Transformers: The Last Knight (2017)

Finally back to the theatres! It has been a while.

With work taking up a ton of time and then my general lack of desire to write long form reviews, I’ve been shying away from the theatres. However, I promised my friend that I’d go see Transformers: The Last Knight with him so during my week of staycation, we went on Tuesday evening. I really need to go back and review the entire franchise. As of now,  I only have Age of Extinction reviewed here. I’m on record to enjoy this franchise for the most part, although 2 and 3 are slightly blurry and I can’t decide which I liked less. The Last Knight’s trailers looked really fantastic and it had me hyped up to see it again. Honestly, I don’t expect much for these movies. Its very mindless entertainment with explosions and robots and action-packed thrills. If it checks all those boxes, I’ll be pretty happy.

Let’s check it out!

Transformers: The Last Knight (2017)

Director: Michael Bay

Cast: Mark Wahlberg, Anthony Hopkins, Josh Duhamel, Laura Haddock, Isabela Moner, Santiago Cabrera

Autobots and Decepticons are at war, with humans on the sidelines. Optimus Prime is gone. The key to saving our future lies buried in the secrets of the past, in the hidden history of Transformers on Earth. – IMDB

I feel like reviewing Transformers franchise is like talking about the Fast and Furious franchise or Resident Evil franchise, you either are on board or not with the style and tone. However, I’d like to say that Transformers: The Last Knight’s trailer did feel a lot more epic than the previous movies. While others had issues with Age of Extinction, I personally couldn’t hate on it because I had a really fun time at the theatres watching it. You can read the review HERE.

 

Transformers: The Last Knight brings us into a world that is in shambles as Transformers keep dropping in and wreaking havoc. Mark Wahlberg continues his path in this franchise as Cade Yaeger as he takes care of the Autobots still remaining as Optimus Prime is no longer with them. No one really knows whats going on but the Decepticons attacking Earth has broken many families. While the Transformers, regardless of Autobots or Decepticons, have been classified as dangerous and a special unit has been put together to keep them under control. One of the reasons why Cade Yaeger needs to be in hiding with his robotic friends when they have a fourteen year old girl orphaned from one of the attacks , Izabella (played by Isabela Moner) ends up joining them. Before all this starts, the movie starts in an odd fashion as the Transformers are brought into the Knights of the Roundtable and King Arthur and Merlin all get brought into the story as the origins of where the first time Transformers were part of human history. Now how does those events link to the current situation? That is what the movie is focused on. A rather simple and pretty disjointed story that gets made into a three hour movie, however, the characters are pretty fun as they have some of the normal banter exchanges, an expected (yet unexpected) romance and of course, lots of explosions and action-packed moments. Add in the Dinobots from the last movie and some baby dinobots and this movie pretty much made it into my heart.

Perhaps that is what I love about Transformers in general, the cool cars and the whole transforming thing. The action is sometimes a little odd and there was a part where it did kind of feel a little dragged out, which is normal for a three hour movie, however, I do like Mark Wahlberg in this franchise. I actually enjoy his presence quite a bit. It was also great to see Anthony Hopkins also enter here as the Earl of Folger and talk a little more about the back story and how Sam Witwicky from the first three movies got pulled into this as well. A nice link, maybe unnecessary, but I thought it added a little more to the story. We also saw the return of Josh Duhamel in the army.  I do like him as well. There are some extreme suspension of imagination but then, Transformers are something of a fantasy/alien so I guess it could happen. I mean, Cade Yaeger walks in the midair, hopping from drone to drone in one part of the escape, like it was some easy stepping stones on a river or stream or something. It doesn’t get more entertaining to watch than that. However, it is also this stuff that I eat up.  They add in a lovely lady who pretty much gets kidnapped and clueless about the whole Transformers thing called Vivian, played by Laura Haddock.

What is pretty cool is that the scale of the movie has truly grown in this one. As they truly embrace the sea, sky and land aspects of the action and fighting. There are alien planets making appearance and the mastermind deceiver, Quintessa who shows up in space as she pulls some tricks to put Optimus Prime under her spell. That part doesn’t get fleshed out as much as it should, however, I don’t know how much more all the ideas they have can get fleshed out because the movie is already over three hours and that is incredibly lengthy. On that note, I love the Transformers design and the cars they get to morph into and stuff. Its really fantastic. I was totally on board with Dinobots and then I loved the baby dinobots but man, a dragon – bot or whatever you call it. That is incredibly epic.

Overall, Transformers: The Last Knight won’t be hard to follow if you just hopped in right now because the story is pretty thin. You just really need a very basic knowledge. But then, I’d like to know if anyone would just jump in to watch this one. This one has a pretty thin storyline as well however, it does try to give it more of a backstory so that we get why the world has been plagued with the Transformers dropping in on them non-stop. The story may be a little disjointed and nothing really gets the attention it needs as we flip from the army to Cade Yaeger to Vivian to Anthony Hopkins to Megatron and Quintessa. There isn’t really a moment to digest everything and piece it together. However, something about The Last Knight grabbing a piece of history and putting it together with the Transformers and why this is all happening along with the new and old Autobots and Dinobots and dragonbots all are so fun to watch. The action sequences are thrilling and entertaining and the characters and their banters are also a lot of fun. Sure, its not going to win any awards but this was a fun, mindless fun at the theatres. To be honest, if I had to compare this one and Age of Extinction, I actually think this one did was better than the last one.

 

As a closing note, if movie makers do read this (and I doubt it), could you please stop making long movies that end with water or underwater scenes? Just please. I try to ration my hydration levels but man, it gets tough after 2.5 hours to control my desire to go to the washroom when there is some long drippy underwater scene. I keep thinking that a ton of long movies do that, and I just wanted to add it in while I remembered to. Just a random thought.

Have you seen Transformers: The Last Knight? What do you think of the Transformers franchise?

Valentine’s Marathon: Safe Haven (2013)

Happy Valentine’s Day, my friends! I hope that you’ve found some plans to share with your loved ones whether it be spouses, partners, boyfriend/girlfriend or even best friends.  Its really about celebrating love, right? Hey, I have a date with my oven and baking supplies and my TV and stack of rom-coms.  Oh, wait, you meant a living thing? My little cat is my date tonight 🙂

From the beginning of February till now, I’ve spent two weeks watching a few others but mostly focused on the Nicholas Sparks marathon.  We’ve finally reached the last one and his most recent adaptation from his novel, Safe Haven.  I read one review back then that revealed the twist so I already know that going in.  Either way, I didn’t even remember much of the plot and I never read the book.  Honestly, I was near finishing the last season of Gossip Girl and I almost didn’t even watch this, but I did because I like to wrap things up nicely 🙂 Lets check it out, shall we?

Director: Lasse Hallstrom

Cast: Josh Duhamel, Julianne Hough, Cobie Smulders, David Lyons, Noah Lomax, Mimi Kirkland

Katie (Julianne Hough) runs away from her home in panic, jumps on a bus evading the police and ends up in South Port.  There she meets the widowed father, Alex (Josh Duhamel) who runs a gas station/corner store.  She watches as he tries his best to keep his family moving forward while trying to move on from losing his precious wife to cancer. After Katie settles in at the local restaurant and slowly adapts to this new secluded and slower lifestyle, she also starts getting closer to Alex and his family.  At the same time, she builds a relationship with another nearby neighbor Jo (Cobie Smulders) who helps her sort out her feelings.  But when her past starts chasing after her, she is threatened to leave South Port and the people that she has learned to love and appreciate and she also may lose the only safe place that she has finally found.

I went into this marathon somewhat dreading it and honestly, other than a few road bumps in the middle, I’m glad that I found and bought Safe Haven. I mean, I knew the twist and maybe you know it, heard of it or just don’t care or you’d like to find out so I kept that hidden.  Its somewhat silly in a way but then would it be such a bad idea if that actually happened? I don’t think so.  I’d like to think that I could do that also if it ever happened.  Safe Haven may be pretty much hated by a lot of people and if its anything I’ve learned from this marathon, a lot of people are just not fans.  It suffers from being formulaic and attempts to manipulate our emotions but I mean, isn’t that what romance movies usually do? Anyways, I’ve accepted it.  As long as its within reasonable tolerable levels for me, I can deal with it. With that said, Safe Haven really does give a solid love story.  Maybe one of the few where I bought a lot of it.  Sure, there’s things that don’t make sense here and there but its a romance, ok? Love doesn’t have to make sense.

We are grow from pain and we move forward and we have to have the courage the better and the good that happens to us. Sure, it doesn’t evolve at the pace of Nicholas Sparks novels but sometimes, maybe it does. I’m not a love expert.  Either way, point being these two characters here Alex and Katie are played by Josh Duhamel and Julianne Hough respectively.  I don’t know much of what they did and they’ve never impressed me much, so I didn’t really care much but I think I just fell a little more in love with Josh Duhamel after this movie.  Plus, I take back all the chemistry comments about the previous movies in the Sparks marathon (except A Walk to Remember) because these two are awesome.  I think its because of the chemistry and more slowly developed relationship due to the kids involvement, it turns into some sweet.  Its two people trying to move forward slowly from their pain and trust and love each other. I guess it resounds to me because feeling safe is really an issue for me and when I found it, its quite inexplicable and thats how I felt about that here.

What I really liked about this is that one also is that its not just a love story and then a little climax with whatever was going on, a death or a loss or whatnot, this time there’s a physical shift to the cop chasing down Katie and how he inches closer and flashbacks of why she had to leave.  It reveals who she truly is, whether she’s good or bad. It adds a bit more of a complex situation and because the cop (played by David Lyons and shown up there)  turns out to be more and he’s expands on the set of problems already, it adds a bit of intensity.  Its a nice up in pace after watching the previous ones.  The feeling is a tad different as well and honestly, as a movie, its more well-rounded than I’d have imagined.

Overall, I enjoyed this one.  Julianne Hough does good and Josh Duhamel is charming as hell.  I just actually realized it.  They have really good chemistry which makes a good part of a romance.  The supporting characters add positively to the script.  The twist might turn some off but I felt like it was a nice idea.  The movie itself gave me a feeling of freedom and the comfort of finding safety and feeling secure.  All this had some pretty lighthearted music when they were in South Port.  Honestly, it had a feel good factor and hints of intensity and changed the pace from an expected Nicholas Sparks adaptation.  I was happy with it overall.

I’m sure there’s some epic Oscar nominated or winner romance that will beat this and you know before you walk into this one, its not going to be one of those so you just need to go in with an open heart and enjoy what it offers if you’re into romance of course.  I’m saying right now, Nicholas Sparks is really meant for those full-on romantic at heart (which I am because I like corny and mushy romance-y things).  If you know you’re more the realistic lover, well, this is not your thing.

What did you think of Safe Haven? What are your thoughts on Josh Duhamel and Julianne Hough? Are there movies of theirs that you like? 

I’m a bit behind schedule with today’s posts but I promise another post this evening.  I do want to get a special post out but I’m having some technical difficulties and can only deal with it after work so I’m looking for an alternative right now 🙂

My 10 Favorite Romantic Comedies! (Happy Valentine’s Day)

I’d like to start off by wishing everyone a Happy Valentine’s Day! If you’ve already celebrated that you had a really awesome one!

People who know me would consider me a romantic, but the most girly interest I may have is watching romantic comedies.  I love watching them all the time.  This list is made up of 10 of my favorite romantic comedies.  My boyfriend pitched in two that he really enjoyed (which are also my favorites). At the end I’ll put down  which ones he would sit down and watch with me willingly.

I usually enjoy doing movie marathons for certain events in the year.  This year I didn’t do a Valentine’s Movie Marathon because I’m doing one of my whole movie collection but if I were to have one, here’s what it’d look like!

(Please note that these are not in any particular order)

LETTERS TO JULIET

 

Not only is the story very cute, its also about all the things we’d like to have.  Some crazy romance goose chase looking for a long lost love while a younger love is developing.   Along with that, its paired up with a lot of happy love songs from Colbie Caillat in the background.  Every time I finish watching this movie, I just feel absolutely fantastic.

 

 

THE PROPOSAL

 

 

Ryan Reynolds and Sandra Bullock is really a combination that cannot be a disaster.  I’m a huge Sandra Bullock fan and this movie was so hilarious.

 

 

VALENTINE’S DAY

 

I don’t think this one needs a whole lot of explanation.  Valentine’s Day to watch on Valentine’s Day seems to be reasonable.  Aside from that point, this movie was pretty  lighthearted.  I particularly loved Anne Hathaway’s character as she brought this crazy humorous take to her story.  In general, this movie was extremely fun to watch.

 

 

P.S. I LOVE YOU

 

I’m still a bit confused as to whether this can be considered a romantic comedy but then I did find the movie rather funny.  For sure, the beginning wasn’t as funny.  We all know losing a loved one is not funny but then the way she had to do everything she was told to pick herself up was a very sweet on the part of her husband.  The point of romantic comedies is to live through a situation that you’d hope could happen to you.  In this case, it wouldn’t be being widowed relatively young, but to be able to have someone who would have thought through so much because of his love, that he’d want you to move on and be happy after he had passed on.

 

27 DRESSES

 

This is possibly Katherine Heigl’s best romantic comedy.  She’s done multiple after but this one was pretty good.  I’ve personally watched many times and I still always like to watch it.

 

 

 

CLUELESS

 

The modern day Emma movie adaptation.  I first saw this movie in one of my English classes called Movies and Cinema and we were reading the book Emma.  I was never a fan of romantic comedies nor Alicia Silverstone but this movie was hilarious.  Maybe its because it had an amusing take of the story and of growing up and finding true love.  It was a very funny and uplifting movie to watch.

 

 

LIFE AS WE KNOW IT

 

This is one of my most recent romantic comedy additions.  Another Katherine Heigl movie with Josh Duhamel.  I found this movie quite entertaining.  Getting thrown responsiblities before they were ready and dealing with it step by step.  About how people can grow up and change to adapt to sudden situations in life, I think its a very encouraging movie for anyone.

 

 

MY LIFE IN RUINS

 

I had a debate over this one or My Big Fat Greek Wedding but this one won.  I liked this movie because the actor was just crazy.  You had never imagined what the guy was like through the whole movie, then unexpectedly she falls for him.  Turns out the guy that looked horrible in the beginning  becomes this charming man.  It shows us how love is unexpected and comes when we least expect it to.

 

 

Finally, my guy’s pick (because we all know despite loving watching romantic comedies with the girls or watching all the action movie with the boyfriend, its important to have him willingly sit next to you and enjoy a nice romantic comedy once in a while).

JUST GO WITH IT

 

This is another new addition to my movie collection and I watched it recently with my boyfriend and he totally loved it.  Adam Sandler usually makes pretty decent comedies.  Although, that is more the case in his older ones such as Spanglish (I’m not completely sure if there were other romantic comedies though).  I don’t really know how to describe this movie without sounding repetitive but this movie was downright hilarious.  The whole cast was fantastic and the dialogue was just absolutely great.  It was definitely fun to watch. We all need a good laugh.

 

HOW TO LOSE A GUY IN 10 DAYS

 

Kate Hudson and Matthew McConnaughey had crazy connection in this movie.  This movie really was a great trip.  How much can a guy take before you reach his breaking point in a relationship?  Although I’m not sure any girl would go to that extreme because if they did, they would be pretty scary stuff.

 

 

So my Valentine’s marathon had started in January when I did end up watching most in these movies before today (Valentine’s Day)! Okay, its a bit late!  its technically not Valentine’s day anymore, but what better to match the season than to give fantastic choices of rom-coms.

I’m always up for more romantic comedies suggestions as they are one of the best solutions to relieve stress in my life.  Seeing my list, how many of you would agree with my choices? What are yours?