Pete, a colleague currently living and working in Bangkok, communicates with me mostly in movie reviews these days. Every month or so, he sends me his thoughts on the latest American blockbuster to land on the shores of Thailand. Here's what he had to say about Transformers:

Heads Up!

Transformers opened a week early in Asia, and I obviously caught it over the weekend. The first half is so unbelievably good they should issue Wet Wipes at the door so you can clean yourself after you climax. The second half is a mess. But the first half... fucking awesome. It's like some hack studio writer found an early treatment of the script first he penned in the mid-eighties when he still believed in Hollywood magic, did some blow to catch the nostalgia vibe, inserted some post-9/11, Iraq, war on terror quips that actually work, and called 'er good. I honestly wouldn't be surprised if the guy who wrote "The Last Starfighter" did the initial treatment. The whole thing is 80s influenced without being 80s referential. You'll see what I mean. Or maybe you'll hate it. Who knows. But I hope you'll agree that even with the wasted second half, this movie is ten times better than the animated movie from 198-whatever. I tried to watch that a few years ago and turned it off after twenty minutes. (A similar thing happend a few weeks ago when I walked out of "Pirates of the Carribean--Whatever the Fuck It Was Called" with about twenty minutes left. I really don't care what happened at the end. I'm not even sure what was happening when I left.)

Highly Recommended!

I tried to see the movie last night at the 99 West, still my favorite movie venue within 30 square miles of Portland. We showed up over 90 minutes before the first feature but it was already sold out. I guess everybody living out in "the country" really loves giant robots hellbent on beating the crap out of one another.

Labels: movies, Thailand