When I ran my most recent Film Nerd 2.0, several of you e-mailed me to point out what seemed to be a glaring contradiction in things I'd published here.
“Why were you complaining about your kids watching the 'Transformers' movies? Don't you like those movies?”
It is safe to call my relationship to the movies complicated. I am not sure I would say I enjoy the third and the fourth films, but I am endlessly fascinated by them. The scale on which Michael Bay is working is so preposterous that it's easy to get numbed by it when you're watching the actual movies. As “Transformers: Age Of Extinction” prepares to hit home video, we've got a clip from some of the behind-the-scenes extras that serves as a reminder of just how much actual physical labor goes into creating those outsized images.
People tend to dismiss these movies based on all of the digital effects included in each one (among other reasons), but more of what is happening onscreen is practical than I sometimes remember. I am particularly impressed in this short one-minute clip by just how many cars they manage to drop from the sky. I'd like to think that's one guy's specialty, and right now, he is somewhere napping until Michael Bay needs him to launch a bus through the air again.
No matter what rating the movie actually carries, Bay's films all have an R-rated sheen to them. He can't help it. It's simply the prism through which he views things. Just the fact that it perpetually looks like everyone on his set is moments away from dying for real is enough to push them over the top.
By now, I suspect you know whether or not you're buying “Transformers: Age Of Extinction” on Blu-ray or DVD. Either way, starting your day with stuff blowing up is always a good choice. And because it's Bay, rest assured, the home-video release is a beast. Gigantic. Epic. This is a one-minute clip. There are over three hours of special features on the disc, which arrives in stores on September 30th.