Transformers-The Last Knight, Review by Siraj Syed: Michael’s Bay Watch A lot of words related to media get either entirely new meanings or stretch their known meanings to the limit and beyond, once you have watched Michael Bay’s Transformers. It is far too tempting to let the last Knight remain as it is, without getting punny. I saw the film last Night (Wednesday late afternoon, to be precise), and I often felt that last Night was never going to end. It eventually did, and exiti...

13 Hours-The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi, Review: Michael? No Bay! This 144 minute film is a good 44 minutes too long for its own good. It reconfirms the golden rule that true stories are not necessarily film material, unless worked-on real hard by a team of talented individuals, more behind the camera than in front of it. That it is produced and directed by Michael Bay adds to the disappointment. How accurate it is, in terms of recent history, is a matter of debate, both in the USA and in Li...

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Review: Four turtles, One rat, One Shredder, One Fox New York City is under attack by an evil gang, the Foot Clan, so-called because they trample everything.  They have an iron grip on everything, from the police to the politicians. Their leader is Shredder, a Japanese Ninjitsu Sensei (Tohoru Masamune), who raised the evil billionaire, Eric Sachs (William Fichtner), in Japan, and now works with him. When they learn about this, four Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtl...

by Quendrith Johnson, Los Angeles Correspondent   On July 7, Michael Bay dot com congratulated its director with this header: “Michael Bay Milestone.” The text reads, “This past weekend Michael Bay became the second-highest-grossing director of all time. Congratulations Michael.”  The figures are from Box Office Mojo, an industry insider site, that ranked him as having grossed $2,078.2 M USD as a career benchmark, pushed up the ladder by the recent release ...

  By Liza Foreman Michael Bay has signed Irish actor Jack Reynor to star in "Transformers 4," Bay announced on his website www.michaelbay.com on Tuesday. “I just hired a great new actor for Transformers 4 to star against Mark Wahlberg. Jack Reynor, he is an Irish kid that came to America with 30 bucks in his pocket. Pretty ballsy. Seriously who does that? Anyway I spotted him in a great little Irish movie WHAT RICHARD DID. This kid is the ...

Fest21.com hosted the "The Future of Cinema" panel at Cannes 2008 and now we look at the practical side of "The Future of Cinema" at Showest 2009 in Las Vegas.  This was a very different Showest from previous years. Everywhere you looked the emphasis was on Digital Cinema and 3D. The major studios were not as front and center as in previous years. Disney and Sony showed their product reels of upcoming films in theatres. Paramount's trailers showed at their Dinner event spons...

I thought this was a particularly good interview with Michael Bay and since Transformers premiered at the LA Film Festival, I wanted to include this interview in this blog.  Robin Rowe, a Los Angeles screenwriter and facilitator of weekly filmmaker events, asks Bay practical questions that I think a lot of filmmakers will appreciate.  Enjoy!  (Contact information for Robin is at the bottom of this email.) Michael Bay Interview: Transformersby Robin Rowe [More articles] Read Robin's Sci-...

Since Transformers premiered at the LA Film Festival, I am including this review here.  Personally, I love this movie.  I have a short video from the Transformers premiere and block party posted on this site.  Check it out if you haven't seen it!Transformers Review* * * * (Guest review by Robin Rowe, Movie Editor)STARRING: Shia LaBeouf, Megan Fox, Josh Duhamel, Jon Voight, Bernie Mac, Tyrese Gibson, Rachael Taylor, Amaury Nolasco, Kevin Dunn, Ronnie Sperling2007, 144 Minutes, Directed by:...

Remember a time when movies mattered? I don't mean to suggest that we've lost our interest in the cinema.  To be certain, the movie business is booming, heralding record amounts of eager viewers and cold hard cash.  "SpiderMan 3", the latest in the increasingly numbing web-slinging saga, beat down all competition on its opening weekend with a stellar $151 million gross; besting last summer's previous record holder "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest"...