In Contention

Tag: Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

  • The alleged racism of ‘Transformers’

    Skids and Mudflap from Transformers: Revenge of the FallenThis AP story has been popping up at various aggregators for the past two days, though its particulars have been a focus of debate for many who saw the film over the last week: are the twin robots in Paramount’s “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” elements of racism, insensitive stereotypes, an evil combination of both or — here’s a radical thought — merely of a piece with the built-in lore of the franchise?

    The grievance:

    Skids and Mudflap, twin robots disguised as compact hatchbacks, constantly brawl and bicker in rap-inspired street slang. They’re forced to acknowledge that they can’t read. One has a gold tooth…

    Todd Herrold, who watched the movie in New York City, called the characters “outrageous.”

    “It’s one thing when robot cars are racial stereotypes,” he said, “but the movie also had a bucktoothed black guy who is briefly in one scene who’s also a stereotype.”

    “They’re like the fools,” said 18-year-old Nicholas Govede, also of New York City. “The comic relief in a degrading way.”

    (more…)

  • Tell us what you thought of ‘Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen’

    Megan Fox in Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

    The midnight showings have come and gone and the matinees are firing up today, so let’s do this.  You’ll forgive the perceivably crude image choice, but this is a film that demands that kind of treatment.  And hey, that’s what these things are about, right?  I’ve already offered a mini-opinion of the film, but have your say below.  Tell us what you thought of what is likely to be the year’s big box office champion.

  • Before the ‘Transformers’ slaughter…

    Transformers: Revenge of the FallenEmbargoes have long since crashed, but the mauling is still to come.  And though I don’t feel compelled to write a review of “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen,” I do feel it a strange duty to get off at least one or two positive remarks before tomorrow’s inevitable critical massacre.

    The film is better than the first.  The film makes great comedic use of actors Kevin Dunn and Julie White, almost begging for a sitcom spin-off.  The film’s action is creative and exciting, more fun than it had any right to be.  The kitsch is embraced with less apology than the first film, which takes the movie to this weird artistic level that I can’t even begin to place.

    There is a shot that will most definitely make it through to my annual “shots of the year” piece.   On that score, there are, in fact, more interesting cinematic ideas in the film than you’d expect.  Shia LaBeouf actually gives a damn good performance (seriously).  Megan Fox is filmed with delirious invasion to the point that it almost becomes commentary.  The “twins” that draw claims of racism could be strangely viewed as a separate commentary, on pop culture, given where the Autobots claim to have learned human communication.  And the material proves, once again, to be sound mixing and sound editing pornography.

    But…the movie sucks.  And that it can be all of those things and still manage to be worthless on so many levels is absolutely amazing to me.  Michael Bay is another breed.  Dare I say that deserves cherishing?

    (more…)

  • 6/23 Web Round-up

    Shohreh Aghdashloo in The Stoning of Soraya M.• How Sacha Baron Cohen ensnares his victims. [Daily Telegraph]

    • 26 titles announced for this year’s Toronto fest. [indieWIRE]

    • Anna Pickard breaks down the recent “2012” trailer. [The Guardian]

    • Gina Piccalo talks to Shohreh Aghdashloo, star of “The Stoning of Soraya M.” [Los Angles Times]

    • Noah Forrest joins the “Year One” dogpile. [Movie City News]

    • Michael Cieply profiles “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura. [New York Times]

    • An antidote of sorts to last week’s slew of dad lists with good cheer: the 10 most horrible dad movies. [Premiere]

    • Brad Brevet talks to “The Hurt Locker” director Kathryn Bigelow. [Rope of Silicon]

    • Simon Pegg profiled across the pond. [The Times]

  • It was fated: Hasbro storms the multiplex

    TransformersIt’s panning out to be a good end-of-decade run for Hasbro, the Rhode-Island-based toy manufacturer smartly focused upon in this Dave Itzkoff New York Times pre-release piece for “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.”  After all, what of substance can you really dig into, journalistically, when it comes to these films?  An internal email that won’t matter in a week, if it even does after the weekend?

    Anyway, in addition to “Transformers,” Hasbro will also finally see its G.I. Joe line make it to screens in August in the form of the reportedly troubled “G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra.”  But the fun doesn’t end there for the company, which saw a heyday in the 1980s that it’s hoping to reach once again with revamped versions of old franchises.  A slew of boardgames have been optioned for adaptation, including Battleship, Candyland and Monopoly, as well as Ouiji, which is being developed by “Transformers” director Michael Bay.

    Oh, and don’t forget about Ron Howard’s “Stretch Armstrong.”  Silly, of course, but it seems Hollywood isn’t willing to place a risk on anything without at least some form of built-in fanbase, no matter how ancient the fan base.

    (more…)

  • 6/18 Web Round-up

    Antichrist video game• Reed Johnson talks “Whatever Works” with Larry David. [Los Angeles Times]

    • Donna Freydkin, meanwhile, chats up Woody Allen. [USA Today]

    • Lou Lumenick breaks the “Public Enemies” embargo with an unthoughtful, painfully ignorant review. (Updated now, redacted at Universal’s request.) [New York Post]

    • Speaking of which, check out a new clip from the film. [Yahoo! Movies]

    • Shanghai film fest jury president Danny Boyle speaks out against Chinese restrictions on freedom of speech. [The Guardian]

    • Is technology ruining movies? [Rope of Silicon]

    • Uhhhh…an “Antichrist” video game? [/Film]

    • Kevin Maher gets some quality time with “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” director Michael Bay. [The Times]

    • People actually think Christopher Nolan is in a position where he has to fish for more money from Warner Bros.? [CHUD]

  • 6/16 Web Round-up

    Bengt Ekerot in The Seventh Seal• Tom O’Neil ponders the awards prospects of comedy box office hit “The Hangover.” [Gold Derby]

    • Eugene Hernandez talks to Dennis Hopper at CineVegas. [indieWIRE]

    • Joe Flint, meanwhile, chastises Heather Graham for again playing the girl with the heart of gold from the wrong side of the tracks. [Company Town]

    • Miki Turner talks “Whatever Works” (which doesn’t really work) with Larry David. [MSNBC]

    • Nathaniel Rogers runs an early screening review of “Brüno.” [The Film Experience]

    • A.O. Scott takes a look back at “Dog Day Afternoon.” [New York Times]

    • Detroit’s woes didn’t keep bad-ass muscle cars from the screen in “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.” [USA Today]

    • As the film makes its way to Blu-ray, Glenn Kenny dives back into “The Seventh Seal.” [Some Came Running]

  • 6/12 Web Round-up

    John Travolta in The Taking of Pelham 123(Wow…that week went by fast.)

    • Patrick Goldstein thinks the new “Shutter Island” trailer is overkill for those who don’t want everything spoon-fed. [The Big Picture]

    • More on the alleged misogyny of Lars von Trier. [CNN]

    • Shia LaBeaouf talks “Transformers” with John Hiscock. [Daily Telegraph]

    • Sarah Palin, the bold, the bright, turns her own daughter into a rape joke punchline.  Idiot.  (Sorry for the politics but it was worth conveying.) [Politico]

    • Is “Bruno” coming along at an inopportune time for the good fight? [New York Times]

    • Eight documentary dos and don’ts from Sundance programmer Basil Tsiokos. [indieWIRE]

    • Jeffrey Wells reports from a “Whatever Works” press conference in New York. [Hollywood Elsewhere]

    • Speaking of which, Jeremy Kay has something to say on the franchise glut. [The Guardian]

    • In honor of the out-dated plot of “The Taking of Pelham 123,” Christopher Campbell offers up 10 stock market scams from the movies. [Spout Blog]

  • 6/11 Web Round-up

    Preliminary watercolor for Mars Attacks!, by Tim Burton• Nathaniel Rogers and Katey Rich offer an early rundown of the best of 2009 thus far. [The Film Experience]

    • Breaking down the world premieres at the Edinburgh Film Festival, which yours truly will be covering. [Screen International]

    • Shia LaBeouf calls the “Transformers” sequel “literally the biggest movie ever made.” What a shame I won’t see it. [Daily Telegraph]

    • Tim Burton gets a retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art. Freaky sketches included. [New York Times]

    • Anne Thompson asks why nobody will fund movies for mature audiences, gets Clint Eastwood’s thoughts on the matter. [Thompson on Hollywood]

    • Patrick Goldstein on the return (kinda) of Alexander Payne. [The Big Picture]

    • Random list of the day: 10 movies that didn’t need girls. (Sorry, but “Wedding Crashers” totally needed Rachel McAdams. Most movies do.) [Cinema Blend]

    • Okay, another list, but I really like this one: the 10 greatest multiple-role performances in history. (Yes, #1 is exactly what you think it is, and rightly so.) [Vulture]

    • Something belated for the “Bolt” fans: a video interview with Rhino the hamster. [The Guardian]

    • Not exactly new, and not exactly movie-related, but have you heard Scarlett Johansson’s duet with Pete Yorn yet? I dig it. [The Break Up Album]

  • Megan Fox at Tokyo ‘Transformers’ premiere

    Sorry for the testosterone overload on this admittedly pointless post, but I just…I…

    Megan Fox at the Tokyo premiere of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

  • New ‘Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen’ trailer and clip

    The new trailer for Michael Bay’s “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” leaked out yesterday. It was crappy quality but if you were dying to see it, I’m sure you saw it. Well today, the official HD trailer has been released at Yahoo! Movies. I think it’s safe to say the film will blow stuff up good:

    Also, check out a three-week-old clip/trailer hybrid that popped up on Michael Bay’s official site a few weeks ago after the jump. It’s new to me, probably not to you.

    (more…)

  • ‘Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen’ trailer leaks

    I’m not going to post an embed because I KNOW this thing will be pulled down, so catch it while you can.  Awful quality, the sound goes out toward the end, but oh well.  The real deal will be up tomorrow.  Too bad someone couldn’t wait.

  • OFF THE CARPET: Handicapping 2009 a year in advance!?

    Ewan McGregor and Hilary Swank in AmeliaAhh.  The dust is settling.  And on the horizon, just visible through the mist and waiting to drive us all up the wall once again: the 2009 Oscar season.

    I’ve been writing this year-in-advance column for probably six years now, and I always look forward to gazing ahead.  No one dives in so pathetically deep this far out as yours truly, but in exchange for not having a life for the past few months, I get to unload this burden the day after our annual season’s peak and forget about little gold men entirely for a few months.

    It’s quite liberating.

    The most interesting thing about the season to come, from my vantage point, is the lack of a dreaded “frontrunner status” for any of the contenders.  Some might say Clint Eastwood’s Nelson Mandela project (which is not called “The Human Factor,” mind you — the director says the film is currently untitled and is based on John Carlin’s book “Playing the Enemy”).

    Others might say Rob Marshall’s “Nine” (coming from a money-tight company hoping to avoid echoes of “Memoirs of a Geisha”).  But I don’t see a “Geisha” from here, or a “Charlie Wilson’s War,” expected heavies waiting to miss the mark.  The field is curiously flat, and as a result, excitingly broad.

    Let’s get to it, shall we?

    (more…)

  • Hollywood uses the comic book rack for added buzz

    Cover of Star Trek: Mirror ImagesI’ve kind of been expecting a piece along these lines for quite a while now.  Every time I go into my local comic book store (guilty), I see some series lining the shelves based on either a film or television show, sometimes in form of a prequel.  I generally refrain from picking up, say, “C.S.I.” or “Fringe,” but that “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” prequel book has me somewhat interested.

    Here’s the opening few graphs from Scott Bowles’s piece:

    Having plundered comic books for decades, Hollywood is giving a little back.  Studios are increasingly turning their properties over to illustrators and writers before movies are released to generate Internet chatter, early fans and anticipation within the all-important comic-book community.

    The latest comic comes from Push, the sci-fi thriller starring Chris Evans and Dakota Fanning that opens Friday. Wildstorm, a division of DC Comics, has created a six-issue series that fleshes out the movie’s plot about expats with supernatural powers.

    And a magazine rack-full of other movies are here or on the way.

    Bowles then goes on to rattle off a multitude of examples, from “G.I. Joe” to “Terminator Salvation” and everything in between.  I’ve always felt there was a great opportunity with this kind of concentrated cross-medium promotion.  Of course, some viewers aren’t interested in comic books, and that’s fine, but what’s wrong with an amplified experience?  To boot:

    “It’s a great way to flesh out back stories and create references for the movie,” says Hank Kanalz, Wildstorm’s general manager. “You can watch the movie without reading the comic book. But you’ll have a better experience if you do.”

    Interestingly enough, last summer’s blockbuster “The Dark Knight” didn’t come with the usual comic adaptation.

    Check out the full story at USA Today.

  • 10/1 Oscarweb Round-up

    Danny Glover in Blindness• Kim Voynar joins Movie City News.  here’s hoping she gets paid. [Hollywood Elsewhere]

    • Steven Soderbergh will make a third Che Guevera film if “Che” makes at least $100 million at the box office.  A.K.A., Steven Soderbergh won’t be making a third Che Guevera film. [The Playlist]

    • Blind people protest “Blindness.”  I mean, have they even seen the movie yet? [Associated Press]

    • Speaking of blindness, a ranking of the five most plausible doomsday movies. [Spout Blog]

    • The “Dark Knight” fad continues — Michael Bay will shoot some “Transformers 2” stuff in IMAX technology. [Thompson on Hollywood]

    • Patrick Goldstein gets tangled in the Nikki Finke/Harvey Weinstein bullshit that just won’t go away. [The Big Picture]

    • Susan Wloszczyna digs at the heart of Jonathan Demme: what women want. [USA Today]

    • Susan King, with a nice profile of “W.” star Scott Glenn. [Los Angeles Times]

    • The French box office clash of “The Class” and “Faubourg 36.” [The Independent]

    • Kevin Costner on the “Swing Vote” circuit across the pond. [Daily Telegraph]

  • What will the Bat’s Monday gross be?

    Warner Bros. Pictures\' The Dark KnightI was just talking with someone who went to see “The Dark Knight” at a noon IMAX show today and was met with a sold out crowd. So I’m wondering, what will the Monday gross turn out to be, and how many more records are left for the Bat to claim?

    The 4-day total is obviously going to fall. “Spider-Man 3” raked in $10.2 million on the Monday following release on the way to a $161.4 million 4-day.

    “Star Wars: Episode III — Revenge of the Sith,” meanwhile, holds the 5-day record with $172.8 million. If “Knight” even matches Spidey’s Monday number (and it’s probably safe to say it’ll zip past it), that will already put the film within $4 million of the 5-day title.

    I’m not a whiz with box office research, but I don’t remember the last time a Friday release claimed the 5-day total. The top 10 on that front is littered with Wednesday releases.

    It’ll be interesting to see how the rest of the world responds to the hoopla and, of course, the specter of Heath Ledger. Personally, I’d love to see the film threaten a billion bucks worldwide, but with a mere $166 million outside the States for “Batman Begins,” that’s obviously a long shot.

    It’ll also be interesting to see what film takes the opening weekend crown from “The Dark Knight.” Looking on the horizon, I can’t even see a pretender to that throne.

    “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen?” Doubtful. The opening for the original wasn’t as big as many anticipated and nothing about that film’s quality would suggest a rush to the box offices for part two.

    “Terminator: Salvation?” Maybe. But that would take some marketing razzle-dazzle to say the least.

    No, it may take a second “Iron Man,” a fourth “Shrek” or a third “Toy Story” to even come close. ut we’re surprised each and every year, so let’s just sit back and enjoy the ride.