But no, I mean, we're trying to not just be known

for, oh, hey, those are the guys that do the

Transformers podcasts. Well, there's nothing

to matter with that, though. I mean, that's what

you guys are good at. Well, right, but we also

have other interests. I mean, that's not just

our main interest. You guys are like Tobey Maguire

in Spider -Man. You guys are going to go off

and do Seabiscuit and no one's going to care.

You're like, no, we just want to see another

Spider -Man. No. Not at all. That's not at all

what it's like. Okay. Whatsoever. Because we've

had a lot of positive response. I mean, we just

launched ToonCast Beyond, which season one of

ToonCast Beyond is all superhero cartoons. You

know, like I said, we're getting ready to launch

the mask show beginning of next year, and then

later next year we're going to launch the Masters

podcast series. So, I mean, there's been a lot

of positive reaction of people looking forward

to it. and it'll give us more of a fan base rather

than just stick to a weekly video series that

gets dry after 20 episodes. I'm with you. I hear

you. It's like, we're pulling all this stuff

out of our ad for random unknown Lego toys. Why

are we doing this video series? Let's bring JD

back and close it out. I'm sorry. I had to figure

a way to mix it in. All right, so Turbo, a Power

Rangers movie, is the 1997 action film set in

the Power Rangers universe serving as a bridge

between Power Rangers Zeo and Power Rangers Turbo.

Yeah, somebody broke that bridge. The film was

directed by sci -fi veteran David Winning, and

it was produced by Saban Entertainment, and like

the previous film, distributed by 20th Century

Fox. See, I didn't know it went to theaters.

Yep. I wonder, I don't think we got it here.

Maybe we did, and it was just so poop that no

one even talked about it or anything. I don't

think I saw it in theaters either. I don't remember

seeing it in theaters. The first time I even

knew it existed, my mom brought me the VHS. Yep.

Because it had, like, the Disney clamshell. And

I was like, oh, what's this Disney movie? And

I pick it up, and I'm like, oh, no, what is this

crap? So sure enough, I put it in. I probably

watched 20 minutes of it, and I was like, yeah,

I'm done. Yeah. Because they put that little

kid in there, dude. How's that little kid going

to be a Power Ranger? We'll get to that. Let's

not get too ahead of ourselves here. Unlike MMPR,

the movie, this actually takes place within the

continuity of the series. And, of course, you

know... Malagor, due to budgetary reasons, was

reused as Dark Spectre when we get to space.

I'm not sure exactly what that just meant, because

I haven't seen any in space whatsoever. Yeah.

I'm actually kind of excited. I don't know if

it's going to be good or bad, but I don't know

any of the characters. I don't know any of the

plot lines. Well, I don't want to get too far

into space yet. When we do the episode about...

Turbo the series. At the end of that, I'll kind

of talk to you about that. Okay. So you kind

of said your general memories of it, and I'm

the same way. I kind of knew this went to theaters,

but I never saw it in a theater. At least I don't

remember. I mean, this movie is on par with Batman

and Robin, and I remember seeing Batman and Robin

in a theater. Yeah. I'd pick Batman and Robin

over this movie. That's saying a lot. Yes. That

is saying a whole lot, ladies and gentlemen.

All right, so the characters in here, we still

have, in the beginning, we have Tommy, Adam,

Catherine, Tanya, and Justin. Justin is the new

one. Basically what happened is... Well, we still

have Rocky at first. Yeah, it did. Steve Cardenas

got injured on the set or he got injured doing

a stunt. And they worked that into the show and

into the movie where he hurt his leg in a karate.

Oh, so he actually really got hurt. Yes, he did

injure himself during a stunt. That's why they

have a lot of, you know, just people in suits

doing stunts rather than the actual actors. So

he injured himself. They needed a new Blue Ranger.

They wanted to kind of, you know, Power Rangers

has always been something for kids, for the most

part. They wanted to latch on to the kid market,

so what better way than to bring in a 12 -year

-old? Oh, well, yeah, there's a lot of better

ways, I'll tell you that. Okay, well. I don't

want, I mean, if you're a little kid watching

a superhero show, you're not going to be blown

away by... The kid next door being a superhero.

I mean, that's just my opinion anyway, but I

always liked, you know, I don't know. I guess

I was older when Turbo showed up. Yeah, we were

17 at that time, so I mean. That's stupid. Yeah,

at the time that Turbo came out, I was 17. I

really wasn't. into it at all um but you know

by that time i was you know into girls hardcore

and everything else and i you know i wasn't really

watching it anymore um and i had caught it in

like reruns after after it had ended um and you

know i mean the big draw for this movie was you

know the fan wankiness of throwing kimberly and

jason in there to have them come back another

time yeah The problem is that after that bullshit,

dear Tommy, bull crap, dear Tommy letter that

she sent him in Zeo, why is she going to show

up? Other than to be a fan wank for the fans,

why is she showing up in Turbo? It's the reason

you said before. Yeah. It's only to show her

in the preview so they can go, oh, wow, Kimberly's

back. Yep. And, you know, that's about it. But

real quick before we get too far into this, when

you just said you were hardcore into girls, that

super reminded me. This chick I dated probably,

I guess, technically would be my high school

sweetheart because I dated her for maybe two

and a half years of high school. I would make

her sit through whatever that Power Ranger episode

was of that day, and she would just hate it.

She would just be like, okay. She just couldn't

wait until it was over. I mean, as soon as their

credits rolled, okay, can we go now? All right,

let's go. So then we would go do whatever, you

know, dinner, movie, whatever, whatever. But

when you said that, I just remember sitting on

the couch and just having such a great time and

looking over at her and her just wishing she

was dead. Because she was too mature for Power

Rangers. So I was like, just be quiet and watch

this. Yes. The basic plot of this is that the

evil alien pirate named Divatox hatches a plan

to release her fiancé Malagor from the island

Miranthus on Earth. To get to the island, she

needs to kidnap a wizard named Larigo from the

planet Liaria. I don't freaking know. I don't

remember. Yeah. And he needs to use his magical

key. Luckily for Larigo, he evades capture and

flees to Earth where he seeks the Power Rangers'

help. The Power Rangers are practicing for a

martial arts tournament. Rocky makes a wrong

move and ends up throwing out his back. While

visiting him at the hospital, a young friend

of the Rangers named Justin discovers the Rangers'

identities. And, of course, Zordon summons them

to protect Larigo. Armed with power boxes, Tommy

and Cat rescue Larigo from the African wilderness.

But they end up losing him to Divatox later on.

Divatox takes the wizard to Miranthus along with

other captives, Bulk Skull, Jason, and Kimberly.

And, of course, Larigo's wife and child. Yeah,

they take his little kid, dude. I was mad. Before

taking off after Divatox, the Rangers are given

brand new phenomenal cosmic powers with no explanation

why they can't use the Zeal powers other than

the fact that the Turbo powers are more powerful

than any other Zord ever at this point. Mm -hmm.

Oh, God. And it reveals by, you know, they're

joined by Justin, who is revealed to be the new

blue Turbo Ranger. They sail on the ship to get

to the island, and blah, blah, blah, blah. Stuff

happens. They fight Malagor. They rescue everybody.

Well, Jason and Kimberly go bad. Yeah, they're

under mind control. Yeah, because he's hanging

over that fire. And Tommy has Jason, right? Because

Jason's trying to throw Tommy in the fire, and

he flips him over, and he's holding his hand,

and he's like... I'm not going to let you go,

brother. I love you. I don't remember what he

said. But I was just like, no, let him go. Let

him go. Oh, God. This movie is just... Okay.

You know, all right. Flashback to 1987. Does

Larigo remind you of anybody? No. Larigo is the

Power Rangers... Gwildor. Version of Gwildor.

Yeah! I like Gwildor and I like Larigo. I like

Gwildor, but Larigo, really? I mean, it sounds

like he's gargling salt. Yes, he does. He has

a wisdom tooth that's really killing him. But

no, I didn't mind him whatsoever. I mean, the

movie was so terrible, why not have a Larigo?

You know what I mean? Yeah. I just... I just

thought it was hysterical when they first pull

up in their Zords, I mean, their cars, and they're

just blown away by how awesome these cars are.

You know, these new cars that they got. They

just realized that they just gave away, like,

cosmic -powered Zeo Zords and all that stuff,

and they're like, well, but look, we got these

cars. Something just ain't right here. Power

Rangers has taken the reversal turn of the Transformers

franchise. In G1, you had cars that transformed

into robots. In Beast Wars, you had animals that

turned into robots. In Power Rangers, you have

giant animals that turn into a giant robot. As

you go along, you eventually get to cars that

turn into a giant robot. It's crazy. It's like

Poopy Voltron. Oh, man. I don't know what else

to say about this movie, honestly. Are there

any characters in here that you absolutely liked?

Nope. Obviously, we still have all the same characters

from Zeo, except for Justin's the new kid. Which

is god -awful. I absolutely cannot stand it.

Both of my daughters, Mariah is 10 and a half

now, and she watched Turbo a ton when she was

little, and she doesn't remember it. And Julia

watched it, I promise you, 50 times, you know,

and she doesn't remember it. So the other day,

I don't know, the other day meaning like a month

and a half ago, two months ago, I was watching

it, and they couldn't figure out why the little

kid grew up to be so big. And they're like, Mariah

was like, I don't like how the big guy has the

little kid voice. Because, like, when he's fighting,

he's going, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. You know,

and she's just like, I don't like that. I'm like,

nobody does, honey. Nobody does. But, yeah, they

sure did like it when they were little. I think

they liked Larago in the family more than anything.

Yeah. Oh, God. Let's get into some trivia, because

honestly, the plot to this movie is so stupid.

You got Divatox in the beginning calling Rita,

asking her advice for the Power Rangers, and

her advice is... Wasn't she sleeping? Run! Wasn't

she sleeping or something? Yeah. Yeah, she was

sleeping next to Zed. Yeah, yeah. It was her

and Zed in bed, and like, I wish I was there

with you, because you don't have to sleep next

to this. And she puts the phone up to Zed, and

he's like snoring like a... Hulking giant. Yeah.

But the plot of this is so stupid. Divatox is,

for all intents and purposes, even though I'm

sure she comes from a different planet, she is

human. And she wants to marry a giant lava monster?

Well, yeah. Really? Yeah, sure. Oh, my God. Yeah.

So bad. All right, so some trivia here. An original

script had the Rangers encounter a new ally,

Mandika the mermaid. She was described in the

script as a girl with alabaster skin, blue and

black hair that trails over her bare chest. a

silver tail, and she would have spoken with a

strange voice. She would have already known Zordon

Alpha and was sent to help them find the ghost

galleon ship, as well as help out through the

story. All of the scenes were apparently shot,

but cut out out of the final film. So, Half -Naked

Mermaid versus Midget Gwildor Wannabe. I'd take

a Half -Naked Mermaid. I'd say so. Wait, does

Larry get his wand? He was pretty powerful with

the wand, bro. Or the cosmic key, I should say.

Yeah. I did like that Jason and Kimberly were

in the movie, because I do remember watching

it later on. Thank God, it's giving me hope that...

Maybe these two are going to come back and be

Power Rangers again. And I'm sure that's another

reason that they put them in there is to give

people, you know, false hope. Yeah, that's all

they were was it was a fan wank and it was a

pretty bad fan wank. I mean, they show up, they

get captured and then they get rescued. That's

it. I mean, you know. Why didn't they shape the

story to maybe have Jason go to Triforia and

get the gold powers back from Trey for the movie

or something cool instead of just having them

as damsels in distress? And bad guys. Yeah, and

the bad guys. The original running time for the

movie was three hours, but half of the movie

was cut because the crew thought it was too long.

To this day, all of the deleted footage has yet

to be released and seen. Hmm. I'm wondering what

kind of deleted footage they have, because deleted

footage might almost make for a better movie.

Oh, it couldn't hurt it. No. They could add the

A -Team. for no good reason whatsoever, and even

throw in Jim and the holograms, and it would

still, you know, not even have a story around

it, it'd still be better. Oh, wow, this is interesting.

Yeah, yeah, you're right. I knew that Steve Cardenas

and Johnny Youngbosh both did additional uncredited

stunt work, but they also, also doing their own

stunts, they also doubled as Piranatrons in certain

parts of the film. And the Piranatrons. Oh, my

God. What the hell? Okay. As much as I complain

about the putties and the Z -putties, I'd rather

have the Z -putties over the dumbass Piranatrons

any day. Yes. Oh, my God. Were you seeing this

trivia? Did you send it to me, too? Yeah. But

it just... I can't find a single thing to say

good about this film at all. Yeah, usually I'm

not with you. And usually, you know, because

like you say, you do the podcast to nitpick everything

and to tell your feelings on it. Usually I try

to look at the good in everything, but Turbo

the movie and Turbo the series, I'm with you.

It's just terrible, dude. We'll get, we'll get

into the series in a little bit, but the movie

is just not, just not, especially after Mighty

Morphin Power Rangers, the movie, like how could

they do this? You know what I mean? The Mighty

Morphin Power Rangers movie was awesome. Yeah.

They, they didn't really try to do this again

theatrically, but on some of the DVD releases

of, of, of later series, they've tried to market

it, market like the first episode or, or, or

the first two episodes, like say, um, Oh, what's

the episode? From Out of Nowhere. I think it's

Out of Nowhere that starts off in space. The

Out of Nowhere two -parter. They'll take that

and they would try to market that as a movie.

And it's basically just two episodes put together.

Yeah, that's goofy. It's so freaking goofy. Yeah,

I just don't know where to begin on this one

because it's just... Well. All right. You know,

I do like some of the music stuff. I like the

turbo theme. I more so like it in the series

rather than here in the movie. Yes. But some

of the music is still very good. Ron Wasserman

was still doing a lot of the music. He really

is good. Oh, he's very good. He's amazing. I'd

like to see some of the other stuff he did. And

I think he would only be good on stuff like this,

you know what I mean? Because, you know, like,

this is kind of hokey music, but it goes good

with, you know, the hokey Power Rangers. So,

I mean, if you try to do, like, this with, like,

a serious thing, it would just be, like, no.

Yeah. You know what I mean? And, I mean, the

thing is, okay, from Zeo to here, you still have

no development of Tommy and Cat having a relationship.

This is correct. I mean, I think they've been

on like one date, and they kind of show you here

and there that they're holding hands or that

they're always together and stuff like that.

I don't think I would have to go back and watch

it, and I probably won't because it's too painful.

I don't think they ever kissed at all on screen.

No, I don't think they did. I think they caught

flack for Tommy and Kimberly kissing and stuff

like that. That's why they done away with it.

Yeah, well, that's stupid. That's just stupid.

So it is on DVD. I think we're going to wait

until we get to the series for you to talk about

the toys. It was on, I believe you can buy slash

rent it on iTunes if you so desire. I strongly

recommend that you don't. No one should ever

see this movie. Is it on Netflix? It's not on

Netflix Instant. The movie was, and then they

took it off. I guess Netflix lost the license

for it, but the entire series is on Netflix.

Yeah, that's where I watched it was on my phone

on Netflix. Yeah, yeah. So I think we're going

to take a quick break. You're going to hear some

ads, and then we'll come back to close the show.

You can now hear the Geekcast Radio Network while

on the go with Stitcher Smart Radio. Stitcher

is a free use and talk mobile app available for

your smartphone. And when you download Stitcher

to hear Geekcast Radio, you'll have a chance

to win money. Downloading is quick and easy.

Just find Stitcher in the App Store. During registration,

hit the promo code box and enter geekcastradio,

all one word, to get automatically entered to

win $100. The latest episodes of the shows will

be waiting for you in your favorites. You'll

get access to lots of other amazing shows, too.

Always available to you on demand. No zinking.

It's Stitcher Smart Radio. Don't forget to enter

promo code geekcastradio when you register. Are

you a fan of Mattel's Masters of the Universe

toy line? How about Princess of Power, New Adventures

of He -Man, or 2000 and X Masters of the Universe?

Hey, guys, I'm Pixel Dan, and my new show, Power

and Honor, the world of Masters of the Universe

toys, takes a look at all of the above -mentioned

lines. In every episode, I'll take a look at

a different action figure, vehicle, or play set

from the world of He -Man. It's a great place

where you can... Reminisce about your favorite

toys from the past or even learn some things

that you may not have already known. A new episode

airs bi -weekly on He -Man .org and PopCultureNetwork

.com. Swing by and check it out. Good journey.

Do you like retro shows? Did you grow up in either

the 80s or the 90s? Then tune into Telecast,

Geekcastradio .com's newest podcast. Join us

here on the Telecast as we revisit some of your

favorite shows, such as Clarissa Explains It

All, Salute Your Shorts, Saved by the Bell, and

much, much more, only on Geekcastradio .com.

This is Karen Ashley, and you're listening to

From the Command Center. So, Scotty, this is

probably going to be the shortest episode in

our history at this point, because that discussion

we just had was 27 minutes and 51 seconds long.

And then add to the fans, you're welcome. Yeah,

the plot of this movie is so asinine, it's beyond

belief. And that will continue in the series.

God, it gets worse. Yeah, it gets much worse.

So thank you for joining us here on From the

Command Center. There are some ways to get in

contact with us to leave feedback for the show.

Visit the network websites, geekcastradio .com

and popculturenetwork .com. You can join the

forums over at Pop Culture Network as well. Leave

the show's feedback in iTunes. Please do this.

I will have to check that for the next episode.

Follow us on Twitter. Mine is TF2andMike. You

guys have Pop Culture Net, right? Sure. Okay.

Yeah, you don't. Deal with Twitter. Nope. Become

a fan on Facebook. Go to facebook .com slash

geekcastradionetwork. And you can also search

out popculturenetwork .com over there on Facebook.

You can check out the award -winning From the

Command Center video series, which has now gone

monthly on PCN's YouTube channel, youtube .com

slash user slash popculturenetwork. Call the

voicemail line. Tell us what you're leaving the

message for and your name. For GCRN, call 502

-526 -5821. Since I am the producer of this show,

that's probably the best way to get feedback

in from the command center of the podcast. Yeah,

absolutely. If you want to call the PCN number,

that is 217 -953 -4025. We hope you enjoyed our

negativeness on this episode of From the Command

Center. I wish you'll join us next time when

we will be continuing the Power Rangers talk

with Power Rangers Turbo, the series. For now,

I am TFG1 Mike with Scotty Cash. Thank you for

listening until next time. And sadly, the power

has not protected us so well. Hey, Skull, what's

that sound? Uh, uh, I think it's those gray guys

behind you. What gray guys? Uh, hey, Skull. Oh,

yeah, Bulgy. They're coming toward us. We need

the Power Rangers. Let the power protect you.