LA to Vegas...

So what's the word on this show's chances of being renewed for a second season? I watched the season (hopefully not series) finale of LA to Vegas yesterday, and needless to say, I wanna see more wacky exploits by these Jackpot Airline (no, it's not a real airline) employees. It's hilarious to see Peter Stormare (of Armageddon, Prison Break and John Wick 2 fame) once again sporting a Russian accent but not being a homicidal criminal on this sitcom. And ditto with Dylan McDermott—who went from being a traitorous former Secret Service agent in the 2013 film Olympus Has Fallen to playing Jackpot Airlines' goofy pilot Captain Dave. Olivia Macklin is Nichole...a beautiful Vegas stripper with a heart of gold (like Vivica A. Fox in 1996's Independence Day), while Kim Matula and Nathan Lee Graham portray Ronnie and Bernard, the crazy duo who keep life aboard their Jackpot airliner from descending into chaos during the flights from Los Angeles to Las Vegas, and vice versa. And to round out the cast: Amir Talai plays Captain Dave's bumbling co-pilot Alan, and Ed Weeks portrays Colin; a divorced father of one who should finally get things goin' with Ronnie if LA to Vegas sees another season.

So yea, while LA to Vegas has ways to go before it replaces The Big Bang Theory as my all-time favorite sitcom (unless TBBT does end after Season 12 as rumored), it's a hilarious TV show that I try not to miss on Tuesday nights. I might also be biased here; I worked as a background actor on the show at Fox Studios last fall! You can see me as the blur wearing a dark-gray short-sleeved shirt and jeans (and carrying that large black bag) in the screenshots below. They're from episode 1.5: The Fellowship of the Bear, which aired on February 6. Anyways, did I mention that Nichole is so beautiful? Just thought I'd say it again. Happy Hump Day.

Photos of the Day #2: Glimpses Of The Sand Fire From Afar...

Just thought I'd share these pics that I took of the effects of the wildfire that's currently burning in the Santa Clarita Mountains north of Los Angeles. Known as the Sand Fire, this inferno has been a fascinating sight to see (just don't tell that to someone whose home was either destroyed or endangered by this ever-growing blaze) from 40 to 60 miles away. The photos above and directly below were taken when the fire began last Friday. The Moon is tinted red by the cloud of smoke hanging above old town Pasadena, while the cloud itself was an ominous sight to see from my house in West Covina located 60-plus miles away from the calamity.



The images shown below were taken yesterday. As seen from the Santa Anita Mall in Arcadia, the Sand Fire no longer leaves a huge cloud of smoke obscuring the skies over much of Southern California, but is still visible above the mountains in which it burns. The final photo below was taken from a street near my house in West Covina as I was heading to work in the evening. That cloud of smoke looks totally ominous...like something from the first (and good) Independence Day movie...

Much props to the firefighters working around the clock to put out this blaze.

Don't Mind Me— Just Reminiscing About 10th Grade...

So 20 years ago today, I ended my sophomore year in high school by completing my 7th period English exam. What made this period memorable was that after the test ended and my classmates and I were exiting the room, I approached Desiree—a cute Filipino girl who I've been chatting with for the last eight months—and told her that it was nice talking to her. She said "thanks" and gave me a genuinely-warm hug before walking away. Before some of you think to yourselves "That's it?!" and "Why didn't you make a move, stupid(?!)," I'd like to point out that Desiree was the prettiest and most popular Pinay in my sophomore class, if not the entire school at that time. (And most of our initial conversations at the beginning of the year revolved around her asking me if she could um, copy my homework and quizzes. I probably shouldn't mention that here.) It was a victory for me that I managed to stay on speaking terms with her up until the very last day of 10th grade (even though I had to attend summer school a few weeks later... Bah), instead of annoying Desiree down the line by trying to flirt (moreso) with her and being all clingy, which I never did. I played it cool with Des for pretty much all of sophomore year...which is more than I can say about every other girl I've had a personal crush on since then. (*coughYennyandNancycough*) Or in 9th grade, junior high and elementary school for that matter.

Desiree is now married with two kids. Despite the fact that I was in complete shock when one of her high school BFFs told me in person that Des got engaged in 2002 [or was it 2003? The BFF also went to Cal State Long Beach (CSULB) like I did during that time], that didn't stop me from staying all sentimental about sophomore year 6-7 years later. It's because of Des that 10th grade and high school in general is still worth thinking about 18 years since I've graduated (on June 5, 1998)...even though social media sites (Facebook, in particular) have gradually caused me to lose whatever nostalgia I have left of those four adolescent years. The last time I saw Desiree in person was in 2004 (a few months after I graduated from college). She didn't recognize me since I looked different from how I did in 1996 (I didn't have a shaved head when I was a 10th grader), but it's all good. Desiree dyed her hair red for all of high school and much of college (I ran into her at different high school and college-related events, plus an import car show in Orange County, between mid-1998 and late '99...which covered my first and second years at CSULB); but her hair is now naturally black since much of her time is devoted (based on her Facebook pics... Yes, I'm friends with her on that site) to caring for her two young daughters. I'm glad that she became a devoted mom. I don't know what else is there to speak about in this entry, so I'll leave it at that.

Oh wait— The summer of 1996 was spent on me thinking about the awesome moments that I had with Desiree in high school, and how amazing the first Independence Day movie was after I watched it that July. And the sequel Independence Day: Resurgence hits theaters next week! 2016 is the 20-year anniversary for a lot of noteworthy events in my then-teenage life. But today is also the 5-year anniversary since my high school friend Richard Duong passed away in Japan. RIP, buddy. (Richard was in my 7th period English class in 10th grade as well. I think he was the one who prompted me to walk up to Desiree and bid farewell to her after our exam. And he was also a fan of ID4.) I'll end this entry now.

BATTLE: LOS ANGELES... I finally saw the alien-invasion film today, and needless to say, it was the sci-fi version of Black Hawk Down. Which means...I thought it was pretty cool! Non-stop action was waged throughout B:LA, much like in Ridley Scott’s 2002 war flick about the 1993 conflict in Somalia. Aaron Eckhart was awesome as Staff Sergeant Nantz; while compared to her gung-ho attitude in Avatar, Machete and the Fast and the Furious films, Michelle Rodriguez was somewhat tame as Tech Sgt. Elena Santos in B:LA. As Santos, Rodriguez didn't have the usual sarcastic quips that she had playing previous movie characters. Not that that's a bad thing. Nothing exceptionally noteworthy about the civilians played by Bridget Moynahan and Michael Peña, but I’ll give them props since my review about this flick is supposed to be a positive one. I just found out through IMDb.com that 2nd Lt. William Martinez, who was in charge of the Marine platoon before handing command over to Eckhart's Nantz and then sacrificing himself later in the film, was played by Ramon Rodriguez. In case you’re wondering who this is, Rodriguez played the wacky college roommate of Shia LaBeouf in Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. But back to B:LA.



Battle: Los Angeles didn’t exactly have a deep message like 2009’s District 9 (which B:LA also borrowed elements from...namely weapons that cause explosions surrounded by bolts of lightning) did, but it was still a lot better than last year’s Skyline. B:LA didn’t have a "WTF??" moment at the very end of the movie like Skyline did...though as I said at the beginning of this journal entry, B:LA was obviously inspired by Black Hawk Down in that Eckhart and Co. go back into the battlefield at the film's conclusion to take care of unfinished business. Also, the battle in Los Angeles lasted for one day...while the 1993 battle in Mogadishu, Somalia lasted a day as well. Nothing wrong with that. My personal gripe about B:LA is that, like the Bourne movies (as in The Bourne Identity, Supremacy and Ultimatum), it overdid it with the shaky cam. By now using this camera technique in war films has become a cliché, and unfortunately B:LA suffers from this tired method. It was cool in Saving Private Ryan, Gladiator and Black Hawk Down...but try spending more time setting the camera up on a tripod or at least a Steadicam, folks—if there’s a sequel (Battle: San Diego, anyone?). Thanks. Another gripe is that the trippy song used in B:LA's theatrical trailers, "The Sun’s Gone Dim and the Sky Turned Black" by Icelandic musician Johann Johannsson, wasn't featured in the movie. Oh well.



Special effects-wise, the aliens in B:LA looked interesting...though were they using projectile weapons (RE: bullets) just like the humans were? I guess having the invaders shoot laser beams at the Marines would’ve ruined the gritty, realistic tone of the film. After all, this ain’t Star Wars. Or Star Trek. Or Independence Day. Or Transformers. Or Terminator. The same people who did the visual FX on Skyline also did the FX work on B:LA. The FX work was what saved Skyline since its CW Network-quality cast of actors wasn’t exactly the saving grace of that movie. That is all.

Courtesy of Pamonh Sisouk

TRANSFORMERS 3 Update... I posted in this previous Blog that if there was one issue that would get me to not watch or at least write about Transformers 3 here, it would be that Rosie Huntington-Whiteley played Mikaela Banes (who was portrayed by Megan Fox in the first two films), and not a new character. Well— It turns out that there’s yet another thing that may at the most prevent me from making repeat viewings of TF3 (unlike the first two films) when it comes out in theaters less than a year from now...and that’s Michael Bay’s lame attempt at making political references in the movie. Check out the photo below, and you’ll notice that there’s an image of President Obama on the apron worn by Huntington-Whiteley. Sure, it’s just a simple drawing on her outfit...but depending on the way it’s shot during production, that drawing could spell the difference between being something that people will only notice for a brief moment even if they watched the film a second time, or completely take audience members (like myself) out of the story right away because of how blatantly noticeable and out-of-place it is. I understand that TF3 is filming in Chicago (Obama's hometown), so the reference would make sense. But this homage is still crap. This happened with Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen last year.



In Revenge of the Fallen, Obama is mentioned in a TV newscast right after the Decepticons sink a U.S. aircraft carrier upon arrival on Earth. Unless you’re a Democrat or a disgruntled Republican who proudly voted for the guy in ’08, I found this reference to be quite obnoxious. Not only that, but this completely goes against why a flick like Transformers 2 would be made in the first place. Transformers 2 is a sci-fi fantasy film. It’s a summer blockbuster. Much like Independence Day and Star Wars before it (though George Lucas also made the lousy mistake of substantially alluding to George W. Bush and Civil War-era political crap in the prequels), it’s meant to allow the audience to spend the next 2 hours (or 2 hours, 30 minutes in the case of TF2) escaping reality and delving into the realm where giant alien robots could hide amongst us in this world. BUT NOOOO... Bay had to be yet another sap drinking the Kool-Aid and deciding to pay homage to a political leader whose only true skills are to make grandiose (RE: rhetorical) speeches and predicting champions in pro-sports.



FOR F**K’S SAKE, BAY, let this be the only real flaw that you carried over from Transformers 2. I understand that the movie will have the usual rapid-fire editing, 'splosions and nice cleavage shots of Whiteley (Huntington-Whiteley is becoming too long to re-type) as is the case with Fox in the two previous flicks, but please do not include the unnecessary and obviously homoerotic shot of John Turturro with his pants down, a major objectification of girls (though pretend I didn’t say that if you’ve browsed through the rest of my website. Goooo hypocrisy! Hah) like those college scenes in TF2, or putting nipples on Shockwave—the main villain in TF3 according to online reports—after adding a scrotum to Devastator in Revenge of the Fallen. Oh, and actually telling us the truth in that the "Ghettobot" twins (Skids and Mudflap) will disappear after the opening scene in Transformers 3. Of course, knowing Bay all this pleading will be for naught...and the first Transformers film will most likely be the only one in this current incarnation of the franchise to pleasantly take me by surprise when I watched it in 2007. Oh well.


Courtesy of Pamonh Sisouk

2012... So I saw the film after work yesterday, and it was entertaining—in the typical Roland-Emmerich-blows-up-national-landmarks-and-other-things kinda way. If you’re expecting a sci-fi film that is as thought-provoking as say, District 9, then you’re watching the wrong film. If you’re expecting a standard Hollywood blockbuster with lots of great visual effects and (extremely) ridiculous action sequences, then this is the movie for you.



I can’t recall any memorable scenes from The Day After Tomorrow, but I will point out that 2012 had a lot more emotional moments in it than Independence Day did (don’t get me started on Godzilla). But unlike 2012, Independence Day (or ID4) had a lot more scenes that made the crowd gasp and cheer...at least at the screening I went to back in July of ‘96. Of course, back then the shots of the White House and other (American) landmarks getting destroyed by giant alien ships in ID4 were fairly new...and the scenes showing F/A-18 Hornet jets engaging in aerial battle with small alien fighters (a la Star Wars, DUH) were awesome. What 2012 has going for it are repetitive shots of airplanes trying to lift off of runways that were breaking apart below them...and a kick-ass scene of Yellowstone National Park going BOOM as the supervolcano beneath it (yes, this volcano is REAL) erupts.



I’d say more about the movie, but I don’t feel like it. I’ll point out one more thing though: I find it interesting and fortunate (ahem, sarcasm) that the computers onboard Air Force One could show real-time images of what’s going on beneath the Earth’s crust, as well as what was happening to the planet's magnetic field as s**t was hittin' the fan across the globe. I guess these comps were modified by NASA and the U.S. Geological Survey at the White House's request between 2009 and 2012...the time period during which the movie takes place.


That is all.

REVENGE OF THE FALLEN: The Review... So I saw Transformers 2 on Wednesday, and I finally have time to give my take on Michael Bay’s latest film. Considering the fact I’ve devoted almost 2 years to writing about Transformers (both this one and the 2007 original...which I will refer to as TF1) on this Blog, I’d first like to point out the many positive aspects about this newest Bay blockbuster.



OPTIMUS AND BUMBLEBEE...

First and foremost, Optimus Prime rocked. From his introduction rolling out of that C-17 aircraft over Shanghai and transforming in mid-air, to him making quick work of Demolisher after hanging onto the Decepticon as he wrought havoc around the Chinese city, to him owning Starscream and Blackout in that forest battle, and then to him having a final confrontation with The Fallen in Egypt, Prime was totally awesome. A lot of people (including myself) took issue with how he was completely overmatched by Megatron in the first film... It’s nice to see him show what a great warrior he is when he takes on said Decepticons mentioned above. And Peter Cullen, as usual, did a nice job giving the Autobot leader his noble and commanding voice. "I rise, you fall..." Damn right, Optimus. Bumblebee was dope. He totally rocked as he beat the crap out of Rampage and, um, "de-boned" Ravage as Soundwave’s feline minion tried to attack the Autobot during Revenge of the Fallen’s climax. And I thought Bumblebee’s lack of speech had a much better effect in this film than in TF1. It made him look more like a "gentle giant"... Driving Sam Witwicky and his human friends around in Jordan or Egypt during one instance, and kicking major ass the next. But I already mentioned this part 4 sentences ago.



SOUNDWAVE...

Although it was too bad that we didn’t see him in his robot mode, Soundwave's role in the movie was pretty cool. The fact that he was a satellite the whole time and calling the shots for all the Decepticons (both on Earth and in outer space) was a nice touch. And one thing you have to give Michael Bay props for was getting Frank Welker, who voiced Soundwave in the original Transformers cartoons in the 1980s, to reprise his role as the Decepticon spy in Transformers 2. Even though Bay unfortunately didn’t give Soundwave’s voice that "vocoder" sound (Soundwave instead sounded like Dr. Claw, who was also voiced by Welker, in the old animated TV show, Inspector Gadget) that made the visor-wearing minion of Megatron so memorable, it’s still made up by the fact Bay put effort into getting Welker to be a part of this sequel. Ravage himself totally kicked ass. As mentioned in the paragraph before this one, it’s too bad he got Pwned by Bumblebee though. Haha.



AUTOBOTS, ROLL OUT... DECEPTICONS ATTACK!

This is gonna be an extremely long Blog (moreso than what it will be) if I devote a paragraph to each Transformer, so I’ll mention the rest of them here. Sideswipe was f*ckin’ awesome...especially went he cuts the Decepticon Audi R8 known as Sideways "sideways" in the beginning of the film. And The Fallen, voiced by Candyman and 24’s Tony Todd, was a total bad-ass. From him being able to teleport to him levitating those tanks and rocks from an Egyptian pyramid at the climax of the film, this Transformer equivalent of Lucifer (which is an analogy that was spouted by many online articles in the months before ROTF’s release) was definitely a foe to be fearful of if you were an Autobot. Unless, of course, you had Jetfire’s body parts attached to you. Watch the film to know what I’m talking about. In terms of Megatron, nice to see him bicker with his second-in-command Starscream so incessantly in ROTF like he did in the cartoon. Though I have to ask: Did Megatron get equipped with some form of hyperdrive after he was brought back to life on the ocean floor? ‘Cause it looked like it only took him literally a day to fly to that planet (where Starscream and The Fallen were hiding) that definitely wasn’t a world that exists in our solar system. EVEN if it was Saturn or Jupiter or something... Megatron wouldn’t have reached those planets as quickly as he did in Transformers 2. Oh well.



THE HUMANS...

Dealing with the human characters, Shia LaBeouf once again carried the film. He was totally convincing as he lost his mind in that astronomy class after touching that All-Spark shard early on in the movie. I liked his scenes with Megan Fox...who is so gosh-darn gorgeous that whatever shortcomings she had with her performance is ironically masked by how amazing she looks on camera. And if you read my review for the first film, you’ll find out that one of the main reasons why I wanted to see Transformers 2 get made was to see the relationship between Sam and Mikaela get expanded upon. And ROTF didn’t disappoint. Sam’s parents were just as hilarious here as in the first film (though as what someone mentioned online a few days ago, Sam's mom acted like she was mentally challenged or something at the beginning of the movie), and John Turturro as Agent Simmons was funnier in this movie than in TF1. Tyrese Gibson pretty much gave the same performance as he did in the previous flick, but Josh Duhamel was a crack-up when tosses that blowhard politican (Galloway, played by John Benjamin Hickey) out of that airborne C-17. Ramon Rodriguez as Sam’s roommate Leo was pretty much the Anthony Anderson of this movie...though Rodriguez had one really hilarious scene in the second act of ROTF (when he accidentally zaps himself with a stungun after tripping over on a restroom floor). Other than that though, his character sure likes talking about his testicles. Speaking of testicles...



THE NITPICK...

Now that I mentioned the positive aspects of Revenge of the Fallen, time to mention the not-so-positive ones. For starters, the movie was REALLY LONG. I keep pointing out that movies based on amusement park rides (a.k.a. the Pirates of the Caribbean sequels) have NO RIGHT to be 3 hours in length. It pains me to say that movies based on toys have NO RIGHT to be 2-and-a-half hours in length. (And I’m well aware that movie reviews have NO RIGHT to be as long as the one I’m typing right now). What saves ROTF though, is the humor. This movie would, quite honestly, be 20 times worse than Terminator Salvation if it didn’t have the comical moments provided by Sam’s parents, Agent Simmons, Leo (for the most part), Wheelie (that small robot that transformed into a remote control truck and, um, liked violating one of Megan Fox’s legs) and YES, those Autobot twins: Skids and Mudflap. To an extent. Michael Bay apparently likes to joke about testicles...seeing as how Ramon Rodriguez mentions them, like, three times in the movie, and we even glimpse in one scene two wrecking balls dangling between Devastator’s legs as the giant Constructicon climbs up that pyramid. Being 2 hours, 30 minutes long, I guess you have to put as many comic moments as possible to help the audience get through a film with such an epic running time.

Two more notes about Transformers 2 involve the visual effects and, I can’t believe I’m saying this, Steve Jablonsky’s music score (which was still exceptional). Sure, it was friggin’ awesome seeing like 46 robots duke it out this time around...but the number of Transformers in this film meant that Industrial Light and Magic (ILM) didn’t have time to polish all the robots’ scenes in ROTF. Most of the scenes that suffered were those that involved Megatron and Starscream. Yes, it was awesome to see these two classic characters argue with each other throughout the film...but these two characters have such complicated designs (which is either good or bad depending on how you feel about Bay's take on the Transformers franchise) that it feels like ILM needed a few more months to make these ‘Cons blend in more seamlessly with their surroundings (particularly in that scene where Megatron is scolding Starscream on top of that skyscraper following the forest battle sequence...a screenshot from that is shown above). And in the final confrontation between Optimus, The Fallen and Megatron, the animation seemed very jerky as Optimus makes quick work of these characters. Maybe if this movie was released around Independence Day like TF1 was back in 2007, ILM could’ve made these scenes look a lot more realistic. But that's only a 2-week difference. ILM needed more time than that. Oh well.



THE MUSIC...

Last but definitely not least: Steve Jablonsky’s score for ROTF. It was awesome that he collaborated with Linkin Park for the film’s music...but in all honesty his work on TF2 wasn’t as memorable as his tracks in TF1. TF1 had that heroic tune during that opening scene with the All-Spark floating in space, the even-more heroic track during the Autobots’ arrival scene on Earth, the unique Decepticon theme...and that memorable pulse-pounding music that played during Skorponok’s attack on that Qatar village. TF2 had some noteworthy music (particularly during that NEST scene in Shanghai, and when Optimus emerges victorious near the Sphinx following his defeat of The Fallen), but nothing really stood out compared to the score for TF1. Of course, that doesn’t mean I wouldn’t buy the TF2 score on CD. It got shipped out from Amazon.com on Wednesday and I should be getting it this weekend. And play it over and over on my MP3 player.



THE VERDICT:

All-in-all, Revenge of the Fallen was a fun film... Just like the first one. I totally want Michael Bay to direct a third installment, which will hopefully be released (if the world hasn’t been destroyed by then) in 2012. Of course, here’s hoping the running time for the next movie will be MUUUCH SHORTER than in ROTF. At least make Transformers 3 130 minutes-long…compared to 143 minutes for the first film and 150 for this one. I already saw Transformers 2 three times on opening day (first time during a midnight show, second time with two of my co-workers during a morning IMAX screening, and the third time with five of my hometown friends during a night show), I’ll probably watch it about five more times before this summer is over. Haha. That is all.

KNOWING... I saw the Nicolas Cage film last weekend, and um...hmm. So wait— Is this movie trying to be like War of the Worlds (both the old one and the 2005 Spielberg version), The Day the Earth Stood Still (both the old one and last year’s Keanu Reeves version), Independence Day (ID4), The Day After Tomorrow or National Treasure (meets The Da Vinci Code)? Apparently, all of the above. Yea, I don’t think this movie is obviously gonna be nominated for Best Original Screenplay at the Oscars next year...



On the other hand, if the aliens’ destruction of Los Angeles, New York City and Washington D.C. in Independence Day looked as cool as the destruction of New York City in Knowing, then ID4 would’ve definitely been a shoo-in for the Best Visual Effects Oscar in '97. If ID4 hadn’t won the VFX Oscar that year already, that is. That is all.

ACROSS THE UNIVERSE: At 4:00 PM, Pacific Standard Time today, NASA sent a transmission of the old Beatle’s song, Across the Universe, to Polaris, the North Star. The reasons why NASA did this were nostalgia-driven; the transmission celebrated the 40th anniversary since the Beatles created this classic song, the 45th anniversary of NASA’s Deep Space Network (a series of large radio dishes in California, Australia and Spain that are used to maintain communication with all the space probes scattered throughout our solar system) and the 50th anniversary since the founding of NASA itself.

The Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California was responsible for beaming the transmission, since JPL runs the Deep Space Network. It took 6 minutes for the song to be radioed up into space, and it’s gonna take 430 years for it to reach Polaris (that's because it's 430 light years, or 4 quadrillion miles, from Earth). And another 430 years for us to get a peaceful or hostile response by whatever alien civilization may be lurking near the North Star. Unless they respond by sending a fleet of spacecraft (a la the 1996 film Independence Day) to Earth first. Just being facetious. That’s all.


NASA JPL

TODAY, Transformers comes out on High-Def and regular-format DVDs. Unlike the film score, which is mostly available online right now (I bought the very last copy at a Borders book store a week ago after the local Best Buy ran out, or didn't even have the CD in stock. Dorks), the DVD should obviously be available at retail stores everywhere. Major outlets such as Target, Wal-Mart and, um, Best Buy will give away exclusive stuff if you buy the DVD at any of them (go here for a complete listing). Anyways, here's a review (with some updates) I posted back in July. No need to write a new one, haha...



BRING ON THE SEQUEL! Really— I haven’t been to a film this fun (Note: I said fun...not good. But Transformers was good!) since Independence Day in 1996! You heard right... Despite liking Revenge of the Sith, and Spider-Man 2, and Batman Begins, and The Mummy, and Pirates of the Caribbean (the first film), I didn’t enjoy a movie this much since the alien invasion film 11 years ago. Well done, Michael Bay! Again, you heard right! This flick should really make up for the flack he got for Pearl Harbor and Armageddon. Especially considering the fact a lot of the shots in Transformers actually lasted for more than 2 seconds on screen! Good God!

Anyways, Transformers rocked! Jon Voight did well. And so did Josh Duhamel and Tyrese Gibson (though I don’t think we need to see their characters again if there is a sequel, which there should be...though it's gonna be hard to top this one)...and Anthony Anderson and Bernie Mac were crack-ups. Rachael Taylor is hot. Last, but not least... It might just be me...but I really dug the romance between Sam (Shia LaBeouf) and Mikaela (Megan Fox... WOW). LaBeouf and Fox, in my opinion, had really nice chemistry together. People in the audience actually cheered and whistled during that last shot (not to spoil the ending for y’all) where Mikaela is mackin’ with Sam on top of the Camaro— err, Bumblebee. You da man, Sam! I think we should definitely see their characters again in Transformers 2...which is currently set for a June 26, 2009 release...though that date is obviously not set in stone. Especially considering a writers strike will be taking place in Hollywood sometime next year.

And finally, another reason why I dug Transformers, other than the KICK-ASS special effects (award Optimus Prime and Megatron for a Best Visual FX Oscar next year!), was the music. Steve Jablonsky (Desperate Housewives, the first Pirates of the Caribbean, Tears of the Sun... He composed additional music on that last one. Hans Zimmer was the main composer) created a very epic score that reminded me of the work Hans Zimmer did for Gladiator or David Arnold with Independence Day. Very adventurous-sounding. And the U.S. military should really be giving kudos to Bay right now. Add real F-22 Raptors and MV-22 Ospreys with giant robots and Megan Fox, and you have a summer blockbuster that’s also a great recruiting film for kids wanting to join the armed forces (Hmm... I probably shouldn't have said that one out loud). Just wait till the Iraq war is over till you do so, 'kay folks? ‘Nuff said. No wait— One more thing... Starscream escapes at the end??? NOOOOO!

Bring on Galvatron, the Constructicons, Soundwave, Dinobots and Headmasters in Transformers 2 (currently, the Constructicons, Dinobots and Soundwave are actually rumored to be in the sequel)!! Oh, and don't forget Fortress Maximus and the Aerialbots. I'm such a geek.

5 out of 5 stars. *****

BEST MOVIE OF THE SUMMER (FOR ME, THAT IS)... I just came back from watching Transformers: The Movie, and needless to say... Bring on the sequel! Really— I haven’t been to a film this fun (Note: I said fun...not good. But Transformers was good!) since Independence Day in 1996! You heard right... Despite liking Revenge of the Sith, and Spider-Man 2 (and yes, I liked Spider-Man 3), and Batman Begins, and The Mummy, and Pirates of the Caribbean (the first film), I didn’t enjoy a movie this much since the alien invasion film 11 years ago. Well done, Michael Bay! Again, you heard right! This flick should really make up for the flack he got for Pearl Harbor and Armageddon. Especially considering the fact a lot of the shots in Transformers actually lasted for more than 2 seconds on screen! Good God!



Anyways, Transformers rocked! Jon Voight did well. And so did Josh Duhamel and Tyrese Gibson (though I don’t think we need to see their characters again if there is a sequel, which there should be...though it's gonna be hard to top this one)...and Anthony Anderson and Bernie Mac were crack-ups. Rachael Taylor is hot. Last, but not least... It might just be me...but I really dug the romance between Sam (Shia LaBeouf) and Mikaela (Megan Fox... WOW). LaBeouf and Fox, in my opinion, had really nice chemistry together. People in the audience actually cheered and whistled during that last shot (not to spoil the ending for y’all) where Mikaela is mackin’ with Sam on top of the Camaro— err, Bumblebee. You da man, Sam! I think we should definitely see their characters again in Transformers 2.



And finally, another reason why I dug Transformers, other than the KICK-ASS special effects (award Optimus Prime and Megatron for a Best Visual FX Oscar next year!), was the music. Steve Jablonsky (Desperate Housewives, the first Pirates of the Caribbean, Tears of the Sun... He composed additional music on that last one. Hans Zimmer was the main composer) created a very epic score that reminded me of the work Hans Zimmer did for Gladiator or David Arnold with Independence Day. Very adventurous-sounding. And the U.S. military should really be giving kudos to Bay right now. Add real F-22 Raptors and MV-22 Ospreys with giant robots and Megan Fox, and you have a summer blockbuster that’s also a great recruiting film for kids wanting to join the armed forces. Just wait till the Iraq war is over till you do so, 'kay folks? ‘Nuff said. No wait— One more thing... Starscream escapes at the end??? NOOOOO!



Bring on Galvatron, the Constructicons, Soundwave, Dinobots and Headmasters in Transformers 2 (currently, the Constructicons, Dinobots and Soundwave are actually rumored to be in the sequel)!! Oh, and don't forget Fortress Maximus and the Aerialbots. I'm such a geek.



5 out of 5 stars. *****

UPDATE: This review is now on Epinions.com.

So I was watching the TV show House on FOX last night, and they showed a Victoria's Secret commercial that used a clip from the music score of Gladiator (the track "The Might of Rome", to be exact...if you have the soundtrack CD). The point of this journal entry: Who would've thought the soundtrack to an epic, Oscar-winning film could be used for a lingerie commercial? Nice! I always knew Hans Zimmer's music was good enough to be used for other things (like the Crimson Tide score being used for trailers to other movies such as 1996's Independence Day, and the main theme of Gladiator being used in the NBC promo of one game during the 2000 NBA Finals), I just didn't know it could be used to sell bras and thongs.

Super Bowl XXXIX: No boobies were exposed, but at least the Patriots won, 24-21. Why didn't I root for the Eagles, you ask? 'Cause I never root for the underdogs, hahaha. Much like I'd root for the Yankees in October and the Lakers in June.

...

Though not this June, thank you very much Kobe.

EDIT: By the way, the Super Bowl ad for Batman Begins was pretty cool. The TV spot for War of the Worlds somewhat resembled that of Independence Day in 1996...the only difference being the WOTW ad didn't have any money shot like the White House blowing up. Oh well.

Fullscreen is for monkeys. I don’t even know why people continue to buy this butchered version of a film on VHS and DVDs. What— Is it because in widescreen versions you obviously have the two matte lines at the top and bottom of the movie frame? Well BOOHOO, you’re breaking my heart. "Hey, I don’t want the widescreen version of The Passion of the Christ... Those two black bars are on the screen!" Loser. People who prefer the fullscreen version of a film (A.K.A. the film with a 1.33:1 aspect ratio format...A.K.A. "pan-and-scan") over widescreen are just as lame as people who don’t like black & white films ‘cause they’re “old” (more on this diatribe tomorrow). Think about it… What would you rather have…the two matte lines on the TV screen or an image that is only half the size of what is on the original theatrical version? I prefer the two matte lines on the screen anyday. Now, if the reason why you’re holding off on buying widescreen-formatted films is because you want to buy that nice-ass, WAY-expensive High Definition 16:9 Widecreen TV from Best Buy first, then that’s different! As long as you let the fullscreen version go the way of…um, I dunno, all those species of insects in the burning Brazilian rain forest (8-track tapes and the Dodo bird are clichés), then it’s all good. If you wanna see a pan-and-scan film, watch a broadcast of it on network television!


(Images courtesy of Twentieth Century Fox)

Now, what got me to dislike the 1.33:1 aspect ratio in the first place was me buying the fullscreen VHS version of the film Independence Day (above) in November of 1996. I showed my dad the movie when he got back home from work, and while watching it, I noticed that he wasn’t as into the film as I thought he would be. Of course, it may have obviously been that ID4 is a big pile of sci-fi crap (though I still enjoy the film), but I also attributed it to the fact the full splendor of the images (especially during the action sequences) wasn’t showing on the TV screen. From there on out, I vowed that every film I bought would be in widescreen. Of course (I like saying that), I didn’t really practice this till I began buying DVDs. I bought Gladiator and Saving Private Ryan in their fullscreen incarnation on VHS…and I, um, cough-cough (how ‘bout them USC Trojans?), bought Titanic in fullscreen VHS as well. Of course, James Cameron is a genius in the sole fact that the way he framed the images during filming actually allowed everything that you see in the widescreen version of the movie to be visible in the fullscreen version AS WELL. If you’re watching the fullscreen version of Titanic, you’ll notice that there’s considerable empty space at the top and bottom of the images, and that’s because those spaces were matted off (a.k.a. covered by the two black bars) for the theatrical release! Pure genius, Cameron!!


(Courtesy of Twentieth Century Fox and Paramount)

Anyways, where was I? Oh yes… Fullscreen SUCKS. I urge my readers out there (ALL 10 of you. Just kidding… Look at the hit counter at the bottom of this page, haha) to forsake the ghetto “This film has been formatted to fit your TV screen” version and go with the “So what do you prefer? The 1.85:1 or the 2.35:1 aspect ratio?” version. Me? I prefer 2.35:1. But I shot my short films The Broken Table and Envious in 1.85:1, haha. Oh, and using the Final Cut Pro editing software program, I matted my first student film, a BLACK & WHITE cinematography project (creatively titled Cinematography Project), with BOTH 1.85:1 AND 2.35:1 matte bars. It’s SO COOL that that film, which was shot in fullscreen, was framed well enough for the other two aspect ratios to be compatible! Parno rules!! Just kidding. That is all.


Dumb & Dumber: One of only a few films enjoyable in both the fullscreen and widescreen formats!

(Images courtesy of New Line Cinema)