Matt's Movie Blog

Friday, July 20, 2007

Transformers (2007)

* (out of 4)

Y’know, there are some things that are really hard to mess up. I’m pretty sure making a movie about giant robots from outer space fighting on earth with no regard to human constructions or human life is one of them. Then Michael Bay came along. Hoooooo boy…

I’ll admit that I’ve been harsh on Michael Bay in the past. But he deserved it. And if Bay does anything well, it is blow stuff up, and this had plenty of opportunities for explosive goodness. So I set aside my previous caution of Bay, ready to watch him do what he does best. Then, you know what’s weird? He didn’t do it.

The film starts with a brief introduction of Transformer lore – their planet, why the left, who they are, etc. Afterward, we’re introduced to Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf), a high school kid who’s basically pawning some of his explorer-grandfather’s stuff in order to hold up his end of a deal with his dad: get good grades, raise some money, and they’ll get him a car. After a poorly timed joke which was basically an excuse to get a Porche logo on the screen, The Witwickys end up at a used car dealer, where Sam picks out an old yellow Camaro… or does it pick him? Hmmm…

Shortly after getting it home, he uses it to pick up Mikaela Banes (Megan Fox), local hottie extraordinaire. Continuing antics from the dealership, the car starts doing some odd things on it’s own, like turning on the radio, locking and unlocking doors, fixing itself… all seemingly in attempts to get Sam laid. Now, why would his alien car care if Sam gets laid, considering it’s on a much more urgent mission? Yeah, I don’t know either.

Fast forward a bit, and after a few strange attacks against US troops in the deserts of the Middle East, the US government is attempting to uncover the source of a strange broadcast signal they think is linked to the attacks. Back with Sam, a whole fleet of robots-turned-cars has been revealed, all with nice new 2007 model designs! Even Sam’s Camaro updated to a newer model. How convenient. As explained by the leader of the robots, Optimus Prime (voiced again by Peter Cullen), this collection of robots, the Autobots (see, cause they’re cars!) is engaged in a war with another faction from their home planet, the Decepticons (see, cause they’re evil!), over control of the fate of their species. The key to this battle is something called the All Spark, which they suspect is hidden somewhere on Earth. Thanks to foolish intervention from humans, the leader of the Decepticons, Megatron, has been found and reactivated, and is calling his forces for an assault on the Autobots. This happens about an hour or so into the movie. THEN the robots start fighting.

Read the rest at HBS!

Saturday, July 14, 2007

I'm back!

Y'know... for now. See that below? That's a review! And there's more coming! I swear! I'm also toying with the idea of putting my webcam to work and making a sort of video mini-review to accompany the reviews. We'll see how that goes...

Live Free or Die Hard

* * * * (out of 5)

I’m all for stuff blowing up. I enjoy it. But the promise of another Die Hard flick had me hoping that the studio was willing to let them go back to the gradual tension build-up that make the original awesome. They weren’t. Nonetheless, it’s still John McClane. And he’s still pissed off. And that is ALWAYS fun.

It’s hard to give Live Free or Die Hard crap for not really feeling like a Die Hard movie when the series has such a jumbled history. Two were based on completely unrelated novels, one was adapted from a script that had been floating around Hollywood for years, and one took its main conflict from a Wired magazine article. Really, the only constant to these stories has been John McClane and Friends, and even they were added after the fact. Even still, while the other three seemed to blend fairly well stylistically, something about “Live Free” separates it, and not necessarily for the better.

This one sees McClane (an older, balder Bruce Willis) working as a senior detective in the Rutgers area in New Jersey. His daughter Lucy (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) is a student there, and it’s a nice way to keep an eye on the younger McClane. After some strange occurrences within the nation’s computerized defense and utility systems alarm the government, McClane is charged to deliver Matthew Farrell (Justin Long) to Washington, DC for questioning. Seems Farrell is one of a number of hackers under investigation for infiltrating the mainframe. When they arrive in DC, McClane and Farrell find a world almost completely shut down. Whoever is behind it all is in control of utility systems, traffic systems, defense systems, more than enough to make life hell for everyone. McClane, being John McClane, gets involved, first as Matt’s protector as they try to set things right, but after an ugly run-in with top henchmen Mai Lihn (Maggie Q) and a number of perfectly-timed Asian hooker jokes, hacking mastermind Thomas Gabriel (Timothy Olyphant) decides to make his attacks more personal, kidnapping Lucy, at one point touching her and pointing a gun at her head, almost guaranteeing him a painful torture and death.

I get the premise of this movie. It’s a fun idea to take an old-school cop/action hero like McClane and drop him into a post-9/11 world, one that has technologically, morally and philosophically passed him by. And it works. It does. McClane is essentially a dinosaur who is way out of his element. Naturally, being John McClane, he fights through it.

Read the rest at HBS!