More than one would think, actually.

“Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” took the shaky acting performances of the previous cast and continued on the same route with minor upgrades along the way, and the addition of comedic reliefs in the Autobot Twins as well as Sam’s new roommate at college, Leo.  Megan Fox, for what it’s worth, tried her best to make us believe that Sam Witwicky could actually get the girl, and supplied sex appeal by the boatload.

The movie itself starts off strong, showing Autobot vs. Decepticon carnage in Shanghai, and only a few times does the movie slow down for the plot to work its way into the fray.  But from the momentary lapses in CGI euphoria, the plot shows its face and even in its broken and inconsistent manner, does a better job at setting the background tone than the first.  

To sum it up, Sam has a map imprinted into his mind of where to find a key to turn on a super weapon that another Decepticon, the Fallen, wishes to turn on.  Its purpose is to harvest the power of the sun to fuel their machine race, reducing the star to nothing and shrouding Earth in darkness.  Sam and the Autobots, along with the NEST team, are on a mission to stop it.

The movie makes up for the weak plot with the comedic relief that may at times be overdone, but will earn smiles in its simplicity.  The action is intense and is sure to please our violent hedonistic urges sufficiently.

In the end, the movie had just enough plot to justify calling it a movie rather than a CGI UFC cage match, but it is entertaining and enjoyable.

Thumbs up.

“Year One” is comedic kryptonite.

There was another movie released this weekend.  Compared to “Year One,” you may have thought this movie was showing at the Cannes Film Festival for all the advertisements it ran in comparison to its weekend competitor.  But in the end, “The Proposal,” which is a romantic comedy chick flick that even the most masculine of steroid junky bodybuilders can enjoy and laugh until cramps ensue.  It also dethrowned the hysterically popular film, “The Hangover.” With that, comedy really has packed a punch this summer, now in its its third week owning the office.

The movie took a woman who’s been in the romantic comedy business forever, Sandra Bullock, and placed her opposite probably the best comedic relief actor in the business, who got his break in “Van Wilder,” Ryan Reynolds.  Entertainment Weekly published a piece about their onscreen chemistry, and through that, an otherwise predictable formula-based movie was saved.  Ryan Reynolds is an actor who does more with facial expression and the subtle emphasis on speech patterns than anyone in Hollywood.  Sandra Bullock has forever been the goofy girl who gets the gold.  

“The Proposal” is creativity’s touch of Midas, or comedic gold, derived from the dirt that romantic comedies are grown from.

Seeing how Hollywood had resorted to mass producing flicks with big names that held no real quality (outside of the massive blockbuster films that are years in the works), it is refreshing to see that some quality is still possible if the formula is right, without having to drop $200 million on production costs.

Just this past weekend, Pixar’s “Up” grossed a fat $68 million, and has since grossed a total (and whopping) $151 million.

Perhaps the current recession is actually having some positive effect, as these numbers alone prove that many families are coming together to get out and see these family flicks.

Other family films have also done well. January saw “Paul Blart: Mall Cop” become a shocking hit when it went on to rake in $177 million, worldwide, and on budget around $26 million.

DreamWorks Animation then saw my personal favorite family flick of the summer, “Monsters vs. Aliens,” make more than $345 million worldwide. Other family-oriented hits this summer include “Race to Witch Mountain,” “Hannah Montana the Movie” and “Hotel for Dogs.”

The reason for the success of these movies could be the simple fact that most have been made to appeal to a much wider audience than family films of the past. (An article on Fox News seconds this notion.) “Shrek” proved this one perfectly. Put some interesting animated characters together with a decent plot line and throw in some prevented innuendo and boom, box office bullion.