THE BIGGEST TRANSFORMERS MOVIE YET ARRIVES IN AN ULTIMATE
BLU-RAY 3D™, BLU-RAY™ AND DVD COMBO PACK ON JANUARY 31, 2012 WITH NEARLY FOUR HOURS OF EXPLOSIVE BONUS FEATURES

TRANSFORMERS: DARK OF THE MOON

7-Disc Limited Collector’s Edition Blu-ray of All Three Films Also Blasts Off for a Limited Time in a Spectacular Deluxe Package Including a
Plaque of Movie Images Signed by Michael Bay

And, for a limited time, all three eye-popping films in the Transformers franchise will be available in a 7-Disc Limited Collector’s Edition Blu-ray Trilogy featuring each film in high definition, Transformers: Dark of the Moon in high definition 3D, more than 10 hours of special features and a plaque of movie images signed by Bay.

The ongoing epic story of the mighty AUTOBOTS continues in Transformers: Dark of the Moon and the four-disc Blu-ray 3D, Blu-ray and DVD combo pack takes fans behind-the-scenes, across the U.S. and into the far reaches of space for a fully immersive entertainment experience.  The set includes a nearly two-hour documentary about the making of the film, which follows the cast and crew around the world, reveals the secrets behind the breathtaking stunts, including more footage of the amazing “birdmen,” and documents the film’s progress all the way through its triumphant release. Plus, additional features show how Chicago was transformed into the movie’s biggest action set, offer a look inside NASA, unveil artists’ renderings of the AUTOBOTS and DECEPTICONS and much, much more. The combo pack will also be enabled with UltraViolet, a new way to collect, access and enjoy movies.  With UltraViolet, consumers can add movies to their digital collection in the cloud, and then stream or download them – safely and securely – to a variety of devices.

Four-Disc Ultimate Edition Blu-ray 3D, Blu-ray & DVD

The Transformers: Dark of the Moon Blu-ray 3D and Blu-ray are presented in 1080p high definition with English 7.1 Dolby TrueHD, English 5.1 Discrete Dolby Digital, English 2.0 Discrete Surround Dolby Digital, French 5.1 Dolby Digital, Spanish 5.1 Dolby Digital, Portuguese 5.1 Dolby Digital and English Audio Description and English, English SDH, French, Spanish and Portuguese subtitles.  The English 5.1 and English 2.0 tracks were each individually mastered to ensure optimal sound for the home entertainment experience.

The DVD is presented in widescreen enhanced for 16:9 televisions with Dolby Digital English 5.1 Surround, English 2.0 Discrete Surround, French 5.1 Surround, Spanish 5.1 Surround and English Audio Description and English, French, Spanish and Portuguese subtitles.

The disc breakdown is as follows:

Disc 1 (Blu-ray):

·         Feature film in high definition

Disc 2 (Blu-ray):

·         Above and Beyond: Exploring Dark of the Moon

o   Rising from the Fallen: Development and Design

o   Ready for Prime Time: Filming Across America

o   Battle in the Heartland: Shooting in Chicago

o   Attack of the Birdmen: Aerial Stunts

o   Shadow of the Sentinel: Post-Production and Release

·         Uncharted Territory: NASA’s Future Then and Now

·         Deconstructing Chicago: Multi-Angle Sequences

o   Previsualizations with optional commentary by director Michael Bay and previsualization supervisor Steve Yamamoto

o   Previsualizations/Final Shot Comparison with optional commentary by director Michael Bay and previsualization supervisor Steve Yamamoto

o   Visual Effects with optional commentary by visual effects supervisors Scott Farrar and Matthew Butler

o   Visual Effects/Final Shot Comparison with optional commentary by visual effects supervisors Scott Farrar and Matthew Butler

·         The Art of CYBERTRON

o   AUTOBOTS

o   DECEPTICONS

o   Environments

o   Weapons and Gear

o   Ships

·         The Dark of the Moon Archive

o   3D: A Transforming Visual Art

o   Moscow World Premiere

o   Birdmen Featurette

o   Cody’s iPad

o   The Sound of Transformers: Dark of the Moon

·         The Matrix of Marketing

o   Trailers

o   Marketing Gallery

Disc 3 (Blu-ray 3D):

·         Feature film in high definition 3D

Disc 4 (DVD):

·         Feature film in standard definition

·         Digital Copy—Compatible with iTunes® and Windows Media

7-Disc Limited Collector’s Edition Blu-ray Trilogy

The 7-Disc Limited Collector’s Edition Blu-ray Trilogy includes all three films in high definition, Transformers: Dark of the Moon in high definition 3D, more than 10 hours of bonus material, as well as a plaque of movie images signed by director Michael Bay.  Disc specifications are as follows:

·         Two-disc Special Edition Blu-ray of Transformers presented in 1080p high definition with English 5.1 Dolby TrueHD, French 5.1 Dolby Digital and Spanish 5.1 Dolby Digital and English, English SDH, French, Spanish and Portuguese subtitles.

·         Two-disc Special Edition Blu-ray of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen presented in 1080p high definition with English 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio, French 5.1 Dolby Digital and Spanish 5.1 Dolby Digital and English, English SDH, French, Spanish and Portuguese subtitles.

·         Three-disc Combo Blu-ray 3D/Blu-ray of Transformers: Dark of the Moon presented in 1080p high definition with English 7.1 Dolby TrueHD, English 5.1 Discrete Dolby Digital, English 2.0 Discrete Surround Dolby Digital, French 5.1 Dolby Digital, Spanish 5.1 Dolby Digital, Portuguese 5.1 Dolby Digital and English Audio Description and English, English SDH, French, Spanish and Portuguese subtitles.

Synopsis

A mysterious event from Earth’s past threatens to ignite a war so big that the TRANSFORMERS alone will not be able to save the planet. Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf) and the AUTOBOTS must fight against the darkness to defend our world from the DECEPTICONS’ all-consuming evil in the smash hit from director Michael Bay and executive producer Steven Spielberg.

TRANSFORMERS: Dark of the Moon

Street date:                January 31, 2012

Runtime:                     154 minutes

SRP:                            $39.99 (Ultimate Edition Blu-ray 3D, Blu-ray & DVD combo pack)

$99.99 (7-Disc Limited Collector’s Edition Blu-ray Trilogy)

U.S. Rating:                PG-13 for intense prolonged sequences of sci-fi action violence, mayhem and destruction, and for language, some sexuality and innuendo

Canadian Rating:       PG for violence and coarse language

Order Transformers: Dark of the Moon ULTIMATE EDITION on Blu-ray!

Film

Transformers: Dark of the Moon is the third film directed by Michael Bay that features giant killer robots trying to destroy the Earth while trying to enslave mankind.  In this chapter of the trilogy, NASA has kept secret  the fact that we made first contact with an alien ship during that fateful walk on the move back in the 60′s.  What did we find?  It looks like a ship escaped the Cybertronian war and somehow crashed on the moon many years before we set foot on it.  The astronauts that later landed on the moon saw it as a tomb of sorts.  A technological tomb, if you will.  Mum would be the word almost forty years later.

Back in the present, Sam Whitwiki (Shia LaBeouf) is now on the hunt for a job, you know, after saving the world TWICE, he needs to get paid!  Oh boy.  Throw in his ridiculously hot and rich girlfriend Carlie (Rose Huntington-Whiteley) into the mix and you’ve got the trappings of the NOT IN THIS LIFE scenario.  To my surprise, though, Rose Huntington-Whiteley is an okay actress (as far as debuting actresses go) and miles better than Megan Fox ever was.  It might be the posh accent.  I fancy posh British accents.  Oy!

By the way, if you think that I am going to get into the meat and potatoes of the story then you are wrong.  Why would I?  Transformers: Dark of the Moon really has no story.  It’s a bloated 2 hour and 45 minute romp of atrocious dialogue and things that go boom real loud.  You’ve got distinguished actors and actresses who certainly needed the money, making appearances.   Funny enough, John Malkovich is the least annoying one of the bunch.  What Frances McDormand was thinking, I have no idea.  I think Ken Jeong’s fifteen minutes of fame ended like two years ago.  What is he still doing in films?  AWFUL.  Patrick Dempsey makes an appearance, if only to be involved in a major cliched plot contrivance.  John Turturro is back, and luckily is not that much of an embarrassment like he was in the previous two films.  Josh Duhamel and Tyrese Gibson round out the rest of the grunts.

As I said in the previous paragraphs, do not think about the story, because it will drive you mad if you do.  Logic is obviously thrown out the window and so is everything else.  Yeah, yeah, I can already hear the tired cliche of “well, what else did you expect?”  Uh, how about a film that was actually good?  Why is it so hard to make a science fiction extravaganza of a film that has a good story to go along with it?  You know which flick had awesome special effects and a great story?  Distrcict 9. Why can’t the filmmakers of a 250 million film not invest in the script?  The script is the cheapest thing to invest in and I’m sure it costs even less than the catering, so there is no excuse.  It’s as if Transformers: Dark of the Moon relishes being this bad.  Other things that hinder the production are these shots that start out already in motion that go from left to right and right to left, or they zoom in.  Literally, every shot always starts out moving from left to right and zooming in.  Oh, and they only last seconds at a time.

The first hour and a half is very brutal to get through and just when you get to that final 45 minute threshold it gets slightly less boring.  We’re introduced to a new Decepticon named Shockwave who’s only purpose in the entire film is to stand there and look cool.  That’s it.  Also contained within the last 45 minutes of the overlong running time are these giant mechanical worms that slowly devour sections of Chicago.   Chicago should not take that long to devour when you’re a gigantic robot worm!  I did like the homage to War of the Worlds, though.  The composition was really nice.  That’s pretty much the one and only compliment Transformers: Dark of the Moon will be getting from me.  Also, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley is hot.  Okay, that’s two.

Video 

Transformers: Dark of the Moon is presented in 1080p, 2.40:1, widescreen.  Yep, there’s no doubt about it,  Transformers: Dark of the Moon is a demo Blu-ray in the video department.  Flesh tones, when not bathed in sunlight or debris, look natural and healthy.  Lots of archival film footage was used and integrated with the actual film, that the same look was used to capture the antiquated early 60′s look in certain scenes.  Transformers: Dark of the Moon had an awesome layer of grain  that was present throughout most of the film.  DNR on this Blu-ray is virtually non-existent.  It was surprising to see that the filmmakers decided not to scrub this flick into oblivion.  Some people are under the impression that all Blu-rays have to look like a PIXAR film.  Boy, if they only knew.  Black levels are consistent, never crush, and remain inky all the way through.  The Blu-ray is ultra sharp, and contrast rarely runs hot with the exception of certain daytime sequences, but I’m sure that that was the intended look.  For all of its extreme faults, in terms of film quality, the video specs reign supreme.  

Audio 

Transformers: Dark of the Moon is presented in Dolby TrueHD 7.1.  Again, demo specs in the audio department, as well.  You will be able to hear every cringe worthy line spoken with absolutely no problem.  The robots are also easily audible.  The destruction and action take front, back, center, and whatever other stage I forgot to mention.  Explosions are deep and powerful, and the LFE is actually super clear and free of distortion.  The major thing that I noticed, with regards to the bass and LFE, was that it sounded much more rounded and it didn’t overwhelm.  I remember that the first two flicks had some extremely overpowering bass.  Dark of the Moon did not.  Gunfire, laser fire and all sorts of projectile weapons are clearly defined in the surround channels, as well.  Duck and take cover, because you will get your head taken clear off.  It’s safe to say that audiophiles will be very happy with the audio presentation of Transformers: Dark of the Moon.

Special Features  

Move along.

Final Thoughts 

Less incoherent than the last film, but equally awful, Transformers: Dark of the Moon comes to the Blu-ray format in a demo-worthy bare-bones release.  The supplements included are a dvd and digital copy.  Digital copies and a dvd are NOT special features, in my opinion.  If you want to test out the waters before the giant deluxe version hits stores in the coming months (November is rumored) then this would be the way to do it.  Transformers: Dark of the Moon is an awful film, but you already knew that, so take that as you will.

Order Transformers: Dark of the Moon on Blu-ray!

FROM DIRECTOR MICHAEL BAY AND EXECUTIVE PRODUCER STEVEN SPIELBERG, PARAMOUNT PICTURES’ $1 BILLION GLOBAL HIT BLASTS OFF
ON BLU-RAY AND DVD

“The Best Action Movie Ever”* Prepares for Launch on
TRANSFORMERS FRIDAY, September 30

“For fans who can’t wait, the Blu-ray release in September will deliver an awesome ride with the movie in stunning 1080p high definition and a 7.1 Dolby TrueHD soundtrack that was personally overseen by our phenomenal supervising sound mixer just for the Blu-ray,” said director Michael Bay.  “As you know, we put a lot of effort into the 3D experience for the theatrical release and I want to make sure we get it right for home viewing—and that process takes time.  So stay tuned for an even more incredible release that will include the film on Blu-ray 3D and loads of bonus features.”

From director Michael Bay and executive producer Steven Spielberg, in association with Hasbro, Transformers: Dark of the Moon explodes with high-octane action when a mysterious event from Earth’s past erupts into the present day threatening to bring a war to Earth so big that the TRANSFORMERS alone will not be able to save us.  Stars Shia LaBeouf (Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull), Josh Duhamel (Life As We Know It), Tyrese Gibson (Four Brothers) and John Turturro (The Good Shepherd) have returned along with a host of new stars including Patrick Dempsey (“Grey’s Anatomy”), Frances McDormand (Fargo) and John Malkovich (Beowulf).  The film also features the voices of Leonard Nimoy (“Star Trek”) and Hugo Weaving (Captain America: The First Avenger) and introduces newcomer Rosie Huntington-Whiteley.

Disc Specifications

The Transformers: Dark of the Moon Blu-ray is presented in 1080p high definition with English 7.1 Dolby TrueHD and—in a first for Paramount Home Entertainment—English 5.1 Discrete Dolby Digital and English 2.0 Discrete Surround Dolby Digital tracks, each of which was individually mastered to ensure optimal sound for the home entertainment experience.  The disc additionally features French 5.1 Dolby Digital, Spanish 5.1 Dolby Digital, Portuguese 5.1 Dolby Digital and English Audio Description with English, English SDH, French, Spanish and Portuguese subtitles.

The DVD in the Combo pack is presented in widescreen enhanced for 16:9 televisions with Dolby Digital English 5.1 Surround, English 2.0 Discrete Surround, French 5.1 Surround, Spanish 5.1 Surround and English Audio Description and English, French, Spanish and Portuguese subtitles.  The digital copy is presented in English 2.0 Stereo with no subtitles.

The single-disc DVD is presented in widescreen enhanced for 16:9 televisions with Dolby Digital English 5.1 Surround, English 2.0 Discrete Surround, French 5.1 Surround, Spanish 5.1 Surround and English Audio Description and English, French, Spanish and Portuguese subtitles.

Synopsis

A mysterious event from Earth’s past threatens to ignite a war so big that the TRANSFORMERS™ alone will not be able to save the planet. Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf) and the AUTOBOTS™ must fight against the darkness to defend our world from the DECEPTICONS’™ all-consuming evil in the smash hit from director Michael Bay and executive producer Steven Spielberg.

Order Transformers 3: Dark of the Moon on Blu-ray!

Optimus Prime: Everything humans know of our planet we were told had been shared. You lied to us.

In the previous two films, we learned that the Hoover Dam was a cover up for a sacred alien artifact that found its way to earth and that the pyramids in Egypt actually contained a weapon that could destroy the sun.  This third film now informs us that the moon holds another Transformer-related secret.  A Cybertronian ship known as, “The Ark,” crash landed on the moon during the 1960s, and contains technology that could actually save the Transformers’ home world.  Simply knowing that a foreign object crash-landed on the moon, this was actually the real reason behind the U.S. Space Race.

Cut to present time, we find world savior (two times over) Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf) now living with a new girlfriend, Carly (Rosie Huntington-Whiteley), and trying hard to find a job, having now graduated from college.  He has frustration over not receiving more responsibility due to his accomplishments, but must deal with it anyway.  All of Sam’s robot pals, the Autobots, continue to work in secret, finding evil Decepticons around the globe to destroy.  Leading the Autobots is Optimus Prime (voiced by Peter Cullen), who manages to come across a piece of The Ark during a mission.  Now aware of its existence, an Autobot team manages to find the lost Ark on the dark side of the moon, which has held a Transformer known as Sentinel Prime (voiced by Leonard Nimoy) in hibernation.

The human forces in charge of the Transformers, including Secretary of Defense Charlotte Mearing (Frances McDormand), learn more about what was on The Ark and soon find that they are facing invasion and total takeover by Decepticons, with far worse plans in mind for earth’s future.  It will be up to Sam, Special Team leaders Lennox (Josh Duhamel) and Epps (Tyrese Gibson), former Agent Simmons (John Turturro) among other humans, and the few remaining Autobots to stop them.  It should also be noted that there is more than meets the eye for some humans, who have made diabolical deals of their own.

Simmons: Years from now, they are gonna ask us: where were you when they took over the planet?

There seems to be a lot of urge from those who do not point their nose up in the air at these movies and simply want to go and have fun to say that you should accept this movie for what it is and revel in the awesome showcasing of its action and special effects.  I would love to praise this movie for just that reason and for the most part I did have a lot of fun watching it (this is a positive review, overall); however, the fact is that in matching up this movie to others like it, it’s not so much great as it is loaded with so many different ideas, action, effects, and other crazy sequences that it seems to just hope that you find something that sticks well enough to appreciate the film as a whole.  I will speak of what this film does manage to do right, but there is still a lot of stuff that the film gets wrong or tries too hard at.

This film’s story is inconsequential, yet there is nearly two hours of setup that lead to the final, non-stop action set pieces.  Still, it was not enough to have us simply arrive at an alien invasion, with humans and Autobots fighting back, we needed to move along through all of the government secrecy stuff, mixed with Sam’s plight to make a name for himself in the real world.  While the recent (and equally silly) Battle: Los Angeles managed to simply throw everyone straight into a warzone against aliens, Transformers spends so much time trying to construct a story that we are supposed to be invested in, but honestly, I did not really care.

Every time we came back to dealing with human drama I just did not care.  This would most likely be due to how little was scripted to have us invested in these characters.  LaBeouf’s role as Sam has always served as the human anchor for this series, but this time around I really became burnt out on his character.  I can appreciate some of what he brang when dealing with certain intense situations, but he bordered on irritating a lot this time around.  In addition, having ties to other characters, simply because they have been a part of the franchise is nice as well, but there really wasn’t much to any of these people.  Among the new additions to the cast, I am not sure what McDormand and John Malcovich were doing here, but they at least seemed to be having fun.  As far as Megan Fox’s replacement goes, I actually did not find her to be irritating in any real way, as far as acting in her first movie goes.  Michael Bay manages to frame Whiteley in some pretty hilarious ways, including having her stare in front of explosions, in slow motion, but she worked well in the role of an interchangeable, female love interest.

I think the most noticeable flaw, which has been present in every film, is how hard it tries to be funny, while reaching in many other directions as well.  This is a movie adapted from a toy franchise and has every right to be humorous, but man does Transformers try hard to make you laugh.  Having zany characters like Turturro, Malcovich, not to mention Alan Tudyk and Ken Jeong do wacky things along with Autobots who have accents aplenty, continues to burden this film with a lot of awkward rhythms.  On top of that, the tone always seems like it is shifting back and forth between war film, alien film, over-the-top Bay film, all-age adventure, and then raunchy comedy.  It does seem like writer Ehren Kruger and Bay’s tendencies once again outweighed Spielberg’s role as a producer.

Optimus Prime: Today we take the battle to them!

Now, as far as the positive aspects go, I did say early on that this film is pure spectacle, which definitely does compliment what this film has to offer.  While some action is interspersed during the bloated first two acts, this film does have a spectacular final 45 minutes, which is non-stop intensity, as we watch giant freaking robots battle each other, with a small human contingent involved as well.  Everything about this aspect of the film (y’know, the reason people have come to see it) has been incredibly well realized and is glorious to behold.  The chief reasons the action works well and better than most other Michael Bay action films is due to the fact that special effects are amazing, there is some well handled choreography, and finally, because of the 3D.  I will now address these three aspects, as the film would not have me recommend it without them.

Starting with the 3D, I do not believe this film is better because I was able to witness it in three dimensions; however, I do think that shooting in this format has essentially put a shock collar around Bay as a director.  Because Michael Bay has a tendency to cut at a rapid pace, which has led to dizzying complexity when it comes to watching his action scenes, using 3D cameras was a great way to rein him in.  Because those cameras are heavy and complex, audiences now get a chance to see wonderfully long shots of action, as we sweep through various set pieces.  This enables audiences to have a chance to be astonished by the level of detail found in this film’s fantastic special effects.  Fortunately, along with proving to be comprehensible, this is also the best live-action 3D experience since Avatar.  Each scene has great depth, colors are bright and vivid, and the film has a lot of fun using this format to its advantage, without going over-the-top and throwing things at you.

The special effects in this film do their job of selling me on the fact that robots exist.  Having previously revisited the first two films, I can say that the first did a great job of grounding these robots in some kind of reality; giving them weight and having them effect the world they were a part of.  The second film drops the ball on this aspect quite a bit.  Dark of the Moon brings back that sense of weight that Transformers should be carrying.  Seeing the robots physically have an impact on buildings, the ground, the characters, etc. all goes a long way to keep me invested in the film’s basic premise.  It also doesn’t hurt that this film provides a massive sense of scale to the destruction of Chicago, which literally has robots knocking over skyscrapers.

Finally, the action sequences themselves are all well handled.  There are some key sequences; two that comes to mind are ones that feature soldiers jumping out of planes, wearing glider suits that have them actually flying between (and through) Chicago skyscrapers.  Knowing that there actually were base jumpers with 3D cameras strapped to their heads doing this just makes it better.  Then you have fight scenes that involve Optimus Prime tearing through Decepticons in downtown Chicago.  It is a credit to everyone involved that I could legitimately care for how well this talking truck could do during that time.  I still think there is a weakness that surrounds the fact that these scenes are only incredibly well done on an individual level, but not in a way that seems create a sensible arc for these action sequences.  You could mix around some of these action beats and still have the characters reach the same conclusion.  Regardless, as far as massive, special effects-filled battle sequence go, it will be hard to top the impressively large scale that Transformers has provided.

This movie is preposterous.  That is not due to the premise that you are supposed to accept or in regards things that you would not expect in these types of movies anyway.  It is preposterous due to its bloated running time and strange filmmaking sensibilities that imbue the film with awkward storytelling and humor, while balancing it with a large amount of dark tragedy, as robots attempt to take over the world.  Still, the film does find a handle on delivering all the spectacle one would want in the be-all end-all of giant freaking robot movies.  While the first Transformers film still seems to be the only one that had a soul of some kind at its center, Dark of the Moon does manage to bring an epic amount of imagination to life and provide an acceptable amount of very expensive fun to the proceedings.  Roll out.

Optimus Prime: You may lose faith in us, but never in yourselves.

Transformers: DOTM opens at full speed, taking us back to the war between the Autobots and the Decepicons on planet Cybertron.  We learn that in the waning moments of the war, an escape pod desperately tries to escape the fighting, carrying with it technology that could save Cybertron.  However, the Decepticons manage to damage the craft just as it leaves the planet.  Later, that same escape pod crash lands on the dark side of Earth’s moon.

Flash forward to the early 1960’s on earth, where U.S. and Russian military officials detect the crash of the alien craft on the moon, which touches off the race to the moon in the 1960’s.  Finally, the U.S. succeeds in landing on the moon, and after fulfilling their public relations obligations, the mission goes “dark” as the Astronauts execute their true classified mission of exploring the wreckage.

Catching up to real time, we learn the Autobots now work as a covert military tactical team for the United States under the coordination of Lennox (Josh Duhamel).  The action picks starts here and along with the bronze, panty-clad bottom of Carly (Rose Huntington-Whiteley), offers a tease of what the rest of the movie has in store.

Finally, we reunite with Sam Witwicky (Shia LeBeouf) who seemingly has everything, a super hot girl friend the Congressional Medal of Honor, but he struggles with being marginalized after he has saved the world, twice, and yet cannot seem to land a decent job in Washington D.C.  Sam struggles with how to move on now that the Autobots are assimilated into human culture and no longer need his assistance.  Frustrating his plight, Carly faces no such resistance in her career.  She’s moved on from the Embassy job where she met Sam, to a Curator for a museum owned by Dylan (Patrick Dempsey).

Dylan’s entrance sets off a satisfying round of high-powered cameo appearances that adds some fun throughout act two and makes Transformers look like the popular kid at school that everyone wants to know.  John Malkovich delivers a psycho boss you would want to work for as Bruce Brazos.  Ken Jeong steps right out of Hang Over 2 to invade your sense of all things decent as eccentric Jerry Wang.  Kevin Dunn and Julie White return as the embarrassing, annoying parents, but thankfully their role is limited this time around.

Frances McDormand joins the supporting cast as Mearning, the obligatory, by-the-book-to-our-own-demise National Security Advisor that each high-tech action movie requires.  McDormand adds the right mix to the cast to keep things interesting while working to marginalize the Atuobots and their assistance to the U.S. war machine.

After the hook is set with the crashed Autobot spacecraft on the moon, we’ve caught up on Sam and his new girl, the plot finally picks up the pace as the Decepticons manipulate the Autobots into reviving a dormant Sentinal Prime, expertly voiced by Leonard Nimoy.  Once Sentinel Prime regains his form, he turns on the Autobots, taking over as leader of the Decepticons and unleashing a war against humanity to conquer the planet.

U.S. officials exile the Autobots after Sentinel Prime’s aggression, believing that the Autobots no longer can protect the earth from the Decepticons.  As the Autobots launch their spaceship into space in search of another home, the Decepticons blow it out of the sky in an explosion sure to trigger thoughts of the Space Shuttle Challenger.

With the Autobots out of the way, Sentinel Prime, MegaTron, and the other Decepticons launch their battle against humanity, using Chicago as their “ground zero.”  At this point, the movie casts off all the funny business and gets down to a heart-pounding, roller coaster thrill ride through the battle for Chicago and humanity itself. Epps, Lennox, Sam, Simmons, and even Carly stand in the gap for man-kind in the absence of the Autobots.

Act three may be my favorite segment of the Transformers franchise: Crisp action, peril reversals, punches, counter-punches, and a resolution that avoids being rushed, leaving you with a no holds barred thrill ride of human sweat, blood, tears, mingled with shiny, rusty, and dented metal.

Themes range from the outcast hero looking for a place in the world, self-doubt and self-realization, beauty-and-the-beast, loyalty, friendship, and the bravery of the U.S. soldier.

Music and sound effects were plenty, but didn’t stick out and didn’t distract.  Even though we saw the movie in 3-D, not much really jumped out at you, but it didn’t take away from the movie either.  Of course, there are new, sleek cars aplenty roaring through chases transforming to and from their robot warriors of all makes and models.

Overall, Transformers: DOTM may be the best of the series and by far, the best action movie of the summer.

Transformers 3: Dark of the Moon—everything a summer blockbuster should be, and more!

Film  

Life As We Know It stars Katherine Heigl (Knocked Up, Grey’s Anatomy) as Holly.  Holly is a smart, funny, successful type-A personality  who is set up on a date with Eric Messer, played by Josh Duhamel (Transformers, When In Rome).  Messer, as he likes to be called is a sloppy looking carefree guy that shows up an hour late for his date with Holly.  Holly and Messer make it all the way to her Smart Car where the date ends shortly after he takes a booty call from another girl.  Holly would like nothing better than to never see Messer again, but her best friend is married to his best friend, and become God parents to their daughter Sophie.

A tragic accident leaves Sophie an orphan and Holly and Messer learn they have been named as the guardians for the little girl.  Holly and Messer have no children of their own, and certainly had no plans for children in the near future.  The loss of their friends and the new responsibilities as Sophie’s new parents turn their lives completely upside down.

Holly and Messer struggle greatly adjusting to their new life and they think about giving up.  At the wake for their friends, they talk to all the family members looking for a suitable replacement.  Neither the stripper , nor the geriatric grandfather with an oxygen tank could possibly take care of Sophie.  Holly tells Messer that their friends loved Sophie more than anything in the world, and out of everyone – picked them.  The pair have many funny first time parent moments, many involving dirty diapers or food. 

Anyone who has had a child knows there are very accurate depictions of simple but stressful times.  I often thought that at least first time parents have signed up for the job.  I doubt that anyone can be completely prepared for parenthood but it helps to have some notice.  At one point Holly finds a video of their friends fighting over having the nursery painted around the time of Sophie’s birth.  They realize that their friends weren’t perfect and this is comforting to Holly and Messer as they struggle.

As with all good romantic comedies there are fights, break ups, job stresses and other relationships to make a hard situation worse.  They develop a unique relationship with their Child Protective Services Case Worker, and get loads of advice from gay and straight couples who live on the block.  I thoroughly enjoyed watching Holly, Messer and Sophie become a family.  The triplets that played Sophie did a great job.  Sophie isn’t just a prop in the movie, she is a supporting actress. Josh Duhamel and Katherine Heigl were very well cast and make great parents.  If they did have a child of their own one day that would probably be a baby so cute you couldn’t look directly at it!  Chick flick fans will also be thrilled, as I was, to see Josh Lucas have a major role.  The hard part is deciding who you want Katherine Heigl to end up with because both choices are spectacular.

Video  

Life As We Know It is presented in 1080p High Definition 16×9 with a  2.4:1 aspect ratio.  The picture quality is sharp, clear and the colors are vivid and bright to the point of almost being over-saturated.  This is a mostly bright movie but the few dark moments of the movie look good as well with deep dark black levels. Flesh tones are natural and remain so throughout the movie.

Audio  

Life As We Know It has a polished DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix that hits all the right notes for the most part. There’s some discrete panning across the channels and the dialogue is clear and never overshadowed by the soundtrack.  While being a romantic comedy, the sound quality for this was better than expected.  It’s detailed enough that you can hear the squishing of Sophie’s diapers and the splatter of her spit up for those interested in details.

Special Features  

This Blu-ray has some decent extras that I enjoyed quite a bit.  Most of them aren’t serious but they are a lot of fun!

• A Survival Guide to Instant Parenting – Cast members offer outrageously funny child rearing advice that would make the PTA cringe.  Stars and supporting cast discuss topics like Kiss your sex life goodbye, Divide and Conquer, and Pick your Battles – all things parents to be should know.
• Katherine Heigl:  Becoming the Best Mom Ever – See all the touching, funny and challenging moments Katherine faced in becoming an overnight mom.  Its interesting to learn that she began shooting this movie four days after becoming a mom herself.  It must have been a very unique experience for her.
• Josh Duhamel:  The Triplet Tamer – Josh gets sentimental and brims with charm as he wins the admiration of his three little leading ladies.  Here we meet the triplet girls that played Sophie.  Their mom explains that Josh spent a week bonding with the girls before shooting and they are obviously very comfortable with their leading man.
• Deleted scenes – There are a lot of deleted scenes and they are definitely worth watching.  The running time of the movie is 114 minutes so I see why they had to make cuts, but there are some cute scenes with Sophie I’m glad I got to see.

Final Thoughts  

The Life As We Know It Blu-Ray is a combo pack with the DVD and Digital Copy.  All the adjectives I can think of to describe it are synonyms for cute – sweet, delightful, endearing, charming, etc.   I’m interested to know if my husband will like it nearly as much as I did.  While I can’t guess how much the men reading this article will enjoy it I can guarantee that they will score big points with their wives for watching it.  Extra points if they suggest it!

Order your copy today!

• A Survival Guide to Instant Parenting: cast members offer outrageously funny child-rearing advice that would make the PTA cringe (BD-exclusive)
• Kathering Heigl: Becoming the Best Mom Ever: see all the touching, funny and challenging moments Katherine faced in becoming an overnight mom (BD-exclusive)
• Josh Duhamel: the Triplet Tamer: Josh gets sentimental and brims with charm as he wins the admiration of this three “little” leading ladies (BD-exclusive)
• Additional scenes

]]> http://whysoblu.com/life-as-we-know-bu-ray/feed/ 0 http://whysoblu.com/life-as-we-know-it-movie-review/ http://whysoblu.com/life-as-we-know-it-movie-review/#comments Thu, 07 Oct 2010 21:34:29 +0000 Aaron Neuwirth http://whysoblu.com/?p=13018 I told my friend Allison that I would be attending a screening of Katherine Heigl’s latest rom-com disaster. Her response to me was as follows: “The JD [Josh Duhamel] one? The cliché about the couple who get the baby, fall in love, and have a bunch of funny mishaps along the way?” Allison gets props for this, because it is a very accurate summation of the flick, with the mishap of course being that this film was made. That may be a bit harsh, but suffice it to say, there is nothing very special about this very predictable story.

[Eric is singing "Creep" to Sophie as a lullaby]
Holly: What are you singing to her?
Eric: Everybody loves Radiohead.

This part is easy: Two people (Katherine Heigl and Josh Duhamel) are set up on a blind date and end up hating each other. They are both named the godparents of the newborn daughter of the friends who set them up to begin with. Tragedy strikes, the friends are killed, but the will states that Heigl and Duhamel should be the ones to serve as the parents together to the now orphaned Sophie. This is where those funny mishaps are supposed to occur. Following those mishaps:  some drama, new understandings on life, and happy end credits.

This film follows a formula all the way through. It even manages to have a scene where one character chases after another in an airport terminal. Throw in some wacky neighbors and plenty of cute baby shots, and you have yourself a “winner.”

I do not want to turn this into a thing about why I dislike Katherine Heigl, but she keeps doing this to herself. And I mean literally, as she is a producer on this film. After making remarks against her one movie that was met with critical praise (Knocked Up), saying that the women were portrayed as shrewish and no fun, she continues to choose romantic comedies where she stars as a character who is up tight and no fun, except these movies are met with terrible reviews and regarded as some of the worst of the year (see The Ugly Truth and most likely this year’s Killers). And yes, she is that character here once again.

Duhamel doesn’t fair much better here. He gets to play the inconsistent male character that flip flops between his attitude regarding the situation. He hates Holly; they get along; they argue; he gets jealous. He hates this new life involving a child; he loves the child; he’s tempted by a new job. It’s more exhausting trying to gauge this character than it is to think of how tough he has it raising a child.

There are plenty of other things I can point out as well, such as the convenient mansion that is paid for, so these characters can live in, the very nature of the “drama” involved to keep these two apart, and just how non-difficult it seems for these two to raise the child, despite the problems they claim to have. This would be a complete disaster if it wasn’t for the chemistry between Duhamel and Heigl and the few but far between chuckles this film has (which don’t involve poop).

As my friend, Allison, stated, the film is very cliché. It goes exactly how you think it will and doesn’t try to trick you in thinking otherwise. I’m aware of what audience this film is for, but surely there are other options to turn towards.

Eric: Holly, she’s about to walk!
Holly: What! Stall her!
Eric: Stall her? Stall her how?
[Eric pushes Sophie down]

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