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Big bang from Bay

MOVING ON The Transformers seems a throw back of the good old action movie with lots of guns and gadgets

When the production notes talk of a movie dealing with two races of robotic aliens (are we evolving or what?) at war with each other and the fate of the universe in the hands of a nerdy teenager, you immediately hail the film with the joy of catching up with an old friend.

The movie is “Transformers” and seems a throw back of the good old action movie with lots of guns and gadgets and snorts, shouts and grunts and an occasional “Let’s keep moving” constituting the outer reaches of dialogue.

And then as you run your eye on cast and crew, your heart lurches with excitement – for under director you see Michael Bay. For those who do not much care for movies that end in prolonged explosions and satisfying spurts of flame, the name might not mean much. However, for those who have a weakness for the explosive, extreme action, Bay is the patron saint of pyrotechnics.

Bay cut his movie making teeth on “Bad Boys” (‘95). The film, produced by bang-for-your-buck badshah, Jerry Bruckheimer, was ostensibly about two detectives (Martin Lawrence and smooth, savvy, uber cool Will Smith), a witness protection programme and a heroin deal. But of course, it was a just an excuse to blow things up at regular intervals in tandem with breathless car chases.

So we wiped our aching eyes and collected our breath while waiting Bay’s next offering, “The Rock”. And what a film it was! There was Nicholas Cage as Dr. Goodspeed, a mild-mannered chemist. Then there was Ed Harris, Brigadier General Francis X, playing a war veteran with a big time grudge and presiding over them all was Sean Connery, Scottish brogue and all as John Patrick Mason.

The good brigadier has taken over Alcatraz and threatens to cripple San Francisco with nerve gas unless some demand or the other is met. Mason (who might or might not have been a British secret agent nudge, nudge, wink, wink) is the only person who has escaped from Alcatraz and his help is sought to break in and Goodspeed is needed for the technical know how.

The movie ran on pure adrenaline with scenes like the hectic car chase, Mason’s smooth moves and smoother lines and also Goodspeed’s climatic on-his-knees shot with flares in both hands looking like a strange modern-day archangel, all combined to create a combustible movie experience.

Incidentally, “The Rock” appeared in Hindi as “Qayamat” (2003) where director Harry Baweja seemed to spend more time on his leads’ (Ajay Devgan, Suniel Shetty, Sanjay Kapoor, Arbaaz Khan) hair colour.

The year 1998 was the year of the disaster film with our poor planet being pummelled by everything from tidal waves (“Deep Impact”) and giant mutated lizards (“Godzilla”) to the mother of all disasters, the ice berg (“Titanic”). The Bay-Bruckheimer jodi jumped on the bandwagon with “Armageddon” where the good earth is going to be smashed to smithereens thanks to a wicked rogue asteroid. And how do you save the earth? The answer, my fr iend, is a drilling team headed by Bruce Willis who will nuke the asteroid – see nuclear power can be used for peaceful purposes.

The lovely, luscious Liv Tyler plays curmudgeon Willis daughter while real life papa Steven Tyler yowled, “I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing”. The film was crammed with A listers including Billy Bob Thornton, Michael Clarke Duncan and Ben Affleck.

In the millennium, Bay and Bruckheimer decided to turn their flamboyant gaze towards history with embarrassingly bad results. The film was “Pearl Harbour” (2001) which tells the story of buddies Ben Affleck and Josh Hartnett who go to war while the love of their lives, Kate Beckinsale waits batting her lashes coyly.

The cast included big names like Jon Voight, Alec Baldwin, Cuba Gooding Jr, Tom Sizemore and Jennifer Garner.

The film, however, did not work in spite of the action set pieces – there are only so many ways a bomb can fall to the ground. Maybe the three hour running time was to blame. This was followed by “Bad Boys II” (2003), which again seemed to be rehashed and while the action sequences were bigger they were not necessarily better and were marked by a singular lack of imagination.

With “The Island” (2005), Bay moved away from Bruckheimer who was anyway busy with Capt Jack Sparrow and scores of undead pirates. The movie was a bleak look at the future where humans are cloned to harvest organs. Ewan McGregor and the lovely Scarlett Johansson play clones on the run – giving ample opportunity for loud explosions and non-stop chases with leads becomingly kitted out in skin tight costumes. Again, the cast featured an embarrassment of riches, from Djimon “noble African” Hounsou to Sean Bean and Michael Clarke Duncan.

With “Transformers”, Bay steps to the arena of a 20-year-old toy line, the action figures designed by Hasbro. Steven Spielberg executive produces along with Bay and special effects are bound to be mind-altering coming as they do from ILM.

Cast includes Shia LaBeouf, Tyrese Gibson with John Turturro and Jon Voight.

So are you ready for a fight to death between the Autobots and the evil Decepticons?

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