The relationship between humanity and robots has always been strained in the Transformers movies. The same could be said about the relationship between certain audiences and franchise director Michael Bay. Film critics have been especially brutal to the five TF features Bay has helmed. I quite enjoyed the first film from 2007. But the follow-up two years later, “Revenge of the Fallen” was hard to endure.

For that reason it took some time before I was willing to watch another Transformers movie. Yet the series kept moving forward and making a lot of money. That is until 2017’s “The Last Knight” which saw record low box office numbers for the normally profitable big budget franchise. Bay has since left the director’s chair and the series has went in a (sorta) new direction starting with 2018’s well received “Bumblebee”.

In between all of the highs and lows is 2014’s “Age of Distinction”, the fourth film of the five that Michael Bay directed. The movie performed well at the box office making over $1.1 billion. But fellow critics had a much sharper opinion of the movie and the last time I checked it was sitting at an abysmal 17% on Rotten Tomatoes. But what can I say? I had a great time with “Age of Extinction”. And many of the issues brought up by others were never a problem for me.

“Age of Extinction” may look like a reboot but it’s actually a direct sequel to 2011’s “Dark of the Moon”. But in an interesting shake-up, the story moved on to an entirely new human cast. Many of the same Transformers return, but Bay and screenwriter Ehren Kruger bring a new group of people into the mix. Most of the characters have pretty familiar angles but they service the movie well. And the performances are generally good and get the job done.

Despite the best efforts of the Autobots and their leader Optimus Prime (Peter Cullen), the devastation left from the Battle of Chicago (see the last movie) has given rise to a strong anti-Transformer sentiment among many humans. This opened the door for Harold Attinger (Kelsey Grammer), a rogue CIA official who created and oversees Cemetery Wind, a black-ops unit with a goofy name whose prime objective is to eliminate all Transformers remaining on planet earth.

Leading Attinger’s field team is the ruthless Agent James Savoy (Titus Welliver). But Attinger has another card up his sleeve – a Cybertronian bounty hunter named Lockdown who has his own reasons for hunting down and killing other Transformers. It turns out that Lockdown has been sent by a mysterious alien group called “The Creators”. We learn they have a special interest in Optimus Prime and Lockdown is to bring him to them by any means necessary.

Meanwhile a down-on-his-luck inventor named Cade Yeager (Mark Wahlberg) is struggling to make ends meet. The bank is ready to foreclose on his Texas farm. And as a single dad he’s having a hard time making enough money to send his 17-year-old daughter Tessa (Nicola Peltz) to college. Cade happens upon an old broken down semi-truck which he plans on stripping down to its parts. But wouldn’t you know, he quickly discovers his junky big-rig is actually Optimus Prime who has been in hiding.

Elsewhere a pompous and ambitious entrepreneur named Joshua Joyce (Stanley Tucci) owns a mega corporation called KSI Robotics. Due to some shady backroom dealings with Attinger, Joyce has secured a “government contract” that helps fund his own devious secret initiative to build his own Transformers. It doesn’t take a Rhodes Scholar to figure out it’s not the best idea.

Nothing about the story will surprise you. Cemetery Wind gets tipped off that Cade is harboring Optimus. Attinger’s connections with KSI come to light. Joyce’s greed-driven plan blows up in his face. And of course Optimus Prime and the few remaining Autobots find themselves once again protecting a humanity that doesn’t appreciate them. Buildings crumble, vehicles blow up, and we’re treated to countless scenes of metal-on-metal combat. In other words just what fans of the series are hungry for.

I do get how some might find the action to be overwhelming, but it can also be exhilarating. As with every Transformer movie, it’s obvious that a ton of money went into the special effects. It’s also hard to miss the incredible detail that goes into each towering robot creation. And then you have Bay’s usual bag of visual tricks – the grainy saturated color palette, sweeping camera shots, slow motion, and explosions galore.

Occasional corny dialogue aside, Wahlberg and Tucci get the best human roles. Jack Reynor joins in as Tessa’s rally car driving boyfriend while Li Bingbing gets an utterly thankless role playing KSI’s representative in China. But the most fun performances comes through the great collection of voice work led by Cullen and including John Goodman, Ken Watanabe, John DiMaggio, Mark Ryan, Robert Foxworth, and Reno Wilson. They too sometimes find themselves handcuffed by bad dialogue yet they manage to overcome it.

But lets be honest, no one goes into a Transformers movie expecting an Oscar nomination for screenwriting. We just need the script to be functional – something that connects the dots, defines the characters, has at least some heart, and sets up the action-driven money scenes. “Age of Extinction” does that while also toning down a lot of the nonsense that can bring these movies down. It’s ultimately Bay realizing the promise that these movies have always had but didn’t always deliver. And it goes to show what a little focus and restraint (and I do emphasize “a little”) can do.

VERDICT – 3.5 STARS

Clint Eastwood and Jeff Bridges made for a snappy pair in 1974’s “Thunderbolt and Lightfoot”, an action comedy that blended the buddy road-trip movie with the suspenseful heist flick. At nearly 50-years-old, the movie still holds up in large part thanks to its two charismatic leads and the collection of top-form supporting characters that pop up along the way.

After reading the script Eastwood decided he wanted to direct. But he ended up handing the duties over to screenwriter Michael Cimino, giving the director his big break (Cimino’s very next film, “The Deer Hunter” won five Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director). But story has it Eastwood held a lot of influence over everything from shooting locations to the number of takes allowed per shot. Cimino often said he owed his career to Clint Eastwood.

The brilliantly shot opening scene remains a favorite of mine. Nestled among wheat fields and dirt roads sits the small but quaint Spirit Lake Idaho Community Church. Inside, a country preacher named John Doherty (Eastwood) is preaching a message to his congregation as a car drives up and parks outside. A man gets out, checks the church sign, and then heads inside. After the man takes a few steps down the aisle he pulls out a gun and starts firing on the preacher. As the parishioners scurry for safety the clergyman tears through a side door and across a wheat field with the gunman in pursuit.

While that was going on an easy-going drifter named Lightfoot steals a white Pontiac Trans-Am and is barreling down the road when the preacher steps out in front of him. Lightfoot swerves, missing the preacher and plowing over the gunman. The preacher hops in and the two take off. And just like that an unusual friendship is born. As they cavort around Montana it’s revealed that the preacher is actually a wanted bank robber known as The Thunderbolt. And wouldn’t you know it, there are more people after him than just the cops.

It turns out that two of Thunderbolt’s former partners, the intense Red Leary (played by the great George Kennedy) and the easy-going Eddie Goody (Geoffrey Lewis) are on the hunt. They’re convinced Thunderbolt double-crossed them during a heist and they want some payback. It takes a pretty lengthy car chase, a little gunfire, and some fisticuffs before they iron out their differences and set their sites on a brand new heist.

From there the road movie gives way to a straight-up heist film as Thunderbolt, Lightfoot, Red, and Eddie stake out a bank, organize the robbery, and plan their escape. Through it all Cimino hones in on and has a lot of fun with the group’s off-beat camaraderie. It helps to have four terrific actors working to bring out their characters’ very different personalities. And along the way we’re treated to some fun young faces. Catherine Bach (“The Dukes of Hazard”) has a quick scene as an alluring young woman named Melody. And Gary Busey makes a ‘blink or you’ll miss it’ appearance.

“Thunderbolt and Lightfoot” has a number of strengths. But it lives and breathes off the charisma and chemistry of Clint Eastwood and Jeff Bridges. They’re funny, relatable, and all-around entertaining whenever they’re sharing the screen. Despite its action-packed opening and a banger of a finish (involving a giant cannon no less), the story moves at a relatively leisurely pace. It has some good humor and a surprising amount of subtext about the shifting America of its day. It all comes together in one satisfying package that’s still a lot of fun today.

VERDICT – 3.5 STARS

(With a new Transformers movie looming I thought it would be good to watch and review some of the franchise’s films I have yet to review.)

The third installment of the (mostly) lucrative Transformers film series had a tough hill to climb. The first film from 2007 was a fun, nostalgic, and action-packed blockbuster. But its 2009 sequel, “Revenge of the Fallen” was an abysmal disappointment which saw the series take shoddy writing and big screen excess to some annoying levels. That gets to “Dark of the Moon”, a nice turn back in the right direction yet one still hampered by some of the same nagging issues.

The first right move for “Dark of the Moon” was with its writer. Ehren Kruger is given solo screenwriter duties and the movie benefits from it. The story is still overstuffed; it goes on for way too long; and it can’t shake the annoying urge to be crude. Yet Kruger devises a fairly easy to follow story – one that may not develop as thoroughly as it needs to but that has clearly defined stakes and comes together more cohesively than you might think.

Bay opens the film with a fun play on history. War continues to rage on the far-away planet of Cybertron between the oppressive Decepticons and the noble Autobots. A spacecraft called the Ark flees carrying a piece of Autobot technology that would have won them the war and saved their planet. But it’s heavily damaged, eventually crashing on earth’s moon circa 1962.

A U.S. government satellite picks up the crash and they immediately begin planning man’s first trip to the moon. Through a cool mix of real-life historical footage and newly shot scenes we learn the 1969 Apollo 11 moon landing was actually a covert operation to investigate the alien wreckage. Even the real Buzz Aldren shows up playing himself. It’s a silly but undeniably fun table-setting intro.

From there the story moves to present day where we once again meet Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf’s final turn as the lead character of the first three films). Still temperamental and insecure, Sam lives in Washington DC with his new girlfriend, Carly (Rosie Huntington-Whiteley) whose supermodel good looks clearly impresses her ludicrously wealthy boss, Dylan Gould (Patrick Dempsey). Sam on the other hand is three weeks out of college and still doesn’t have a job. That is until he gets hired by the boss of Accuretta Systems, Bruce Brazos (John Malkovich in an utterly frivolous role).

Meanwhile the Autobots led by Optimus Prime (again wonderfully voiced by the great Peter Cullen) have allied with humanity in solving human conflicts around the world. All the while they have their eyes open for the return of their arch enemies the Decepticons. One of their operations takes them to the Ukraine where Optimus learns about the Ark crash-landing on earth’s moon. He also learns that the long believed lost technology has been retrieved. The Autobots visit the moon to see what’s left of the Ark only to find a powered-down Sentinel Prime (voiced by Leonard Nimoy), Optimus’ predecessor as leader of the Autobots.

And of course the United States government is involved led by the Director of National Intelligence, Charlotte Mearing (Frances McDormand). She oversees a super-secret international task-force known as NEST which is commanded by Colonel William Lennox (Josh Duhamel). Chief Master Sergeant Robert Epps (Tyrese Gibson) also pops back up, now working for NASA but forced back into military duty once it is revealed that the Decpticons have been orchestrating an elaborate ruse aimed at draining the earth of its resources in order to rebuild Cybertron.

As you can see there’s a ton going on which would become the norm for the franchise. Bay loved the epic-sized stories as much as he loved the epic-scaled action. It didn’t always work but he managed to pull it off here. “Dark of the Moon” takes a lot of wild turns, ultimately ending with all the parties coming together (and with Sam once again caught in the middle) for a huge battle in the city of Chicago. It’s a massive sequence that highlights many of Bay’s strengths and weaknesses as an action filmmaker. But it’s an ending custom-made for fans and it place proves to have lasting repercussions.

Though a significant step up from the previous film, “Dark of the Moon” still repeats some of the problems many people have had with the franchise. It’s way too ambitious and it’s stuffed with too much story and too many characters (I haven’t even mentioned the roles played by John Turturro, Alan Tudyk, Ken Jeong, Glenn Morshower, Kevin Dunn, Julie White, etc.). Yet I enjoyed many of the crazy swings it takes. And it’s just cohesive enough to hold our interest until the next big set piece comes along. And in these movies that’s often all some people want.

VERDICT – 3 STARS

At times you’ll swear the simple yet ominously titled “The Tank” is a by-the-numbers garden variety chiller. But writer-director-producer Scott Walker peppers the film with just enough of his own seasoning to make even the familiar enjoyable. And then just when you think you have him and his movie figured out, he flips a switch and takes things in a whole different direction. And it turns out to be a pretty fun direction.

Walker’s obvious love for genre is on full display as he hops all around the horror map. You see the influences of haunted house movies. There are dashes of psychological horror. It even becomes a full-blown creature-feature with a finish full of scenes that play like odes to James Cameron’s “Aliens”. And that’s when it really hits its stride. The last 20 minutes or so is nothing short of classic B-movie joy.

Set in 1978, Ben Adams (Matt Whelan) lives in Oakland, California with his wife Jules (Luciane Buchanan) and their precocious young daughter Reia (Zara Nausbaum). Ben and Jules run a pet shop called “Raining Cats and Dogs” while also attending veterinarian school. One evening at closing time a gentlemanly lawyer with a really bad wig comes into the shop and informs Ben that he has inherited some coastal property in Oregon called Hobbit’s Bay from his late mother. The news comes as a complete surprise to Ben, as his mother never mentioned the land.

It may seem like an odd thing for Ben’s mother to forget, but as the old lawyer says “Some families have secrets. You’d be surprised at what people find out after a loved one dies.” Ben’s family’s secrets come to light once he and his family travel to Hobbit’s Bay. After a long drive their map leads them deep into a beautiful forest, down and old dirt road, and finally to an old grown-up cottage. It looks rundown, but then they see the gorgeous view.

After a night’s sleep they begin cleaning up the place for a potential sell. Inside the cottage they discover a bunch of old photos and newspaper clippings revealing a troubled family history Ben never knew about. Meanwhile outside he comes across a concrete slab with a hatch leading down to an underground water tank. Inside the tank he encounters something more shocking, more terrifying, and more deadly. Many of the answers are hinted at through some clever foreshadowing, but I’ll leave that for you to discover.

As I said, early on “The Tank” can come across as fairly conventional. Also, as with so many movies like this, we witness characters make some truly head-scratching choices – the kind that make you want to yell at the screen. And the early attempts at frights consist mostly of things we’ve all seen many times before – creaking floors, the occasional slamming door, glimpses of something lurking outside the window, etc. These scenes are well executed but pretty much standard-fare.

But then Walker makes his big turn and takes his film to a much different place. I’m intentionally dancing around it, because part of the fun for me came by going in blind. But I will say I love how bonkers it gets. It takes us in some wild directions while at the same time making me better appreciate the buildup. There are some cool effects, some gnarly kills, and a gonzo schlocky vibe that left a big dumb smile on my face (I’m still chuckling at a hilariously bad and out-of-the-blue one-liner during the film’s big finish). Sure, it has its issues. But I love when directors take big swings and tinker with genres. That’s what makes this one a winner.

“The Tank” opens in select theaters on April 21st and on VOD April 25th.

VERDICT – 3 STARS

I remember when I first played Tetris, the simple yet joyously addictive puzzle game created in 1984 by Soviet-born computer engineer Alexey Pajitnov. In 1989 the game came packed with Nintendo’s ambitious Game Boy hand-held game console. I was instantly hooked. Between it and a version released a few months later for Nintendo’s home console, there’s no telling how many hundreds of hours I’ve spent rotating and placing blocks in what would become one of the best selling video games of all-time.

But it’s what went on behind the game that turns out to be the most fascinating, specifically what it took to bring Tetris beyond the volatile Iron Curtain. The new fittingly named film “Tetris” from director Jon S. Baird sets out to tell that story. Noah Pink’s knock-out script drops us into the dull sounding world of licensing and publishing rights. But together with Baird, the two unwrap this remarkable true story that plays like a political, an espionage, and a corporate thriller all wrapped into one.

“Tetris” is a riveting film that’s sure to speak to any long-time fan of the game itself or the video game industry. There’s lots of fun industry lingo. There are some terrific 8-bit pixelated vignettes and title cards. There are some cool nods to early video game development. And there’s some rich history that serves as a window into the time when video games were exploding and on their way to becoming the lucrative entertainment juggernaut they are today.

But “Tetris” is also for anyone who simply loves good storytelling and filmmaking. Pink’s script is full of twists and turns. It’s ripe with corporate collusion, shaky loyalties, even shakier ethics, and shifting allegiances. But it also plays like a windy Cold War spy thriller, tapping into all sorts of late 1980s era political and cultural history. Baird attacks it all with a go-for-broke zest, infusing the film with a playful yet propulsive energy. It all makes for a funny, absorbing, and at times surprisingly thrilling ride.

The mostly real-life characters are portrayed by a fantastic cast led by the wonderfully vibrant Taron Egerton. He plays Henk Rogers and we first meet him at the 1988 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. He’s there to sell his not-so-great video game GO to any interested parties. The problem is, there are no interested parties. Even his own salesgirl has ditched him for another game just a few spaces over. That’s where Henk is introduced to Tetris and he’s instantly smitten by the seemingly simple game of falling tetriminoes.

Seeing dollar signs, Henk uses the money he borrowed from the bank to fund his own failed video game and snatches up the PC and arcade rights for Tetris. But he quickly learns that obtaining licensing and distribution rights for a game made in the crumbling Soviet Union isn’t as easy as writing a check. And as word about the game spreads, Henk finds himself in a ruthless race against two other Western rivals to lockup Tetris, most notably the potentially bankable handheld rights that would allow it to be distributed with Nintendo’s new Game Boy console.

Racing against Henk is businessman Robert Stein, (Toby Jones), the owner of the British company Andromeda Software. Also in the hunt is billionaire media tycoon Robert Maxwell (Roger Allum) and his entitled son Kevin (Anthony Boyle). Before long Henk, Stein, and the younger Maxwell are in communist Moscow courting the game’s creator, Alexey Pajitnov (portrayed by Nikita Efremov), a kindhearted programmer at the Soviet Computer Science Center. But more than him they need the ok of the Soviet government, and that’s no easy ask.

Soon the determined Henk and company are trying to win over a high-ranking government official (Igor Grabuzov), dodging a menacing yet undeniably greedy KGB agent (Oleg Shtedanko), figuring out a mysterious translation specialist (Sofya Lebedeva), and even convincing Mikhail Gorbachev himself (Matthew Marsh). The supporting cast does a great job bringing to life these characters, some with comically massive personalities. But the performances hit their marks, and Baird gives them plenty of scenes to shine.

I do wish more time had been given to Henk’s savvy and reasonably concerned wife Kimmy (a really good Ayana Nagabuchi). And it’s easy to get lost in all the heavy corporate chatter about licensing agreements and distribution rights. Thankfully the snappy pacing doesn’t give us time to dwell on how little it makes sense at times. And it’s so much fun bouncing around between Seattle, London, Tokyo, and Moscow, mostly with Taron Egerton who delivers a career best performance. He proves to be the perfect escort through this incredible blend of history and old-school thriller. In a nutshell, “Tetris” is a blast. “Tetris” premieres March 31st on Apple TV +.

VERDICT – 4 STARS

(CLICK HERE to read my full review in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette)

Who knew the world of big city professional tutoring was so treacherous? Well it certainly is in the lightly gonzo and undeniably entertaining new thriller “The Tutor”. The film comes from director Jordan Ross, working from a screenplay by Ryan King, and stars the inspired trio of Garrett Hedlund, Victoria Justice, and Noah Schnapp.

Hedlund plays Ethan, a highly sought after tutor for the children of the rich and privileged. He works for a firm ran by his boss and friend, Chris (Joseph Castillo-Midyett), that sends its private educators to the homes of one-percenters to teach an assortment of pampered pupils. Ethan has earned a good reputation, mainly due to his ability to connect with the often troubled teens he instructs.

Ethan gets a call from Chris who tells him about a new client who has requested him by name. The family wants to start with a one-week trial basis, during which they’ll pay Ethan $2500 per day. There are a couple of conditions. First, he’ll have to spend the entire week on the premises. Second, they’ll be paying him under the table (now if that isn’t a warning sign). The deal is too sweet to pass up, especially since Ethan and his girlfriend Annie (Justice) are about to have a baby. They need the money so Ethan takes the job.

After being picked by a spit-shined luxury Cadillac, Ethan is driven to a gated country estate with its swanky accommodations, well-manicured gardens, and a garage full of expensive motorcycles. There he meets Jackson (Schnapp), an oddly disconnected teen and the only child of glaringly wealthy parents who are nowhere to be found. His dad is away on business, but Jackson says he’s not allowed to talk about his father’s work. And he’s even more vague about his mother. If things weren’t weird enough, Jackson has no idea what he scored on his SATs. He doesn’t even know what they’re supposed to be studying.

Aside from the family’s stern yet well tailored butler, also staying at the estate is Jackson’s space cadet cousin Gavin (Jonny Weston) and his sex kitten girlfriend Jenny (Kabby Borders). The two add an extra coat of weirdness to a story that gets more twisted with each scene. Jackson’s behavior gets more erratic and he develops “a slightly unhealthy attachment” to Ethan. Soon we’re asking the question, is Jackson a mad genius or is he something far more sinister.

You may be thinking this sounds like just another crazy stalker flick, and you wouldn’t be wrong in doing so. It has all the pieces that help make it feel that way. But to Ross and King’s credit, they kinda bait us into that easy-to-make snap judgement. In reality, their story begins taking on a different shape in the third act, and the big twist(s) swing things in an unexpected new direction. It makes things fun, in a very ‘I didn’t see that coming‘ sort of way. But admittedly things get a little far-fetched and not all the pieces fit as nicely as they should.

Still, I can see “The Tutor” being catnip for fans who enjoy the steady flow of big-twist thrillers that regularly come out today. Both Ross and King seem to know what genre lovers are looking for and they meet those easy-to-define expectations. Really good performances from Hedlund, Schnapp, and Justice help keep the characters interesting and make it easier to overlook some of the material’s more far-out turns. But honestly, it’s those far-out turns that often make movie’s like this fun.

At the same time, you can’t help but pick apart some of the more outrageous aspects of the story. Some pretty obvious questions spring up once you start considering how things take shape. That ultimately holds the movie back and keeps it from being as memorable as it might have been. But for those able to avoid the traps of over-critiquing or even overthinking, “The Tutor” captures much of what people enjoy about these popular popcorn thrillers. “The Tutor” is now showing in select theaters and on VOD.

VERDICT – 3 STARS