Michael Bay lends his name and awful sensibilities to Project Almanac, a flat and drawn-out high school drama with added time travel. Science student Jonny (David Raskin) discovers blue prints for a time travel machine, which he builds and takes advantage of with his friends. But when things turn sour, David must try to fix the route of the problem himself, risking his and his friends’ lives in the process. Continue reading “Review: Project Almanac (2015)”
An up-to-date reworking of the titular heroes in a half-shell, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is derivative and irksome in equal measures – unsurprising considering Michael Bay’s involvement as producer. In her hunt for a big story, plucky reporter April O’Neil (Megan Fox) stumbles upon four crime-fighting mutated turtles – Leonardo (Johnny Knoxville), Raphael (Alan Ritchson), Michelangelo (Noel Fisher) and Donatello (Jeremy Howard) – who are out to stop the evil Foot Clan in their tracks. Continue reading “Review: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2014)”
Leaving the ludicrously successful world of sentient robotic beings destroying the world bit-by-bit (otherwise known as Transformers), director Michael Bay lends his hand to dark satire Pain & Gain, the bizarrely true story of a mid-90s plot that saw three bodybuilders extort and blackmail their way to success. It’s regrettable, then, that what is, at times, a well performed and deliciously dark deconstruction of the American Dream, quickly becomes a distasteful and hard-featured botch job thanks to Bay’s inability to be anything but over-the-top and overambitious. Continue reading “Review: Pain & Gain (2013)”
Empty Screens 