Two Cent Tuesdays: Transformers Dark of the Moon 3-D

Having seen the last two Transformers movies in the theatre I figured I had to see this one. And while the first two movies were so-so this one was getting high praises and since it was filmed in 3-D I had to check it out.

Quick synopsis as this is a Michael Bay film and the plot is not complicated. Basically the Decepticons(the bad robots) are trying to use this weapon that crashed on the moon in the 60’s to bring their dying planet(Cybertron) to Earth. And the only ones that can stop them are the Autobots(the good robots) and of course Sam Witwicky(Shia LaBeouf).

In comparison to the other two movies this one was much better. Which I know isn’t saying much. My problem with the first one was that it took too long for the robots to start fighting and it was very cheesy with its humor. The second one was actually slightly better in my opinion except for those two annoying robots. Michael Bay finally went back to what he does best and made a movie with some awesome action sequences. While I have read a lot of reviews that claim the movie still doesn’t make a whole lot a sense, to me it doesn’t have too. It makes just enough sense to justify the action sequences. The beginning is still a little boring with Sam looking for a job and his parents coming to visit, and his girlfriend Carly working for some rich guy. The whole setup is kind of silly and you never really feel that Sam and Carly have any chemistry and when he sets off to save her in the end you don’t really buy it. But again it’s all a means to an end and when he goes to save her all kinds of crazy stuff happens so the reasoning doesn’t matter much. I guess what I am saying is sit back and enjoy the action and don’t over analyze the movie.

The other big plus of the movie is that supporting cast. Returning from the first two movies you got John Turturro as the crazy conspiracy theorist Simmons this time with a hilarious sidekick Dutch played by Alan Tudyk. Also giving great performances Academy Award winner Frances McDormand and Academy Award nominated John Malkovich. Then you got Ken Jeong from The Hangover movies and Patrick Dempsey from Greys Anatomy. And probably the weirdest cameo was by Buzz Aldrin as himself.

The biggest disappointment for me with the movie is that you don’t get many of the Transformers personality. The original cartoon was about the Transformers and the movies are about the humans dealing with the Transformers. Besides Optimus Prime and Bumblebee you don’t get to know any of the other Transformers like Ironhide, Ratchet, Sideswipe and Wheeljack.

As far as the 3-D goes it makes the best use of 3-D since Avatar. There are certain movies that work well in 3-D and it takes a certain director to be able to direct a movie with 3-D in mind. That is where Michael Bay excels. His comes up with some crazy action sequences and uses 3-D perfectly. There is a lot of talk about the future of 3-D and if it is just a fad or will become standard on all films. Remember when “talkies” first came out they said it was only a fad and wouldn’t last. While I think we are a long way from 3-D becoming standard for dramas or comedies(I can see it being used in comedies before dramas) I am not sure if it is just a fad. For now it works well in action movies with the proper director with a good eye. Only time will tell what will happen in the future.

Overall I love the action and that’s why I go to see Transformers movies. The movie doesn’t strive to be more than a brainless action movie and the plot makes just enough sense. The supporting cast is impressive and the comedy works in this film without being too silly. Rating B+

Two Cent Tuesday: Hot Coffee

I have thought about canceling HBO since I got Netflix and don’t watch HBO much anymore.  One of the reasons I don’t want to get rid of HBO is because every year they pick up some of the most interesting documentaries from Sundance.  Hot Coffee was on my list of movies I wanted to see this year at Sundance but didn’t get a chance too.  So I was excited to see it on HBO. 
 
Hot Coffee is about our court system in the United States and Tort reform(not torte as in the cake).  Now I have heard that term tort reform before but never knew what it meant.  This movies starts with the most notorious case of “frivolous” lawsuits the spilled McDonalds coffee case.  Director Susan Saladoff interviews the members of the family and lawyers of the victim.  They talk about how the public is misinformed about the facts of the case.  After showing pictures of the third degree burns and skin grafts that the lady received from the coffee it is clear that it is not a simple case of a little burn.  When the lawyers were doing their investigation they learned that McDonalds used a practice of keeping the Coffee at a constant temperature of 180 degrees.  An extremely dangerous and unnecessary temperature.  So when it turned out that McDonalds was aware of the dangers of keeping the water that hot and did nothing to fix it the Jury decided that they were negligent and ordered them to pay $2.9 million(the amount of total sales McDonalds makes on coffee in a day) but was reduced to $480,000.  After hearing all the facts it is hard to argue the final outcome.  But in the 15 years since that happened you never hear the facts about how McDonalds was negligent. 
 
Most tort reform supporters want to put a cap on how much money can be awarded to an individual that sues a company.  The argument for tort reform is that these “frivolous” cases are clogging up the court system and costing millions of dollars.  Of course it turns out that the biggest supporters of tort reform are the giant companies like McDonalds and the tobacco industry who don’t want to pay out large sums of money even they are at fault.  Saladoff uses numerous examples of people being harmed and not being able to do anything to those responsible.  One case where an OB/GYN missed a problem during a pregnancy that resulted in a child being born with developmental issues the parents sued for malpractice. After winning the case and being awarded almost $6 million by a Jury to help pay for years of therapy for the child they found out that tort reform had passed in their state and there was a cap on how much they could get.  Now instead of having those responsible for his harm paying for his care they are on Medicaid.  How does that save the tax payers money?  The other thing it does is makes the Jury inconsequential.  They Jury system is basic tenant of America and the movie makes the case that we should trust the Jury to come to the correct decision after seeing all the facts.  If it is a frivolous lawsuit the jury will decide no politicians. 
 
The movie was very eye opening.  Like I said I never knew what tort reform was and from the way politicians talk about it, it does sound like a good thing.  But seeing some of the consequences of the reform definitely makes me think otherwise.  I love learning new things from documentaries and this definitely did that.  What it did not do was give a balanced argument.  As my co-worker will probably say just another one of those liberal documentaries as it does paint the Republicans as being in cahoots with big business and as being the bad guys.  The movie  was very one sided but effective. Rating B+