Bots and Babes

Tedious Transformers and puffy Proposal fail to impress; see Sister’s Keeper instead

(July 2, 2009) Previews

Opening Wednesday, July 1, is Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs, the third in the popular animated series. Scrat the saber-toothed squirrel (voiced by Chris Wedge) may find a love interest beside his prized acorn while Sid the sloth (John Leguizamo) unwisely steals some dinosaur eggs. Rated PG for some mild rude humor and peril. 94m. At the Broadway (3-D and 2-D), Fortuna (in 2-D) and Mill Creek.

Competing for viewers is the non-kiddie film Public Enemies, director Michael Mann’s take (based on Bryan Burrough’s book Public Enemies: America’s Greatest Crime Wave and the Birth of the FBI, 1933-34) on the FBI’s battle with John Dillinger (Johnny Depp). While Baby Face Nelson and Pretty Boy Floyd figure in the story, the focus is on Agent Melvin Purvis (Christian Bale) and his battle to imprison Dillinger. Marion Cotillard (La Vie en rose) is Dillinger’s girlfriend Billie. Good cast and director, promising film. Rated R for gangster violence and some language. 140m. At the Broadway, Mill Creek, Fortuna and Minor.

Reviews

TRANSFORMERS: REVENGE OF THE FALLEN. One-sentence review: Tedious Transformers traverse teen taste. More accurately, the second big screen iteration of the toy line caters to adolescents of all ages, down to its mawkish humor, repetitive action sequences and the obligatory immature romantic relationship.

Revenge of the Fallen begins two years after the ending of the 2007 film. The Autobots, led by Optimus Prime (voiced by Peter Cullen), have aligned themselves with humans against the Decepticons. The film opens appropriately with an action sequence set in Shanghai, where the human/bot alliance is hunting down Decepticons.

All should be well as Decepticon leader Megatron (voiced by Hugo Weaving), is buried deep in the ocean. But maybe you should never leave your hot girlfriend to go off to college, particularly when you leave a piece of the All Spark with her for safekeeping. But Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf) does just that to Mikaela Banes, played by the sex object du jour Megan Fox, who seems to have borrowed Angelina Jolie’s lips for this role. But the target audience need not despair; Sam spends about 10 seconds in the classroom before being whisked off to engage the enemy and save our world. Those viewers who actually savor a little character development shouldn’t blink as they might miss this sequence, blemished as it is by the silly antics of his mother Judy (Julie White) and the introduction of the clownish college roommate Leo (Ramon Rodriquez).

The rest of the film involves a seemingly endless series of action sequences wherein (SPOILER!) Sam resurrects the slain Optimus Prime and saves our sun from being drained by the evil Fallen and his henchman Megatron. Along the way, Mikaela establishes her post-feminist bonafides by refusing to be left behind during the fighting.

1 2 3 4 NEXT PAGE >SHARE