Transformers 2: Rise of the Fallen

Written by: Ehren Kruger, Roberto Orci, Alex Kurtzman
Directed by: Michael Bay
Starring: Shia LaBeouf, Megan Fox, Josh Duhamel, Tyrese, John Tuturo, Ramon Rodriguez, Kevin Dunn, Julie White

Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of sci-fi action violence, language, some crude and sexual material, and brief drug material.


Boom. Fight. Fight. Laugh. Fight. Laugh. Autobot history. Full on battle. Laugh. Love. Boom. That is the plot for Transformers 2: Rise of the Fallen. Is that not informative enough? I will try and keep it short as the whole plot itself is a little?convoluted.

Sam Witwicky (LaBeouf) is leaving his parents (Dunn and White) and heading to college. He promises to stay with his superhot girlfriend Mikela (Fox) and asks his alien car, Bumblebee, to leave him and go join Optimus Prime and the rest of the Autobots because his dads garage is no good place for him to be. Sam?s mom is heartbroken her baby is leaving and the dad can?t wait for him to go so they can start a super vacation. While going through his closet, Sam digs out his old Transformer 1 clothes and a piece of the All-Spark falls out, goes through the floorboards, and lands in the kitchen igniting the electrical gadgets into crazed?robots.

Meanwhile Captain Lennox (Josh Duhamel), Optimus Prime, and the other Autobots/military guys are under scrutiny for their allegiance. Apparently the government is mad because the robots won?t share their technology. The Decepticons have been spotted in different countries around the world and they have to be looking for something. Maybe something to re-animate Megatron, who is down in the bottom of the ocean, heavily guarded by all types of Navy personnel.

Sam goes off to college and ends up with a conspiracy theory website runner, Leo (Rodriguez) as his roomie. Maybe Leo knows a thing or two about aliens who hide among us as cars.

Soooo then some Decepticons rain down on us and free Megatron and Megatron goes back to whatever planet they live on and talk to his master and his master is all ?find me the life force for our kind!? and Megatron is all ?aye aye sir?. But at the same time Sam is going nuts and seeing symbols because he touched the all spark then Megatron hunts him down and they both end up looking for the life force at the same time. I think that is the plot.

I was a little worried about Transformers 2 after the gazillion bad reviews that had been written, but after I learned from my midnight screening viewing friends that it was in fact awesome, I felt a little better. But the critics aren?t necessarily wrong about the movie. The plot is not air tight. Some things just do not make sense. I do not care about Sam and Mikela?s teenage love nor the fact that they can?t express it. I don?t care about Sam?s college life. I don?t care about the parents vacationing in Paris. I don?t even care how hot Megan Fox is (and yes she?s hot, but do they have to make her look so pouty. What kind of lip gloss lasts through an all out war in the desert?). I don?t care about governmental bureaucracy and conspiracy theories. I don?t even care about the history of the Autobots and Decipticons. All I want to see is robots kicking ass.

And that they do. Michael Bay gives plenty of action in this flick. The two ten-year-old boys and I had a blast. We literally all had the same expression when Optimus Prime goes ?King Kong? on a few Decepticons out in this field. Total awe. Like I almost reached over and high fived the kid. But Michael Bay also gives this movie the Bad Boys 2 treatment. It?s like take everything you loved from the first one; the humor, the action, and you stretch it out and double it and put so much into it you forget what happened the first hour of the movie. I won?t rant about Bad Boys 2, but you get my point. That?s what happens in Transformers 2. Yes the parents are inappropriate and funny but the whole time? There are quite a few cheap laughs (and yes I laughed at them). And there are more robots which is a plus, but these two little Chevy Aveo (I think) twin cars were sooooo annoying. It was like two Jar-Jar Binks? running around. I don?t think I?ve ever wanted cars to wreck so badly. There?s lots of travel in the movie too. Unexplained teleporting-type travel. And it gets confusing on the time span of the movie in some places too. But at least the mystery of the pyramids gets explained.

All in all, this is a total popcorn flick. Transformers was created when I was little to sell toys. I had quite a few of them in the 80s. Now I want the toys and the cars to go along with it. As a whole its not on level with the other action movies of this summer (see: Star Trek) or even the first Transformers movie. The adult in me gives it a C- but overall I give it a B- and that?s because the awesomeness of Optimus Prime gets an A alone.

The Proposal

Written by: Pete Chiarelli
Directed by: Anne Fletcher

Starring: Sandra Bullock, Ryan Reynolds, Mary Steenburgen, Craig T. Nelson, Betty White, Denis O’Hare, Malin Akerman, Oscar Nunez

Rated PG-13 for sexual content, nudity and language

Normally I don’t bother with romantic comedies because they’re all the same, but for some reason I have a thing for Sandra Bullock and an even bigger thing for Ryan Reynolds so I had to give this one a go.

Margaret Tate (Bullock) is a no-nonsense Senior editor for a big firm in New York. She dresses nice, is well put together, lives in a posh Central Park loft, and is hated by absolutely everyone in her office. Her assistant, Andrew Paxton (Reynolds) is a 20-something wanna be editor who has been schlepping around behind Tate for the past three years just hoping to get a promotion.

After firing the guy right underneath her, Margaret is summoned to the big bosses office where she learns that she is being deported back to her native Canada for disobeying the law while reapplying for her Visa. Once deported Margaret will lose her job and the guy she just fired would be put in her place. Coincidently Andrew has to interrupt the meeting to get Margaret for other business. The wheels turn in her head and she announces to her superiors that she is in fact engaged to Andrew thus letting her become an American citizen. Andrew agrees if it gets him bumped up to editor.

Of course the government is suspicious of the union so Mr. Gilbertson (O’Hare) is assigned to the case and is determined to take the couple down. Certainly a weekend trip to the family house in Alaska would be enough evidence that these two love birds are legit…or will it?

There’s not much new to this movie. There’s a bitchy boss who can’t get a man. A young ambitious guy who has more layers than there appears to be. A cute mom and dad couple (Steenburgen and Nelson). The nice ex-girlfriend (Akerman)who regrets letting the guy go. Lots of misunderstandings and uncomfortable moments. All ingredients for the typical rom-com/date flick. But this isn’t a bad one. In fact, its quite enjoyable.

It’s good to see Sandra Bullock ditch sugary girl she’s been known to play. Ryan Reynolds is a great smart-ass but they try and give his character depth with the bad father-son relationship he shares with Craig T. Nelson. Betty White is the typical quirky grandma. I wish she would have cursed a lot more, but no complaints on her part.

The big big star of this movie is the beautiful Alaskan backdrop. I think the last movie I saw based there was Insomnia (the Simpson’s Movie doesn’t count really) and it drove me nuts. Oh and bonus points to the movie for having Sandra Bullock sing a lot of Lil Jon and drop it like its hot.

Overall I give this movie a C+. Too much logic is overlooked for me to give it higher ratings. How could the company be ok with a subordinate being engaged to their boss and getting a promotion? Why can’t she just have a work Visa? Do eagles really try to steal puppies (ok that’s not really necessary to the plot but they make a big deal about it)? But you get a few laughs and maybe even a mushy feeling somewhere in you. Totally a movie you just turn on if you catch it on HBO and you’re bumming on the couch. Nothing wrong with that.

Away We Go

Written by: Dave Eggers & Vendela Vida
Directed by: Sam Mendes
Starring: John Krasinski, Maya Rudolph, Allison Janney, Jeff Gaffigan, Maggie Gylenhaal, Jeff Daniels, Catherine O’Hara, Chris Messina

Rated R for language and some sexual content.

Burt (Krasinski) and Verona (Rudolph) are a early 30’s couple who have been sort of just making it through life. Burt sells insurance to insurance companies over the phone (in a hilarious voice, to mask his easy-goingness) and Verona is an artist who paints pictures for medical books (I think, they weren’t 100% clear on it). They’ve been together for a long time, but Verona refuses to marry Burt. Ever. Suddenly, the two discover they are pregnant.

Six months later we see a large bellied Verona and Burt making their way to Burt’s parents house. Gloria (O’Hara) and Jerry (Daniels) are super excited to be sole grandparents (Verona’s parents passed away while the couple was in college), and can’t wait to welcome the little girl into their lives, after having two sons of their own. While at dinner Gloria and Jerry share their own big news…they plan to move to Belgium. Soon. So soon the baby won’t even be born yet.

Totally rocked by the news Burt and Verona realize that it will just be them and the baby out alone in the world. They have no family nearby and don’t have that many friends. Verona figures since they have no ties to the city, they can pick up and leave and start fresh with their family once the baby arrives. Pooling whatever little money that have, the two take a trek to different cities, visiting different friends and relatives, to see who they’d want to live near.

In Phoenix they visit Lily (Janney), Verona’s old boss and her husband Lowell (Gaffigan), who have two kids. Verona’s sister (Carmen Ejogo) in Tuscon. Burt’s cousin LN (Gyllenhaal) and her family in Wisconsin, Burt’s brother and his daughter in Florida, and college friends in Montreal who have adopted kids.

Along the way they learn a lot about what kind of life they want for their family and more about what kind of people they are. It’s a darkly funny coming of age story, and yes you can come of age at 33.

This is light-years more upbeat than the last Sam Mendes film that I saw (Revolutionary Road). And although I’ve read tons of negative comments about it being a “pretentious indie flick” I absolutely loved it. It’s very humorous but you still feel really close to the characters. Like they are your own friends. You want things to work out for them. Also a great change of pace to see a film where the couple actually likes being together. And I’m sure everyone who has even thought about kids sees families that you in no way want to be like, much like Burt and Verona experience on their journey.

I think John Krasinski will always be “Jim from The Office” to a lot of people, but that sort of works for him in this movie. Even with the beard, scruffy hair, and glasses, there is a little bit of Jim in Burt. I was very pleased with Maya Rudolph’s Verona. She was funny, but not silly like she tends to be on SNL. You really could feel Verona’s loss when she talked about her parents passing away with her sister. The two had great chemistry as a couple.

All of the supporting cast was great as well. I am totally sure Maggie Gylenhaal had a blast playing LN, the quirky, alternative lifestyle mom who hates strollers because “why would she want to push her babies away”. I also really liked Chris Messina’s character, Tom, their old college friend. He loves his wife and their adopted kids, but the couple has gone through a lot and he delivers this great metaphor about what it takes to build a family.

And the writers did a great job of NOT ignoring that she is in fact black. Verona’s character responds to it several times throughout the movie. Don’t let the poster art fool you, this is ain’t a Juno ripoff.

Overall I give this movie an A. I laughed. I got teary. I got teary from laughing. If you love the trailer you will definetly love the movie. And if you just felt so-so about the trailer, you should still give the movie a chance.

The Taking of Pelham 123

Written by: Brian Helgeland (book by: John Godey)
Directed by: Tony Scott
Rated R for violence and pervasive language

Starring: Denzel Washington, John Travolta, John Tuturro, James Gandolfini, Luis Guzman

Walter Garber (Washington) is working as a dispatcher for the New York city Metro Transit Authority. Not the greatest job, but that’s what happens when you’re the assistant director who gets accused of taking a bribe. Taking everything in stride, he does the job assigned to him and all is well until the dispatchers notice a blip on the system with train # Pelham 1-2-3 (they constantly say one-two-three, not one twenty three, which I thought was odd, but at least they explain it). The train seems to have stopped and then all but one car is disconnected and sent the opposite way. Garber soon learns that the train has been hijacked and the single car left behind is held hostage (its easier to scare a single car full of folks instead of a train full).

Garber gets through to Ryder (Travolta), the hijacker, and learned that his demands are simply $10 million from the Mayor (Gandolfini) in 60 minutes. The feds send in a negotiator (Tuturo) and everyone tries to get the hostages out of the train safely. Isn’t that the way of all hostage movies?

Of course Denzel gives a good performance of a regular guy who gets pulled into a bad situation and tries to do the right thing without thinking of himself first. Travolta’s character is a little more complex and I wish they would have done more about explaining his past and motives for the hijacking but maybe it was explained more in the book, or the original version of the movie. So I don’t really know if it’s just updated or a total remake, but I’m sure the 1974 version didn’t have video of the hostages streaming live on the web. It’s pretty good to see Travolta as kind of a bad ass. He’s not the most vicious bad guy you’ve ever seen in a movie, but it’s different for Travolta.

Tony Scott definitely puts his mark on the movie. Full of the Scott brand of quick cuts and random text on the screen (in a non-distracting manner). Somehow he manages a car chase and some intense wreckage even though it’s a movie about an underground train. And there are a few humorous spots. Not roll on the floor funny, and it doesn’t interrupt the intensity of the movie, but it does add in some reality to it.

The only other problem I had with the movie was the ending. It wasn’t open ended, but it was a little too easy. And the intensity somehow tapers off once the hour deadline passes. Travolta and Washington don’t spend that much time on screen together, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. And you fans of The Wire might be pleased to see a certain nappy-headed, staple gun wielding, right-hand man on the train and the boyfriend of the shotgun toting, scarface’d, neighborhood whistling thug.

I give the movie a B-. It’s a good throw-back action movie (as in not lots of CGI) and the actors give good performances. Better to see it in the theater instead of waiting for Netflix/Red Box, but it’s nowhere near super summer blockbuster intensity/action.

The Brothers Bloom

Written and Directed by: Rian Johnson

Rated PG-13 for violence, some sensuality and brief strong language

Starring: Adrien Brody, Mark Ruffalo, Rachel Weisz, Rinko Kikuchi

In rhyming fairy tail fashion we are introduce to two orphaned brothers, Stephen, 13, and Bloom, 10. Kicked out of home after home due to various misdemeanors, the brothers finally settle in a nice little town. Clearly outsiders from the rest of the kids, Bloom desperately wants to adapt, but Stephen has a plan to make a lot of money. He maps out a con for Bloom to get aquainted with the neighborhood kids and tell them a fascinating story about a troll in a cave that knows the way to a secret treasure but needs $30 to show them the way. All the kids chip in and Stephen sets the trap. After the whole con is over, the kids don’t learn exactly what the troll’s treasure was, but they do get a thrill from the chase, the only dry cleaner in town has a shop full of dirty children’s clothes, and Bloom and Stephen walk off with their cut of the dry cleaners money. Everyone gets what they wanted. The sign of a great con.

Cut to twenty-five years later we see Bloom (Brody) and Stephen (Ruffalo) in a burning room with a gun pointed squarely at Bloom’s chest. He’s shot and the gun man runs off. Stephen puts on an act of mourning over his brothers body while Bang Bang (Kikuchi), their silent partner, stands on the sidelines waiting for the show to be over. The trio go to the local bar and celebrate being the best con men in the area. Bloom excuses himself and goes outside for some fresh air, but Stephen joins him and they have an all too familiar conversation about Bloom wanting out of the con business. He tells his brother goodbye and escapes to Montenegro.

Three months later Bloom is awaken by his brother’s smiling face because he has a great new plan. They are going to scam a bored heiress, Penelope Stamp (Weisz), who lives in New Jersey. Certainly this will be their last scam…EVER.

Bloom, Stephen, and Bang Bang scope out Penelope and send Bloom crashing into her. Literally. He learns that she is in fact a millionare, and collects hobbies including: piano and violin playing, juggling, and making regular objects into pin hole cameras. He tells her that is in an antique dealer and will be on a boat soon to collect a treasure. They part ways and Bloom heads to the boat to meet his partners, unsure if Penelope fell for the trap. She does and joins the crew on the boat.

Once the foursome’s adventure begins, it starts to get hard to figure out what is planned and what is coincidental. The crew lets Penelope know that they were once antique smugglers but they swear they have gone straight but she wants in on a heist. There’s a cast of people in on their scheme…or so it seems, but you never really figure out who is playing who until the very end. Lots of foreshadowing and small clues have you thinking one way, then one person will do something that will throw you off track.

I’ve never seen anything from Mark Ruffalo where I didn’t like his performance. And Brody is good as the younger brother who just wants to lead a normal life. But the women are the real stars of the movie. Weisz is great and you really feel Penelope’s shyness and loneliness, but you know that she’s a lot smarter than she seems and could possible be playing the brothers…well at least one of them…maybe. And I never thought I could love a character who literally says three or four words the entire movie, but Kikuchi does a great job with Bang Bang.

A lot of the movie has a very big Wes Anderson (see: The Royal Tennenbaums, The Darjeeling Limited) vibe to it. It’s like you can’t place exactly what time period the movie is taking place in. Classic clothes and cars, and exotic scenery, and then someone will use a cell phone or something to let you know its current. But then I found out that the Rian Johnson also did the movie Brick, which is has the same tone. Sounds and acts like a film noir movie, but takes place in a modern day high school.

I really liked this movie. I don’t think it is the kind of movie for everyone because lately when we think of con movies we think of The Italian Job or Ocean’s 11. This one drags in a few spots, but overall it is enjoyable. Like when it comes on IFC or Showtime later I’ll just put it on wherever it is. Check it out…if you can. Right now it’s limited release.

Grade: B