Thursday, August 13, 2009

Transformers 2 Transforms Brains into Guacamole

By Steve Evans

Took my kids to see Transformers 2: Revenge of the Leaky Alkaline Batteries, I think it was called.

Fabulous special effects undone by Michael Bay's direction, and if you're hip to that, as I know you are, then the point already has been made. I will add only this comment on the film: the Transformers sequel is the most noisy, overly plotted action flick I have seen in a 40-plus love affair with the cinema. The sonic booms mixed on the soundtrack could knock monkeys out of trees in Zimbabwe. This might actually be an enticement if you are an 11-year-old boy, which unfortunately I no longer am.

It is rumored that Michael Bay is the bastard child of the late John Frankenheimer who, if he had only directed one film called The Manchurian Candidate (1962), would still be a cinematic immortal in my book. But Frankenheimer also directed The Birdman of Alcatraz, Seconds, Black Sunday, and Ronin, plus Grand Prix, Prophecy, The French Connection II and Reindeer Games, for those of us who enjoy guilty pleasures.

John Frankenheimer was a tremendous director who worked in almost every genre. He was also a quiet, unassuming, thoughtful man whose DVD commentaries are among the most insightful I have had the pleasure to hear.

It is said that talent skips a generation. I am sure Michael Bay's children are going to be geniuses.

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