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Transformers: Dark of the Moon: Movie Review

Damon Houx — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 21:44:08 +0000

After the second film – which star Shia LaBeouf and director Michael Bay have publicly apologized for -there was hope that Transformers: Dark of the Moon would settle Michael Bay down, and give him a better story to tell. Working with 3-D, his hyper-editing style wouldn’t work in the format, and there would be no “afterthought” Imax scenes. There would also be no writer’s strike, so the script could be written in a more timely and coherent fashion. And though Michael Bay does action on a scale that is unmatached in the industry, it’s pretty much the same movie, except this time on Ritalin. Find out more below…

The Players:

Director: Michael Bay
Screenplay: Ehren Kruger
Actors: Shia LaBeouf, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, Tyrese Gibson, Josh Duhamel, Patrick Demsey, Frances McDormand, John Malkovich, John Turturro, Alan Tudyk
Original Music by: Steve Jabolonsky
Cinematography by: Amir Mokri

The Plot:

On the planet Cybertron, there’s a great mechanical whatsit that can do awesome things, but it crash-landed on the moon. Astronauts found the crash in 1960′s, but couldn’t do anything about it. Cut to now and Sam Witwicky (LaBeouf) is having trouble finding a job, though his girlfriend Carly (Huntington-Whiteley) has an awesome job – but with an obviously evil boss (Demsey) – and an impossibly expensive flat. The Bad guys (the Decepticons) are up to no good, and trick the Autobots into waking up Sentinel Prime (voiced by Leonard Nimoy), who’s the only person who can power the great whatsit, which can be used for great good or evil or something. This leads to a virtually hour-long assault on Chicago.

The Michael Bay Paradox:

Everything that is good about this movie – other than the great action beats in the final act – is also everything that’s wrong with the film. The film starts – after its prologue – with Sam looking for a job. At the end of the film – in a movie with a coherent screenplay – the journey would be that Sam officially gets a job working with the Autobots as an ambassador or some such nonsense. Instead, the movie ends when the big fight is over and then adds some narration from Optimus Prime (voiced by Peter Cullen). I should note that because so much of what Prime says is stuff like “on our world there was a great war, a war that raged for decades. Autobots fought valiantly, and used all the strength they had, but there seemed to be no hope… until they found a thing. A thing that could change the course of our destiny. A thing… that was lost.” eventually my ears glazed over. Anyway, if this movie was about its human protagonist, him getting a job would be the hook to hang the movie on. And such invokes the paradox – these movies aren’t really about the humans, so is it smart to not care at the end of day? And how much should we care about humans in a story that features cars that turn into robots? Bay doesn’t actively view his narrative with contempt, but he seems to care less about it than he does what interests him: Cars, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley’s body, and destruction.

Michael Bay is one of the great action directors when he puts his mind to it, and when he has the tools the man can craft the hell out of a sequence. The parts where guys wearing wingsuits jump out of crashing helicopters and fly around downtown Chicago is insane, so is the sequence where the main characters are in a building that’s collapsing. These aren’t “wow, cool digital effects” moments, they are “What? That’s awesome!” moments. In another time, Michael Bay would be the go-to second unit director (it wasn’t until Spielberg changed the game that most action sequences were not left mostly to the second unit, though historically, it feels like The French Connection and The Wild Bunch started that trend). Bay would be a great 2nd unit guy also because he obviously has no feel for actors, and his sense of humor is based around loudness. Transformers 3 – like so much of the big summer movies we get these days – is filled with a number of great ingredients that are all half-cooked. And it’s not that Bay gets a bad performance out of someone like John Malkovich or Ken Jeong (painful in his five minute cameo), it’s that he doesn’t want performances so much as a collection of affectations.

Bay has directed nine films – with more than half costing over a hundred million dollars – so you have to wonder how intentional this is. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen was attacked for being incoherent, racist and pretty much terrible, and if this is his apology, he still has almost all of the same problems, it’s just not as aggressive in the presentation. It seems that Bay works best when he has a strong producer behind him (Read: Jerry Bruckheimer), and it seems Steven Spielberg was more hands on with the first film than the sequels (though he supposedly gave Bay the opening sequence idea, something that he squanders). Again, Bay is either a savant, or this is intentional. But the whole film is filled with scenes like one that happens in the middle of the movie: Sam and his girlfriend head to see the Autobots, but the guards won’t let him in. Everyone starts yelling, and the guards destroy his car because he doesn’t have proper clearance. Then, after the yelling stops, Sam and his girlfriend are let in and told things that are supposedly the most top secret secrets in the history of tops and secrets. Sam and his girlfriend. What was the point of the yelling scene? If bad writing is including needless words, there’s easily a good thirty minutes to an hour that could be cut from the first ninety minutes, and you would never know they were gone. Perhaps this is Bay’s way of winking at the audience, or expressing his contempt for the material. But at this point, it’s fair to say this is the Michael Bay touch.

Oh, another example: in a good screenplay, the humans have one rocket which can supposedly take out the great whatsit, and climb the building to use it. But then they never use it while in the building and never use it, period. It’s like it got forgotten by the filmmakers. Why do they set up the rocket if they never use it as it is intended to be used? Basically it’s the excuse to get them into the collapsing building. The problem is that it’s a great sequence, but the connective tissue is made moot.

The Good:

The 3-D: This is probably the only film this year where seeing it in 3-D may make it a better experience, and Bay has fun with this stuff. And when the soldiers are flying around Chicago in their wingsuits it looks great.
The Final Action Set Piece: There are things in it that are so out of hand that it’s fair to say you’ve never seen anything like it before.

The Bad:

The Humans: Alan Tudykis the rare performer in this film that is actually winning, but even there he’s playing a gay-ish German guy. Franes McDormand – who enters the film delivering some of the most on the nose exposition in cinema history – and Johns Turturro and Malkovich get to run around and yell a lot. They are all excellent performers, but… this? Shia LaBeouf is either bored or obnoxious, and Rosie Huntington-Whiteley is so ogled by the camera that it turns the audience into leches. I wouldn’t say she’s good or bad in the film, so much as there to be looked at. That said, Megan Fox deserves more credit for making a character out of the same shtick.

Bay’s appropriation of National Tragedies: Michael Bay turned the bombing of Pearl Harbor into an action set piece, so his sensitivity to tragedy is virtually nil, but there’s a sequence that recalls the Challenger disaster that is simply tasteless. I was worried the same would be said of the collapsing building set piece, but that’s so well choreographed that it does evoke the same sort of contempt.

The Comedy: Bay’s sense of humor has long been that of a twelve year old boy who is uncomfortable with his sexuality and is proudly xenophobic. The bits with Ken Jeong are much shorter than the roommate/sidekick in the last film, but are just as painful to watch.

The Screenplay: There’s a number of great lines in the film MacGruber, but one of the best is when Ryan Phillipe says to the main character “I’ve learned a lot from you, mostly what not to do, but…” This screenplay should be taught as an example of how not to do things. There is no sense of build in the film, and there’s often a sense that the plot is just an excuse to get to the next scene – which often leads nowhere interesting. This – much like The Phantom Menace - is filled with so much “cart before the horse” business.

Overall:

I can’t recommend the good in this film (which is really, really good) over the bad, because this film is Hollywood throwing everything they’ve got at it, except at the things that normally make a movie good. Pace, characters, empathy, plot, etc. Though there are a number of schlocky films that deserve praise for exceptional stunts, and good sequences in the midst of bad performances and technical limitations, those films are not usually made with this sort of money. Alas, in a summer of misfires, and half and half’s, this is the one that really delivers the big budget spectacle that they got close to in films like Thor and The Green Lantern. One wishes there was a compelling story to go along with it.

Rating: 4.5/10

Transformers: Dark of the Moon is in theaters now.

Gallery:

Trailer:

Fast Five: Movie Review

Damon Houx — Fri, 29 Apr 2011 01:00:39 +0000

Summer movie season usually starts the first week of May, but this year Fast Five is kicking things off a week early. Returning vets of the series Paul Walker, Vin Diesel, Jordana Brewster and Tyrese Gibson are joined by newcomer Dwayne Johnson for a car chase and heist movie that manages to be the fifth film in a franchise that somehow revitalized itself after a super-successful fourth entry. How good is the fifth film? Have a look…

The Players

The Director: Justin Lin
The Writer: Chris Morgan
The Stars: Paul Walker, Vin Diesel, Dwayne Johnson, Jordana Brewster, Tyrese Gibson, Chris “Ludacris” Bridges, Sung Kang, Gal Gadot, Matt Schulze, Tego Calderon, Don Omar, Elsa Pataky, Joaquim de Almeida

The Story

After breaking Dominic Toretto (Diesel) out of jail, ex-FBI agent Brian O’Connor (Walker) and his girlfriend Mia (Brewster) are on the lam, only to hide out in Rio where Dom’s brother Vince (Schulze) lives with his wife. Brian, Mia and Dominic take a job stealing a couple cars (off a moving train), which goes bad and gets the ire of Rio’s crime kingpin Reyes (de Almeida). The car they stole holds info on his holdings, so the three assemble a team of thieves and car people to steal a hundred million dollars from Reyes. But because of the car heist gone bad they’re being tracked by Hobbs (Johnson), a no-nonsense FBI agent who is not to be triffled with.

The Good

This movie knows what it is: Though this franchise is baffling (how it survived it’s first two sequels is impressive), it feels like all the previous films have been a rough draft to finally get to this movie. It takes cast members from the earlier sequels (some killed off in previous entries) and brings them together for an “assemble the team” movie that delivers laughs and thrills better than any of the Ocean’s Eleven movies, or the Italian Job remake.
Practical Effects: When these cars are moving and crashing – though there’s definitely digital work to be found – for the most part you get the sense that you’re watching cars on streets interacting with each other. With car stunts movies that’s something that can’t be faked.
The Cast: The assemblage of all these cast members gives the film a number of different voices that it doesn’t have to establish. Since backstory is the death of these movies, that everyone involved shows up and delivers a moment or a line or two that kills, you’re constantly entertained by the ensemble. And it doesn’t hurt that the cast is filled with attractive people. Though the leads are a couple years on, men like Tyrese Gibson and Sung Kang have a sexy cool about them, while Gal Gadot and Elsa Pataky give the film some compentent acting and eye candy. That said, if someone walks away with this movie it’s…
Dwayne Johnson: As a film star, there’s been few roles that have given him as much fun things to do as this movie. He gets to bark orders, and do a riff on Tommy Lee Jones’s character in The Fugitive (which was a riff on Les Misérables‘ Javert), when the third act kicks in he gets to deliver some of the film’s best moments both as a character, and as a person who puts foot to ass.

The Mixed

Takes a while to get going: Though the opening is absurd in the right way, the film has a couple of opening it has to get through, from getting Dominic out of prison, establishing Rio, getting the gang in trouble with Reyes, establishing Johnson’s character and then assembling a team. But this also works for the film, as it builds to a great third act where the film is firing on all cylinders. It just takes a little for the film to settle in.

The Bad

Nothing, if you accept that this is a summer film: Look, there’s nothing all the deep going on in this film, there’s no subtext (not even the barely concealed homoeroticism of the second film), and everything is cartoonish and stupid. That said, it’s the right kind of cartoonish and stupid. It delivers, it delivers in a way that most big event films don’t. This is a full combo meal of junk food that manages to satisfy all cravings for what a good trashy film should be.

Overall

If someone told me that it would take five movies to make a great Fast and Furious film I would never believe them, but having seen Fast Five on Monday, I’m contemplating going back again this weekend. For whatever reason – however all the pieces came together – Justin Lin has managed to craft one of the most rousing, audience-pleasing, completely satisfying Summer films in a long, long time.

Rating: 8.5/10

Fast Five hits theaters April 29. Seriously, check it out.

Cast Photos: Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, Tyrese Gibson, Ludacris in Fast Five

Krystal Clark — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 17:00:21 +0000

The fifth installment of the Fast and the Furious franchise entitled Fast Five has us royally confused. We recently learned that Dwayne Johnson joined the cast and Tyrese Gibson, Ludacris, and Sung Kang are set to reprise their roles in the sequel. Over at Collider, they’ve posted a few on set photos that feature the new crew including Paul Walker and Vin Diesel but no Johnson. Take a look…

Why is Ludacris in this movie? Is he a cop now? We didn’t see Fast & Furious but we’re well aware that Kang was in the it as well as Tokyo Drift. Gibson was the second lead in 2 Fast 2 Furious, which Ludacris had a cameo in the last time we checked. Apparently, his street racing character has moved up since the last time we saw him. Either way it looks like the folks behind this film aren’t playing any games, the gang’s all here!

These photos were taken off the Twitter feeds from Gibson and Ludacris and feature the cast mean-mugging for the camera with guns and all. At first, the idea of ANOTHER Furious film was daunting but dammit if they’re not trying to suck us back in with this cast!

What do you think of the first on-set photos from Fast Five? Are you interested in seeing the sequel?

New Transformers 3 Set Photos and Video From Chicago

Krystal Clark — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 19:35:45 +0000

Several new photos from the set of Transformers 3 have popped up online that feature new cars and new cast members yet I can’t bring myself to care. The film is currently being shot in Chicago and the production crew looks to be having a swell time destroying everything the city’s downtown area has to offer. Check out the path of destruction below…

These photos were taken from Tyrese Gibson, Dan Donoghue, and the Transformers Live Action Blog

As you can see there’s a lot of stuff getting blown to bits on the set of Transformers 3. There are a few new cars and the oldie but goodie Optimus Prime making a grand entrance. It’s hard to get hype for this movie knowing what its predecessor Revenge of the Fallen did to the franchise.

Here’s some behind the scenes video that might also interest you.

The people of Chicago sure are excited about Transformers filming in their city. I can’t really blame them because when the first film shot in Detroit (my hometown) the local news was all over it.

Transformers 3 is scheduled to hit theaters on July 1, 2011 and is once again directed by Michael Bay.

What do you think of the latest photos for Transformers 3?

Transformers 3 Set Photos and Video

Krystal Clark — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 17:58:51 +0000

Michael Bay and the rest of the Transformers crew are well into production on the third and (supposedly) final installment in the film series. While shooting, a few behind the scenes photos have appeared online featuring Shia Labeouf and his new leading lady Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, as well as Tyrese Gibson. There’s also a video of the production team filming some high end sports cars on a closed street, with one of them being a red Ferrari. Check it out…

Is it just me, or does Sam always look the exact same in each movie? He’s always dirty and always has a look of shock or distress on his face. I’m also convinced that Labeouf will have to stand on apple boxes while next to Huntington-Whiteley or she’ll have to wear flats throughout the entire shoot. They’re both the same height and she could easily dwarf him in every scene if she put on some heels.

Onto the cool car action:

The cars are the only good and solid thing about Transformers. The red Ferrari is pretty badass but it’s not enough for me to pay to see this movie. My faith has been severely damaged when it comes to this franchise. What about yours?

What do you think of the behind the scenes footage and photos from Transformers 3?

Source: JustJared

Tyrese Gibson Returning for Transformers 3

Krystal Clark — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 17:03:53 +0000

Why is Tyrese Gibson returning for the third Transformers film? His character Sgt. Epps as well as Josh Duhamel and the rest of the armed forces were pretty much useless the second time around. According to the actor’s Twitter page, he will reprise his role in Transformers 3 but we have no idea why.

Transformers 3 will be released on July 1, 2011, and supposedly won’t be as “robot heavy” as the second film. Revenge of the Fallen featured a lot of new characters human and alien that we just didn’t care about. There was no point of having them in the film because they didn’t progress the story. With that being said, how is Gibson supposed to factor into all of this? Epps served no purpose in the last movie, but director Michael Bay still found a way to bring him on for another one.

Here’s the announcement straight from Gibson himself…

“Yes I will for sure be in Transformers 3.. Get Ready!! Epps is here to STAY!!”.

This is not a good sign at all. The only way this could work is if the screenplay is geared to wrapped up the franchise by circling back to the first film. If his character is used as a means to put an end to this crap-fest, then maybe, just MAYBE it will work, but I’m still not a believer.

What do you think of Tyrese Gibson returning for Transformers 3? What do you think his character will do this third time around?

Legion: Movie Review

Kara Stanford-Jones — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 08:01:04 +0000

Legion is the latest post-apocalyptic film to hit the market, and it stars Paul Bettany in an unconventional yet angelic role. The movie marks the first major release for writer/director Scott Stewart, who’s been on the visual effects side of filmmaking for years, but is now working on bringing his own projects to life. Legion is a Christian-themed movie, with a splash of zombie-horror, Western ideals, and a whole lot of action.

The Players:

Director: Scott Stewart
Writers: Peter Schink and Scott Stewart
Cast: Paul Bettany, Dennis Quaid, Lucas Black, Tyrese Gibson, Doug Jones, Kate Walsh
Cinematography: John Lindley
Music: John Frizzell

The Plot:

When God grows tired of humans and their disobedience, he sends the Archangel Michael (Bettany) to wipe them off the face of the earth. More specifically he needs to kill the one child that can stop God’s wrath and save mankind. The only problem is that child hasn’t been born yet, and the mother is a waitress at a small diner in the middle of the Mojave Desert. Michael defies God’s Will and decides to save the child, which turns the restaurant into a war zone between heaven and earth. He will have to combat an entire legion of angels led by the heavily favored, Gabriel.

The Good:

Entertaining: The film has plenty of action but it wasn’t filled with over the top gore. There was a decent amount of entertainment value within the characters and their interactions with one another outside of the violence.
The Dumb Moments: There is nothing more annoying than watching a girl run out into a sea of zombies only to meet her maker. The writers did a pretty good job of integrating the characters dumb actions with the story. Although it was clearly to create conflict, the purpose played out very well.

The Bad:

You Got The Guns Where?: Paul Bettany starts the movie on a mission to get guns, so he walks into a closed store and grabs a bunch. How does he know that this particular place has the goods? Who knows? It seemed like the shop owner wasn’t even aware that there was enough ammo to arm a small militia in the back room. Check that off things to explain to the audience.
The Acting: There were moments, flashes even, where the acting of the two main characters, Charlie and Jeep (Black), was some of the worse I’d ever seen. And even the ridiculously talented Charles S. Dutton found himself muttering in a bad southern accent.
The Names: This may be a little nit-picky, but the name Jeep is lame. Obviously the writers were trying to get creative, but that one was just a little too much. Every time the waitress Charlie screamed his name it sounded like, “Cheep! Cheep! Cheeeep!”
Defies Logic: Without giving too much away there are several issues with Charlie and all things related to her baby. First of all, a woman that is eight months pregnant will not be as agile as she is. Two, she smokes (enough said). Three, she has the superhuman ability of giving birth in a minute. Apparently, the key to easy childbirth is Paul Bettany coaxing you along. Finally, not only can she pop that thing out like a torpedo, but she is up and running around just minutes after without any sort of medical care or anesthesia. One can only suspend belief up to a certain point.
Miscasting: This problem is very closely related to the bad acting. A few of the casting choices were not as good as they could have been. Kate Walsh was irritating and not nearly old enough to have a teenage daughter. There were a few issues with Dennis Quaid as well, which is unfortunate considering his acting background.

Overall:

Surprisingly, this movie was actually enjoyable, and is a good popcorn flick to see over the weekend. The plot and parts of the film are certainly flawed, but all in all it was still entertaining, and that’s what you’re paying for.

Rating: 6/10

Legion hits theaters on January 22, 2010

Photo Gallery:

Trailer:

Brian J. White Wants Luke Cage

Krystal Clark — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 20:15:29 +0000

How long have we been waiting for a live action film version of Luke Cage? I want to say about 15 years or so, but I could be off by a bit. The Marvel character, who serves as Nicolas Cage’s namesake has been a part of the movie rumor mill forever. The most recent info has John Singleton on tap to direct with Tyrese Gibson to star, yet the film is still in the development process.

Actor Brian J. White thinks he has what it takes to play Cage, and claims that he’s been chasing the role for years. More on White below.

Over at Moviehole, Brian J. White gave a recent interview where he opened up about his dream role of Luke Cage.

‘’I would love to be Luke Cage”, says the amiable actor, “I’ve been saying it over-and-over again in the press for years! Those are the roles – Green Lantern, Green Hornet, Luke Cage. There’s some other graphic novels – some horror ones – that I also like, but I really would love to do Luke Cage.”

The actor notes that he has the physical similarities as well as the acting chops to pull off the character.

“I think I have the skill-set” fit for a superhero movie, says White. “Like Iron Man, you have to be able to handle drama and comedy; you have to have the physique to be able to take off your shirt; you have to have a certain statue – if you’re 5’8 it doesn’t really work so well, unless it’s a small superhero – and you have to have a certain athletic ability. That’s what I’m angling towards. These are $150 million-dollar movies, so I’m trying to pay my dues, and do the work, so that I might get a look-in.”

I wouldn’t be against White playing Cage myself. I think he’s absolutely right about having the physical and mental combination of talent to pull off any superhero. I think Tyrese is a good fit, but he’s been rumored to star in this film since before the first Transformers came out. Currently, the script is being written with a tentative release date for 2011. Where will it fit in with the rest of The Avengers?

Do you think Luke Cage will ever get made? Should the studio give Brian J. White a shot?

Legion Red Band Trailer

Krystal Clark — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 19:40:09 +0000

Finally the trailer that we saw weeks ago at Comic-Con (read our first look) for the upcoming religious epic Legion has been released and it looks absolutely amazing. The film centers on the archangel Michael (Paul Bettany) and his journey to protect a young woman (Adrianne Palicki) and her unborn child. The trailer is just as creepy as it is beautiful.

The best part about this trailer is that, even though Doug Jones is assisted by special effects, we finally get to see his face on screen! Jones’ is known for playing almost every interesting animal-like creature in Guillermo del Toro‘s films, such as Pan in Pan’s Labyrinth, Abe (the Fish-Man) in Hellboy, and many more.

Check out the red band trailer after the jump…

Set in a small diner in the middle of nowhere, a group of random patrons realize their pawns in a war between heaven and earth. The cast includes Tyrese Gibson, Dennis Quaid, Kevin Durand and Doug Jones. Legion is directed and written by second time film-maker, long time visual effects creator Scott Stewart. It looks like he’s really using his background to his advantage, the effects looks amazing!

Legion hits theaters next year on January 22nd.

What do you think of the red band trailer for the film?

Comic-Con 2009: First Look at Scott Stewart’s Legion

Krystal Clark — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 17:47:46 +0000

**** Check out some footage from the cast and crew at the Legion panel at this year’s Comic-Con here.

We finally got to see some footage from Scott Stewart’s upcoming religious epic, Legion. I hadn’t heard much about the film besides the fact that Paul Bettany would be playing an angel, and Doug Jones would just be playing creepy……again. Either way I was excited when the cast came out to introduce the film. They showed the first official trailer which literally blew me away!

Check out my thoughts on the video after the jump.

Doug Jones appears in the film as a fallen angel of some sort, and even though he’s still using some make-up and prosthetics he’s not unrecognizable like he usually is in his other films.
Paul Bettany is shown as the arch angel Michael, who cuts his wings off and decides to help man kind from the impeding legion of angels that are coming to wipe them out.
Gabriel, another arch angel is played by Kevin Durand is leading the pack, and Michael says to him that he’s always been so eager to please.
Adrianne Palicki’s character is pregnant with a child that can save mankind, and Michael turns against everyone in heaven to protect her.
The cast includes Dennis Quaid, Charles S. Dutton, and Tyrese Gibson as a group of strangers who are stranded at a diner in the middle of the desert, with no help in sight.
The graphics are amazing! When the angels are shown possessing the bodies of humans it looks pretty terrifying. Their eyes go black, and they apparently have the ability to crawl up walls!

What do you think about these little tidbits?

Transformers 2 Interview: Fox, Bay, Tyrese, Duhamel, Dunn, Rodriguez

Mali Elfman — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 19:46:39 +0000

What, you popped a shoulder? Oh, yeah bro. You see you never told me that… You want to sue me?

Classy Michael Bay. Last Friday they held a press conference for Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen with Director Michael Bay fresh off a plane from Moscow and cast members Megan Fox, Tyrese Gibson, Josh Duhamel, Kevin Dunn, and Ramon Rodriguez.

There was some definite tension in the air between the actors and Bay. Megan Fox certainly didn’t have any issues with negating her Director, even though she was trying to be a good, supportive actress and promote the film and her co-star Shia LaBeouf who wasn’t able to attend. She and some of the other cast members did reveal that for the most part, they were treating this film like a summer action film, with tequila shots at Chili’s after the 16 hour (or 12 hours if you listen to Bay) days to let off steam.

Check out what they had to bicker about below…

Megan, it’s been great to see your rise to stardom from the first movie. From your perspective what’s changed for you since the first Transformers?

Megan Fox: I mean, I think the movie, it’s success and how well it was received opened a lot of doors for me—career wise—and I’ve been able to be a part of some films that I don’t really feel that I deserve to have been a part of and that’s due greatly and in part solely to the success of Transformers. Like I just did Jonah Hex with Josh Brolin and Michael Fassbender and John Malkovich. Actors don’tjust get this kind of opportunities and for me to have that is a huge blessing and that’s because of the success of this movie.

Anything in your daily life?

Fox: Sure, I mean, you know, getting photographed at Whole Foods or like, coming out of Rite Aid with your shampoo bottles and stuff, that’s new for me, but that’s not that crazy, you acclimate to that pretty quickly.

What did you think about how much skin they wanted you to show? Did you ever have any issues with the outfits?

Fox: Yeah, I have those moments one a daily basis, but I don’t have much of a say in the process of picking those outfits like. I remember Mike was like auditioning Ramon and some of the other characters and there’s just a room full of men upstairs in his office and I was—

Michael Bay: Two guys.

Megan Fox: —no, it was Shia, Ramon, and two other actors and you, and I had to like come up and down and knock on the door and try on all my wardrobe and I had like 18 different outfits and it was like white jean shorts, and pink belly shirt, and like motorcycle boots, and we went through like a whole thing and Mike was selecting them in the process of auditioning him—

Bay: It’s called multitasking

Fox: —right, well but I had no say, but he, clearly he has an eye for what should and should not be in the movie so I just trust him.

Bay: It’s called summer fun—it’s a robot movie.

Kevin, Do you feel like your character shares the father roles over san with Optimus?

Kevin Dunn: Well as far as I know he was conceived by myself, I don’t think Optimus got in there, but—laughs—I mean, I guess there’s a parallel in the script, but he needs the guidance of Optimus but he doesn’t always listen to his dad, he’s your average teen, but yeah there’s a paternal aspect to both characters, sure.

Michael I want you to tell me how, what was in here especially for the ladies when it comes to your movie?

Bay: Well I think the first one—what was interesting about the first one it’s got relationships between the parents and the kids and Kevin is actually playing my father, and that’s very much how my parents were growing up and making the movie accessible to everyone was the humor in it, and I think that’s how you make it accessible to everyone it’s not just a fan boy movie. Most women cone in on the humor—they’re a lot of young women that say, “I just want to see robots kicking ass,” I’ve heard that before. And I think the relationship between Shia and Megan.

Josh Duhamel: Tyrese offered to introduce himself in the second movie by doing a shirtless carwash scene on Optimus, but—laughs—Michael didn’t go for it.

Bay: I didn’t, yeah.

Tyrese: Thanks, Josh.

The IMAX version of the film is 2 hours and 20 minutes, does it have more than the non-Imax? Are there additional IMAX scenes?

Bay: It has, I think probably about a minute more of footage, it’s got some more fighting footage, it took place in the forest, expeditional stuff with the devastator. I have not seen it in Imax, how did it look?

What was the most favorite or memorable experience working with members of the military?

Fox: I think just in general I was really pleasantly surprised with them. They’re all extremely chivalrous and very respectful, clearly because they’re disciplined and their so much better behaved than the rest of the cast is—laughs—including myself though. They listen and take direction really well and we’re all just fucking off. It adds authenticity to the movie, you know, Michael, you consult with the military on everything to make it authentic and to make it real and it’s also—I enjoyed being able to walk unto set and there was 100 real soldiers as opposing to walking on its 100 actors from Orange County or L.A. in fatigues, it was just overall a very pleasant experience for me and I have an immense amount of respect for the soldiers and for our troops.

If you could talk a little bit of the preparation in terms of military training, for this film and the first film.

Tyrese: I would say that the first go around was so much more intense than the second because we kind of went into it not knowing too much of nothing about the Air Force, the military, Navy Seals, and for me, I didn’t know the difference between goals and responsibilities each one of the soldiers and the categories of soldiers. I worked closely with someone called a CCT, which is a Combat Controller because I have to have dialogue to communicate with all of the aircraft and so that dialogue is very difficult and with Michael’s overseeing the dialogue we got to make sure that we cater to the real authentic dialogue of the air force, but yet create a balance of making sure the common folks who don’t understand that language could understand it too, so it was a bit of a challenge especially with all of these explosions and stuff going on around—a little challenge.

Josh: Yeah, the first one we had a few days or preparation and the second time we just sort of jumped into it. I was in New York and just sort of had a bit of a refresher course, but their military advisors—Harry Humphries is out there, there’s a number of people from all facets of the military and I think that we both took a lot of pride in trying to make—trying to represent the military’s as closely as we could. I’ve got a lot of friends in the military, and aunt over in Iraq so that was my main focus was to try and represent them well and make them proud. And if we didn’t, they would let us know, believe me.

Tyrese and Josh, what were some of your favorite memories in making the movie?

Tyrese: I would say compared to even the first one, I think our roles were so much more serious this time than the first round because there is so many moments comedic wise throughout the film and I guess the outcome was Michael wanted us to kind of a play little more serious to kind of raise the stakes and the pressure of what’s really going on, which was fun. I enjoy doing the funny stuff to try to create a balance, but I just overall had fun with the experience and we all vibe and were laughing and having big parties and good energy on the set, you know because there’s so much pressure on the set and you know Michael runs a real tight shift, keeps everybody on edge, everybody’s full-throttle like “Look man, if I don’t do a party I’m going to go crazy right now,” you feel me? I tried to keep everybody, everybody, the crew, the cast, everybody having fun while we were working.

Josh: Yeah, he took the night shift—laughs—I guess the most fun I had was the scene getting to the—you know in the last answer I said I would try to be as accurate, if I could, and my favorite scene in the movie was throwing the national security advisor off the train, but that’s the most fun I had, it was a fun scene to do and there was a nice full stunt involved, yeah that was probably my most memorable, that or the giant bomb that went off.

Tyrese: Yeah

Megan: One thousand gallons

Josh: Yeah

Tyrese: One Thousand; we Made history. The biggest explosion—practical explosion in the history of filmmaking—

Fox: But Michael holds the other record; you hold both records don’t you? Ok, let’s not talk about that, sorry.

Bay: Let’s not talk about that. (Pause) That’s the world record—the history of world records.

Michael I’m curious of the characters of the twins; they said you had a lot of input in deciding to add them, is that true?

Bay: Well I wanted two kind-of younger transformers, but with those two guys we used the guy that plays sponge bob and another actor, and what’s interesting when you work with voice actors is—especially with the twins—they did a lot of improv for their parts. We liked their improv and from there we would animate to their stuff and when you do character animation it’s—when you’re building a character—it’s not like an actor where you shoot the scene and you’ve got it and you move on—with character animation shoot, edit the dialogue, you work with the animators, and then a little bit more of the dialogue and keep going back and forth. I just wanted something that would appeal to younger kids and I seemed to really gravitate to those two characters. It’s like The Little Engine That Could with the devastator scene.

Megan, how do you react when you see your image in the big IMAX screen and how do you like your character to be the sex symbol in the movie?

Fox: I haven’t seen the movie in IMAX and I just first saw it a few days ago when we were in London, and I usually don’t watch myself like I don’t watch playback, I don’t look at still photos, I have a phobia of it, but I forced myself to—I basically shot an entire glass of champagne through the sitting of it and I was really pleasantly surprised and I—like half way through was sort of overcome genuine emotion and I wanted to hug Michael because I had gratitude for him for making this movie, like its so far surpassed my expectations and I think—you know the character is sexy, but women in general, in movies are sexy and especially in Michael’s movies. He knows how to make movies that get people in the theater, if that’s part of it, if that’s part of the formula then—

Bay: But if you look at the movie we’ve got that first shot right out of the way, just to get it out for the young boys and move on, okay?

Fox: Right.

Josh: That’s why you should consider that scene with Tyrese washing Optimus.

Bay: Yeah, I know. The rest of the movie with her is not about sexy, you know.

Of all the actors—there’s a lot of physical acting, there’s got to be injuries…

Kevin: Michael wanted to get this long shot of FDM coming around and then seeing Sam and running and then getting a big beefalo guy special agent guy tackling me and throwing me on the ground. So he talked me into it and the whole secret was that I had to get my feet to land and we did it quite a few times.

Bay: We did it three times.

Kevin: Yeah, and the last time I didn’t get my feet down and—

Bay: That’s the take we used.

Kevin: And you’ll see that mistake and it was his shoulder and my sciatic nerve in the sand.

Ramon: I popped a shoulder which was a lot of fun on the day of the save scene.

Bay: What you popped a shoulder?

Ramon Rodriguez: Oh, yeah bro.

Bay: You see you never told me that.

Rodriguez: I didn’t want to get you worried.

Bay: You want to sue me?

Rodriguez: No. So we where shooting the devastator scene where there sucking all the sand and I had to hold on to this pole and Michael Bay thought it would be really great to bring out two fans that blow 10 miles per hour each and put it right in front of my face so I had sand (one word?) blowing in my face and I had two guys behind me with wires attached to my ankles pulling me, not enough we need cars flipping over my head, so two cars I literally had attached to a hydraulic crane flip inches above my head and so the guys were yanking the cables on my ankles and yet on one of the takes my shoulder popped out and we continued rolling because—that was probably the shot you used and thank you.
-Laughs-

Now that you’ve seen the Transformers, but it easier this time for you to interact with them or was it still a hard acting job?

Fox: No, it was definitely easier because we have seen them at this point, you know, we’ve seen Optimus and we’ve heard his voice and we know how he moves and it’s the same with all of the robots and once you’re able to visualize somethings presence it’s a lot easier to sort of fake—interact with it and I think those scenes are—I think their some of the easiest scenes to shoot, I enjoy them because you sort of—we’ve gotten good at being able to synchronize and pick an eye line and you basically scream your dialogue at it and you avoid the area where you know it is. I enjoy those scenes; we end up usually doing a ton of takes because you know because it needs to be specific, the light needs to be right and they need to be able to add it in and make it look the way that they do, but it wasn’t that difficult this time around.

Michael the shot from the aircraft, is that real footage that you shot?

Bay: In terms of stock footage, I don’t like using stock footage so all that stuff is shot by us, we had incredible access from the military, it was very rare, all those planes of shooting it, they flew 100 feet over out set at a times—there were 16 pilots doing a mission and we timed their mission when we wanted them to come over our set four times and were setting up live explosions down below .

Ramon, it’s great to see a Hispanic actor in the film, how much improvisation were you allowed to do in Spanish?

Rodriguez: You know luckily Michael was really into improv, you know, if you have cool ideas—I started realizing during the process that if he laughed at something it meant it was pretty good, I guess as an audience he’s really good at that. As a director, he’s kind of like the audience member, but yeah we improv’d a lot of scenes and he let me throw in some Spanish in there and say things like “Leonardo De Ponce.” I got to create this fun name, and yeah it was cool.

The film deals with technology, how up to date are you with everything? So any of you twitter?

Bay: Well, I don’t know what Twitter is.

Megan: Neither do I by the way, I don’t have a Twitter page so—

Tyrese: I love Twitter

Megan: He’s the only one that has a Twitter.

Tyrese: I took the fans on the world tour, to all 6, 7 countries we went to, took pictures of all the historical places and Roma and Amsterdam and I took all of them on tour with me. I told them pull out your passports, I’m taking you on tour with
Twitter, I love it—

What do you like about it? Is it the immediacy with the fans?

Tyrese: Oh, yeah it’s the instant gratification of posting a picture of us just hanging out somewhere just doing something on all of these different moments throughout these countries and the fans are like whoa! You know, they get to see these images and things that they wouldn’t be able to see unless you sent them on your twitter. So I love it.

Josh: Which is why people don’t hang with Tyrese because you don’t want to take embarrassing pictures—laughs—here’s me with tequila on my forehead.

It’s interesting that you note President Obama instead of having a fictional president you talk about—what lead you to that decision?

Bay: Remember it is summer fun by the way. Secondly, the Obama thing came about because I was walking in a Vegas airport and he was walking by himself carrying his bag and his hanging bag over his shoulder, this was after I’d just seen him at the beginning of his campaign and we were walking side by side and I said, “Hey I saw you and I liked what you had to say the other night, I really liked hearing your stuff,” and I introduced myself, and he said “What do you do,” and I said, “I’m a director,” and he says “of what movies,” and I said, “Ah, these movies,” and he said, “Oh you’re a big ass director,”—laughs—he said, “I’ve seen a bunch of your movies,” so that’s why I decided to put him in.

Did he really say big-ass?

Bay: Yeah, he really did.

Tyrese: Josh is very involved in politics by the way, the whole time we were filming he did not miss one speech, the polls, anything, we had so many conversations in the car on the way to the set about the whole campaign, I learned a lot Josh, you’re the greatest.

Josh: That what I’m there for. I was just worried after throwing him off the plane I might get audited.

How do you stay in shape for your role?

Megan: I know in New Mexico, I think what all of us did after a hard day of work was go drink at Chili’s—

Bay: It’s the only restaurant there.

Megan: We drank a lot and to stay in shape, I didn’t find the time or I didn’t have the motivation to work out after we would shoot a 16 hour day so whatever happens to me at work—

Bay: We don’t shoot 16s, we shoot 12s—

Megan: Mike no, that’s not possible, everyday. Okay we shot 12-hour days. (Bay keeps saying, “We shoot 12, we shoot 12.”) Well after 12 hours I was too tired to work out so I didn’t really maintain much.

Josh: Days are physical!

Megan: How do you do it Josh Duhamel, you specimen of a human being? (Laughs)

Josh: Well Megan. Honestly you’re out there literally sweating all day long and you don’t have a lot of energy—

Tyrese: Running in the sand too—

Josh: Yes, running in the sand. Tyrese and I worked out a little bit—

Megan: Together?

Josh: More of a personal competition—yeah. He would spot me, and I would spot him, what’s the big deal?

Tyrese: That’s don’t sound too good. [Laughs]

Josh: Honestly, I remember before we started the first one Michael told me, you know, come ready, be in shape, I demand a lot of my male actors especially in these movies so I did, you know, just tried to be as strong, ready to go as I could.

Tyrese: We worked out twice a day though. We worked out before we went to the set and after we went to the set, we would come an get our five miles in.

Josh: I never ran 5 miles.

Tyrese: 3.

Josh: It doesn’t matter.

I think you did a great job incorporating Shia’s hand injury into filming. How was that effective?

Bay: Well I actually read it on CNN online and I’m like this can’t be true and I called my line producer Ian Bryce and he goes, “It’s true.” And I’m like, “Oh my god.” And he goes, “let’s shut down,” and I go, “we can’t shut down.” Because when you’ve got a train going, it’s so expensive to have a picture like this shut down. We had an action scene in the library that day, we were shooting on Monday and I said, “Let’s just go for it, just not stop, let’s use Flad the stunt man and try to cover as much stuff as we can,” and then on Tuesday we shut down, we had to mix and match everything that we—you know pulling from different scenes that we could shoot without him—we didn’t know how long he was going to be down and immediately I had them find the best people in the world to make a special caste that had never been made with Kevlar fingers, very thin, so you can photograph it. The problem was if he were to jam his fingers he could loose his fingers forever so we had some experts of the world kind of come up with this design and we were very lucky because we had shot a lot of the beginning of the movie so we were right in a turning point were we could kind of—

Megan: Everyone’s also very lucky for Shia’s level of commitment to this movie because he showed up with his injury and acted as though he didn’t have an injury and still went balls to the wall and completely committed and did things that were not safe for him to do, but he wanted this movie to be as real as possible so I think that helped out everyone a lot.

Bay: Yeah, we’d have arguments, he would take his cast off and I said, “No put your cast on,” and he goes, “No, I’m fine,” and I said, “Put your cast back on,” it was like—you were trying to protect the hand.

Josh: Remember when he cut his eye and he wanted to go back to work that day?

Bay: Oh yeah.

Do you think any of you would work with the department of defense if there was another opportunity?

Josh: I would, I mean, they were great to work with—I think that a great question, Michael has a great relationship with them.

Bay: I would only do it if I could control an aircraft carrier—laughs.

Kevin: Yeah, you get so much information and their so ready to tell you about everything that they’re doing. It’s just great—

Bay: They are a special breed, they’re very impressive. They really are.

Tyrese: The aircraft carrier stuff is one of a kind. Getting there was very unsafe, but yet safe and leaving—the same thing. But, I mean we did a big party on the boat, it was 5,600 people in the middle of the water on this boat—

Bay: What Tyrese is saying, it’s not unsafe, it’s just when they greet you, a flight attendant would say, “Okay here’s the door exists on your right blah blah blah,” They go, “Okay, if were going to have a water landing and I’m dead someone needs to pull this cord right here,” It’s one of those greetings. It’s down to the point, “And if you pull your cord you will die!”

Check out the film in theaters this Wednesday, June 24th.

Two New Transformers TV Spots

Mali Elfman — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 20:00:09 +0000

Michael Bay‘s mega-move Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen is right around the corner, but before you see it in theaters they’re going to taunt you with a few more action packed clips. Below are two new clips from the film which give us a little more insight (if you can call it that) into the shots we’ve already seen.

Check out the two new videos below…

Both clips back to back:

The sequel stars Shia LaBeouf, Megan Fox, Josh Duhamel, Tyrese Gibson, Kevin Dunn and more.

What do you think of the new clips? Was there enough new information in them for you?

ScreenCrave.com » tyrese gibson

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