Yes, Transformers Revenge of the Fallen has even more explosions than the first film.

In what is sure to be one of the biggest blockbuster movies of the year, Transformers Revenge of the Fallen is bigger and more intense than the original film while also carrying over some of the same issues as well as adding a few new ones.

The major issue with this movie is the way the plot is handled. You never really get a clear understanding of what is going on. Director Michael Bay needs to learn that you can’t just mash up a bunch of action scenes with a series of close-up shots, slow-mos, and one-liners and call it a complete package.  You need to have a functional story too.

There’s no real emotional connection to the characters in this movie either. The new ones are only there to fill some stereotype whether it’s the frantic womanizing panic freak or the wise-cracking transformer, or the tech geek, it’s all part of a cookie-cutter formula.

Even the returning characters are particularly one-dimensional and shallow.

The two lead characters Sam (Shia LaBeouf) and Mikaela (Megan Fox) have lost most of the chemistry they had in the first movie, only to be replaced by a teenaged struggle to say “I love you” to one another.

One of the characters that played such an important role in both films (I won’t reveal who) is sadly not rewarded with an emotionally gripping finale when this person meets their end.

Two new transfomers introduced in the sequel play a comedic role similar to that of Jar-Jar Binks (but not nearly as bad) from Star Wars Episode I. The twin transformer bots pummel the audience with clichés and racial stereotyping antics that gets annoying quite early into the film.

It seems that every major blockbuster action flick has to be ridden with extensive one-liners and Transformers Revenge of the Fallen is no different. You’ll see the typical lines and cheesiness in the action moments but as well you’ll see it used as comical relief. These comedy one-liners are relatively funny yet shallow.

But all that doesn’t really matter because the main reason many people will enjoy this movie is the over-the-top special effects and intense action. The full-on action scenes are phenomenal and are choreographed with some of the best animation and fight scenes ever displayed. It’s truly a sight to see.

If you leave this movie with just one thought, it will be the notion that no other movie will be able to top the excitement and wow-factor that Transformers Revenge of the Fallen does.

Add in the near perfect use of music and sound effects and you get a beautiful display of action harmony—this is what Michael Bay does best.

Overall the movie is slightly too long as it feels worn out by the end. Several scenes could have been cut and it would have not made a difference in the plot.

Nevertheless the movie is still worth seeing if you can forgive the lack of anything but spectacular battle scenes.

See it in theatres because this movie is meant to have a big-screen and high-wattage surround sound.

Even better, see it in Imax.

2.5 Stars

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Jack Black & Michael Cera play as two members of a primitive tribe of hunters and gatherers who are exiled for eating some forbidden fruit.

As the title suggests, Year One takes you back to a simpler time where humans were crude in behavior and religion and God took centre stage in everyday life.

The plot is simple. The two lead actors, Jack Black and Micheal Cera are two primitive tribe members named Zed and Oh, who are seeking for something grander to life than just hunting and gathering.

The movie is one biblical joke after another. Zed and Oh get in trouble after Zed decides to eat some of the forbidden fruits and are exiled from the tribe.

The plot then follows the two banned stone-aged men as they search for a higher purpose, following spoofs of biblical stories such as Adam and Eve, Abraham and Isaac, the story of Moses and Israelites, and a city called Sodom where virgin sacrifices are made to the gods.

Eventually the two come across several of their once fellow tribe members captured and forced to be slaves. Zed and Oh reunite with a couple beautiful women from their old tribe and set out on a mission to rescue them and the premise for the rest of the movie follows this.

The plot barely has any cohesiveness to it because each of following scenes is really just a different setting and a different biblical stereotype to dish jokes from. But in a movie like this there isn’t much need for anything more.

Depending on your threshold for gross-out jokes, Year One may end up over stepping what is tolerable. It is clear from early on that this movie intends to dish out one disgusting joke after another. It reaches the breaking point when one of the characters decides feces are something you should eat.

These gross out moments will be the deciding factor for many as it goes well behind the antics of what has been done in the past with movies.

That being said, this movie is ridiculously funny at times and treads closely to having just enough toilet humour without being too much, but again that could be a matter of preference to some.

The comedy pairing of Black and Cera is very smooth as the two have great chemistry in playing to each other’s comedic strengths. Constantly Cera’s character gets the short end of the stick and is tortured, mauled and forced to do some very unpleasant things. In fact, Cera’s shy yet babbling witty personality works so well that he upstages Black’s performance as the funniest element to the movie.

There are some scenes with Black that seem as if he decided to forego the script and improv his own jokes. These lines don’t make much sense and are quite awkward, leaving parts of the movie disjointed.

Other than those few instances, Black sets out to tickle your funny bone as the way you expect him to. He is cocky, foolish and dumb so he doesn’t veer off much from his style of comedy and this means some of the punch lines are quite dated and over used.

You will also see the standard fart jokes, women bashing, sexual connotations and just plain stupidity that has been played out in so many other movies like Dumb and Dumber or Land of the Lost.

This movie is not intelligently funny, but the comedy work from Black and Cera does make this movie worth while to see if you’re into gross and stupid humour. Overall it’s a decent predictable story that has its moments of greatness and utter embarrassments.

3 Stars

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The cast of the movie The Land of the Lost.

If the box office numbers for Will Ferrell’s latest movie are any sign, you may want to avoid this one. 

Based on a 1970s Saturday morning cartoon show, The Land of the Lost stars Will Ferrell as a washed up scientist Dr. Rick Marshall, who through some silly quantum time warp devices, winds up in a lost land filled with primates, giant mosquitoes, Sleestaks (Half-lizard, half-human) and a grumpy T-Rex, as well as iconic landmarks such as the Golden Gate bridge and the Titanic surrounded by a dessert. 

Joining Dr. Rick Marshall through a journey to return back to the normal world is a straight-up stereotype redneck named Will (Danny McBride), a seemly crack-smart research assistant (more on that later) named Holly (Anna Friel), and a primate called Chaka. 

Here’s the basic premise, scene-by-scene Will Ferrell and co. encounter some poorly crafted CG creature, freak out, then run from it, all in the midst of a barrage of offensive toilet humor that can only be amusing to young adolescents and hardcore Will Ferrell fans.

So if drinking T-Rex urine or getting high off of ancient narcoleptics, or jokes that degrade women to no end such as remarks about getting “wet” or sitting on a vibrating crystal sound funny to you then prepare for that and lot more tasteless vulgar jokes.

Yes this movie definitely is not intended for kids even though the plot may seem like it is (especially if you don’t want your kids to see brief flashes of almost near-nudity in a PG rated film).

There is no plot, and if you try to make sense of it all you will only get baffled with the next scene, because literally there is no cohesive connection, it’s just one joke to the next. 

The only consistent plot device is the overly unrealistic T-Rex that chases Will Ferrell and crew because of some remark Ferrell’s character made about its intelligence. Sadly, by the end of the movie the one-on-one battle with the dino and Ferrell completely destroys any merit it once had with some of the worst action scenes ever. 

The movie tries too hard to be funny. It’s full of long scenes where McBride or Ferrell just go on and on cracking one-liners and ‘can they get away with saying that’ jokes until one of them finally jabs at your funny bone. 

And if there’s anything positive in this movie then it’s the occasional line from Ferrell and McBride that is indeed quite hilarious (again, not your traditional funny; stupid funny).

The worst part of this movie has to be the aforementioned only female character. 

You’re led to believe she knows all the answers to the mysteries of this land of the lost, and that she can even speak and understand the primate Chaka, but then right in the next scene she is clueless as to what he is saying; where’s the consistency? 

Add in a scene where she tears part of her clothes off to give the whole sexy adventurous outdoorswomen look, along with the constant sexual connotations the other characters make towards her and it sets the whole women’s movement back an era.

Lastly, you’d expect for a movie in this day and age to have decent special effect and believable CGI, but that’s not the case. 

Maybe it was intentional because the movie is based off of an old TV show.

The Land of the Lost is riddled with one-dimensional characters, a plot that makes no sense, grossly offensive toilet humor, and over-the-top fanatics from Will Ferrell. I would only recommend seeing this movie if you’re a true die-hard Ferrell nut, otherwise stay away and save your brain cells. 

1.5 Stars

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