REVIEW: 2 Fast 2 Furious [2003]

“I’m not going back to Barstow” It would appear that we have Michael Brandt and Derek Haas to blame (thank?) for the sudden change from overwrought melodrama to self-aware comedy I would attribute to giving the Fast and the Furious franchise its longevity. Being that I had only ever seen the first, fifth, and sixth installments, I wasn’t quite sure what happened in between because, while I enjoyed the latter two, I simply couldn’t get into the original. Not only was it riffing on Point Break the wrong way by…

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REVIEW: Transformers [2007]

“More than meets the eye” Michael Bay is by no means a director for whom I hold each new film with anticipation. The man doesn’t do subtlety and he doesn’t do intelligent storytelling either. However, you cannot say he doesn’t have both artistic vision and deft skill at shooting a film. Sure the guy likes to blow things up. But being able to consistently make work with the amount of preparation and choreography his necessitates deserves some credit. When the idea of a live action Transformers movie was being bandied…

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