Movie Review: Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

This has been a stressful week at work, and I knew I was going to have to stay late today. So, at 2:30 this afternoon, I headed to the West Conference Room (a.k.a. the movie theater next door) to watch "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen." This movie has gotten some pretty bad reviews, and lots of complaints about language and too many "adult themes". While I'll admit that there were some very unnecessary words said in this movie, I still liked it.

The second installment in the "Transformers" franchise delivers way more robot to robot combat than the first movie. It's as if Director Michael Bay said "hmmm, you think I've done action and explosions in the past, well you ain't seen nothin' yet". I'm sure Michael Bay has a better grasp of the English language than that, but you get the point. This movie is way over the top from an action standpoint. And let me just say this...Optimus Prime kicks some serious Decepticon Hindquarters.

There's not a ton of plot to this. In fact, it felt a little like the old cartoon, where they kept slightly modifying the plot to introduce a new robot. But, I think it worked...it's not supposed to be a riveting drama, so the plot can have a few holes in my opinion.

The acting was solid for an action movie. Shia Lebouf reprises his role as Sam Witwicky, and he is at his smart-ellecky best in this movie. I really like him as an actor and hope to see many more roles for Mr. Lebouf. The other really good performance came from John Turturro, who appears again as the conspiracy theorist from the now defunct Sector 7. Turturro is hilarious, in what seems like the type of role he was born to play. A nice addition was the cameo by Rainn Wilson, from NBC's "The Office".

There was 1 big downer for me. They introduced 2 new Autobots...Skids and Mudflaps. Both were totally unnecessary, and very vulgar. They were like a vulgar Jar Jar Binks. Hopefully they won't be in any sequels. The presence of these 2 knocked my rating down from 5 stars to 4.

Overall though, I really liked the movie. As an action film junkie, it's a must see.

The City Amateur, Day 2

I just finished up day 2 of the City Amateur, and while I didn't play as well as I had hoped I would, I still had an ok day. I shot 80 for the 2nd straight day, for a 36 hole total of 160. When I left the course, there were only 2 players ahead of me, but that will obviously change as the day wears on. About 30 players had finished when I left.

Bottom line is that 80 is a good score today. It was windy and it was raining off and on. Making it even more complex was that the flags were tucked in some difficult places on the greens. So, overall, I'm pleased with my golf this year. I could have played better, but I could have played much worse.

I really enjoyed competing in the City Amateur this year, and hope I am playing well enough next year to consider playing again.