Comments on: The Bigger Picture: Racist or Plain Stupid?

By: chesteadman

chesteadman — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 05:10:54 +0000

One of the best explanations I've seen for the cultural black hole that is Transformers 2. I'm pretty sure the movie sets the world record for number of times characters are shown running away from explosions in slow motion (camera focused on Megan Fox, of course). Why? No idea. I sat there dumbfounded, waiting for something, ANYTHING, that wasn't stupid. It never came. The people around me ate it up.

Ugh.

By: chesteadman

chesteadman — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 01:10:54 +0000

Ugh.

By: chesteadman

chesteadman — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 00:10:54 +0000

Ugh.

By: joshuafuckyou

joshuafuckyou — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 05:28:43 +0000

the movie was awesome, and the robots were hillbilly gangsters that is somewhat of a mix bitch.

By: EightE1

EightE1 — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 15:08:24 +0000

I took my 9-year-old son to see it last week, and I have to say I couldn't understand a goddamn thing either Skids or Mudflap were saying -- their voices were so digitally tweaked, and all manner of shit was typically blowing up around them. In fact, until I read this piece, I didn't even know they HAD names; I don't recall hearing anyone addressing them directly or even refer to them by name. Granted, I was probably distracted by Megan Fox -- it's the only excuse I have, and I'm using it.

With all respect to Arend, though, complaining about Michael Bay's crimes against cinema is a little like complaining about Leroy Neiman's hockey paintings not being in the Louvre. Bay's work exists to sell Milk Duds -- nothing more, nothing less.

Rob
EightE1

By: DwDunphy

DwDunphy — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 00:29:49 +0000

Oh, and another reason why Empire, and Raiders of the Lost Ark for that matter, are so good and balanced is due to Lawrence Kasdan's writing. A recent repeat watch of Silverado confirms it.

By: DwDunphy

DwDunphy — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 00:27:30 +0000

I think you both hit it on the head. I like action adventures, but action shocks are like horror shocks. If they just keep coming at you endlessly, what's the point. Desensitization comes on fast, but that's just me. The numbers rolling in for this movie show there's an unnervingly high degree of Pyro Porn aficionados out there.

By: BobCashill

BobCashill — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 14:07:31 +0000

That TRANSFORMERS lost the Visual Effects Oscar to THE GOLDEN COMPASS was a slap in the face. I preferred COMPASS as a film, but TRANSFORMERS well and truly erased the divide between (nominal) humans and CGI creations in the frame. It's astonishing work that would easily have won--had Bay's name not been attached. I wonder if the new one, almost entirely lacking in critical support, will even get a nomination. (The first one was actually one of Bay's better-reviewed films.)

Bay's biggest problem, one he shares with PHANTOM MENACE-era George Lucas, is that he's entirely tone-deaf to humor, and to compensate obliges the cast to go extra loud to put the material across. (You'd never know from the TRANSFORMERS movies that Julie White, the mother, is a gifted, Tony Award-winning comic actress, now in the Central Park production of TWELFTH NIGHT.) Hence lowest-common-denominator jive robots.

Do I hate all of Bay? Surprisingly, no. THE ROCK is ridiculous, but Bay didn't have enough clout to get his usual strident performances from Sean Connery and Nicolas Cage, who underplay as much as possible and establish an actual rapport. ARMAGEDDON has one or two "whammies," as he calls the over-the-top money scenes, that actually work, but you have to wait for them. BAD BOYS 2 is bilgewater exceptfor one great car chase. And THE ISLAND establishes a human dimension for a little while before stupider-than-usual whammies take over.

But, no, not much.