Public Enemies - What Did You Think?
/Filmcast Ep. 57 - Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (GUEST: Quint from Aint It Cool News)
Posted on Wednesday, July 1st, 2009 by David Chen
In this episode of the /Filmcast, David Chen, Devindra Hardawar and Adam Quigley share their feelings on an Uncharted movie; get excited about a Facebook film based on Ben Mezrich’s new book; try not to think about the American Werewolf in London remake; mourn the passing of an influential pop star; and find there’s a lot less to Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen than meets the eye. Special guest Eric Vespe (AKA Quint) from Aint It Cool News joins us.
You can always e-mail us at slashfilmcast(AT)gmail(DOT)com, or call and leave a voicemail at 781-583-1993. Join us next Monday at 9 PM EST / 6 PM PST at Slashfilm’s live page as we review Public Enemies.
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Ramon Rodriguez Getting Bigger Role in Next Transformers?
Posted on Tuesday, June 30th, 2009 by Brendon Connelly
When Michael Bay gets around to the next Transformers movie (and I expect it will be his next film, a year spent trying to get a ’smaller’ picture off the ground possibly coming to nothing quite in time) there could be a beefier role for Ramon Rodriguez, Revenge of the Fallen’s conspiracy nut Leo Spitz. There’s a piece at the LA Times’ Hero Complex blog today profiling the young actor, who does seem to be having a real growth spurt in his career right now. The story was written by Geoff Boucher who reports that Michael Bay “hinted” to him that TF3 would see Rodriguez step up to a bigger role. More immediately amusing, however, was Rodriguez’ description of his audition for this current Transformers film…
Can Michael Bay Be Convinced To Fast Track a Transformers 3?
Posted on Monday, June 29th, 2009 by Peter Sciretta
After Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen’s monstrous 5-day domestic box office take of $201.2 million, Dreamworks/Paramount is going to want to fast track a third film into production and strike while the iron is hot. But will Bay hold up the big giant robots return to the big screen?
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No One Wants To Own Up To Racism In Transformers
Posted on Thursday, June 25th, 2009 by Russ Fischer
Given how many people worked on the creative angle of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, I’m amazed and not a little bit shocked that the movie hit screens with two of the most offensive, stereotypically black characters I’ve seen in a studio film since Mickey Rooney donned buck teeth to play a Japanese character in Breakfast at Tiffany’s. (Granted I’m also a bit amazed that I didn’t even talk about these characters in my review, which is a major oversight; I’d already talked about them so much offline and in various emails that I completely passed over the subject.)
The characters in question are Skids and Mudflap, who after an initial appearance as a ratty old ice cream truck are upgraded to be green and orange Chevys. More to the point, both characters speak with voices that sound like urban black stereotypes, have big ears and buck teeth and proclaim that they ‘don’t do much readin’‘. Skids even has a gold tooth. How did these characters make it through months of development, meetings and rendering to appear on screens this week? Read More »
Movie Review: Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
Posted on Wednesday, June 24th, 2009 by Russ Fischer
It would be easy to say that Michael Bay’s Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen plays like a movie made by a thirteen year old boy for other thirteen year old boys, but if that were actually the case, it might not be such a wretched experience. Made by a filmmaker who doesn’t seem to be much evolved beyond the mentality of a teenager, yes, Revenge of the Fallen could also probably be characterized as the Hollywood sequel machine run amok. Who needs ‘better’ when you can do more, louder, flashier?
Transformers is dull, ponderous and overlong, packed to the gills with glamor shots of busy robot designs and Megan Fox, flashes of idiocy (a small robot humping the leg of Fox, who smiles at it fondly) and endless examples of Bay’s increasingly tedious military porn. If summer entertainment is meant to be diverting and imaginative, Revenge of the Fallen succeeds only in that it drove me into periods of catatonic daydreaming, where I imagined watching anything else. Read More »
Exclusive Video From the UK Transformers 2 Press Conference
Posted on Tuesday, June 23rd, 2009 by Brendon Connelly
The UK release of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen was last week, and before that there was a press conference with Michael Bay, Shia LaBeouf, Megan Fox and John Turturro for not only the British press but, seemingly, a number of continental Europeans also. I was there, but this time I was not sitting amongst the press pack, waiting to shoot my hand up, but stood behind my camera, getting us some exclusive video. That video - about five minutes, representing the material really worth bothering with in the forty five minute conference - comes after the break.
This Week in DVD: Friday the 13th, Transformers (Season 1), and More
Posted on Tuesday, June 16th, 2009 by Adam Quigley
This Week in DVD is a column that compiles all the latest info regarding new DVD releases, sales, and exclusive deals from stores including Target, Best Buy and Fry’s.
Please don’t take the commentary on the movies and TV shows too seriously, as they’re meant not to be reviews but rather previews that include the general thoughts and ramblings of a twice-committed DVD addict. The categories represent solely the author’s intentions towards the DVDs at hand, and are in no way meant to be a reflection on what he thinks other people should rent or buy. So if he ends up putting a movie you like in the “Skip it” section without having seen it, please keep in mind that the time you could spend leaving a spiteful but ultimately futile comment could instead be used for more pleasant things in life. Like buying DVDs.
FRIDAY THE 13TH
(Available as theatrical and unrated “Killer Cut” edition)
The Friday the 13th series is popular for three very specific reasons: violent deaths, gratuitous nudity, and Jason Voorhees. Sure, there may be additional reasons, but those are the ones that count. So if you’re one of the many people who saw this remake in theaters and walked out disappointed, I have to ask you: did you even WATCH any of the previous films? This film delivers exactly what’s promised! No, it’s definitely not good, but none of these films are. Instead of wasting time criticizing its by-the-numbers story and stock characters (in a Friday the 13th movie? Unheard of!), who not just enjoy it for what it is? An hour and a half of Jason Voorhees laying waste to attractive teenagers. If you’re expecting anything more than that, you’re watching the wrong movie.
Blu-ray? Yes.
Notable Extras:The “Killer Cut” edition includes additional scenes and a Rebirth of Jason Voorhees featurette. The theatrical cut includes no special features.
| BEST PRICE | ||
|---|---|---|
| Target | Best Buy | Fry’s |
| $15.99 | $16.99 | $15.77 |
| Amazon – $15.99 | ||
It’s a slow news day so I thought I’d point out a story over at Forbes Magazine that profiles director Michael Bay from a financial perspective. The bottom line is that Bay makes some serious cash. Here are some interesting tidbits I learned from the article.
- When there wasn’t enough money to bring back the crew to shoot a sequence where Will Smith punches out a bad guy in Bad Boys, the first time feature director put up $25,000 of his $125,000 fee to shoot the scene.
- Bay declined upfront pay for Pearl Harbor in favor of a 50% split of what remained after the studio recouped production and advertising costs. The film grossed $450 million; and Bay made $40 million.
- Bay gets an estimated 8% on Transformer toys tied to movies, second only to that of George Lucas, who gets an estimated 15% royalty on all Star Wars figures.
- As a producer, Bay gets an average 8% of the studio’s net on each film.
- Bay bought James Cameron’s visual-effects house Digital Domain in 2007 (when the company had fallen on hard times) with his business partner, John Textor for $35 million.
Head on over to Forbes to read the whole article.
Earlier this year, Michael Bay commented that he would like to see a war between Transformers and Terminators (somehow this led to McG challenging Bay to a penis measuring contest, before later admitting that he has been born with the irish curse). Of course, we’ll never see a movie where Autobots fight T800s or even those huge Harvester bots. But Black20 did the next best thing, and created a movie trailer mash-up titled Transforminators. Watch the trailer after the jump.
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Cool Stuff: Olly Moss’s Shoot The Baddies T-Shirt
Posted on Monday, March 16th, 2009 by Peter Sciretta
21-year old UK artist Olly Moss is probably best known for his popular t-shirt designs which have virally spread across the interwebs. He’s probably best known for the Spoilers t-shirt and a series of retro movie poster remakes (that we previously featured in Cool Stuff). His latest t-shirt design, “Shoot The Baddies” has a bunch of shooting-range targets featuring the lines of Godzilla, Agent Smith from The Matrix, a Goomba from Super Mario Brothers, Freddy Kruger from The Nightmare on Elm Street series, a Space Invader, Darth Vader from Star Wars, old school Megatron from Transformers, a zombie and a Terminator.
Another new Threadless t-shirt design released today is Lucas de Alcantara’s “New Hairstyle” which features Princess Leia giving Chewie a perm. Also, one of our favorite Batman t-shirt designs, The Beginning by Alexandre Deviers. has just been reprinted.
Tim Doyle has created the inevitable Obama parody featuring Optimus Prime. A limited edition of 70 prints, this 3-color silkscreened art print is signed and numbered, measures 18×24, and is available for sale on Nakatomi for $30. A glow-in-the-dark variant is also available, limited to 10 prints.
Michael Bay Wants to See a War Between Transformers and Terminators
Posted on Friday, January 30th, 2009 by Peter Sciretta
Could we see Optimus Prime take on many futuristic robots of the Terminator franchise? I doubt it, but Michael Bay seems to think its a good idea.
“I would love to see my robots take on Terminators,” writes Bay on his online message board, after admitting that he’s “excited to see Terminator [Salvation]” and “really loves this whole franchise”, especially “the work of Bale.”
I agree that the idea is completely ridiculous. But if you had asked me 15 years ago if Freddy would ever fight Jason in an actual movie, I would have said no. Same goes with the war between Predator and Aliens. Both series made for fun comic book stories, but I never, ever, expected Hollywood to bring the crossovers to the big screen.
So the question is — Would you be interested in seeing the Transformers take on the Terminators in a big screen movie?
Thanks to /Film reader Timelordthewhite for the tip.
