FILM FRENZY

Skids and Mudflap in Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (Photo: Paramount)

By Matt Brunson

(View From The Couch is a weekly column that reviews what’s new on Blu-ray, 4K and DVD. Ratings are on a four-star scale.)

CREED III (2023). Series star Michael B. Jordan makes a confident directorial debut with the latest installment in the long-running boxing saga, the first without Rocky Balboa on hand (although Sylvester Stallone remains on board as a producer). In this chapter, Adonis “Donnie” Creed (Jordan) has retired from boxing and spends quality time with wife Bianca (returning Tessa Thompson) and daughter Amara (Mila Davis-Kent). But a blast from the past arrives in the form of Damian “Dame” Anderson (Jonathan Majors), a childhood friend who has spent the last 18 years in prison for a crime that had involved Donnie. Despite his age and lack of professional boxing experience, Dame wants a shot at the title, and, feeling enormous guilt, Donnie considers his request. This leads to bouts of bonding, betrayal, revenge, and redemption, all eventually tunneled through the climactic championship match between Donnie and Dame. More than the first two Creed flicks, this one breaks away from the tried-and-true formula with its focus on the complicated relationship between Donnie and Dame. But despite excellent work by Jordan and Majors (far better here than in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania), their characterizations aren’t always believable as they pertain to each other — the word whiplash comes to mind, particularly during some second-half developments — and the final fight, always a highlight of these films, begins in exciting fashion but falls distressingly flat at the end.

Blu-ray extras consist of a pair of making-of featurettes and deleted scenes.

Movie: ★★½

I COULD GO ON SINGING (1963). I Could Go On Singing wasn’t the last the world saw of the great Judy Garland — not by a long shot. The beloved entertainer continued to perform in concert on both sides of the Atlantic, and she appeared frequently on television, including guest stints opposite hosts like Johnny Carson and Ed Sullivan and as the star of her own short-lived series, The Judy Garland Show. But cinema was another matter: Although her tragic death didn’t occur until 1969 — an accidental drug overdose, at the painfully young age of 47 — this 1963 melodrama marked her final big-screen appearance. As a narrative feature, it’s shaky; as a vehicle for Garland, it’s a must-see. The icon plays Jenny Bowman, a world-famous American singer who long ago left her British lover and the illegitimate child they produced. Well over a decade later, she arrives in London for a concert and elects to visit her former paramour, the respectable surgeon David Donne (Dirk Bogarde). Jenny insists that David let her see their now-14-year-old son Matt (Gregory Phillips), who doesn’t know the identity of his parents and believes he was adopted by David and his late wife; the good doctor reluctantly agrees, only to then watch as Jenny does everything in her power to take David away with her. The denouement is especially clumsy and unconvincing, but Judy is in peak form throughout, unleashing raw emotions in the dramatic scenes and exuberantly belting out a handful of songs when performing on stage.

There are no Blu-ray extras.

Movie: ★★½

IF I HAD A MILLION (1932). If I Had a Million pools the talents of seven directors (including To Be or Not to Be’s Ernst Lubitsch), 16 writers (including All About Eve’s Joseph L. Mankiewicz), and approximately a dozen name players to punch across an anthology yarn that features both hard-hitting drama and lowbrow comedy. In the storyline that connects the vignettes, a dying millionaire (Richard Bennett) who despises his greedy relatives and incompetent employees elects to randomly select eight people out of the phone book and present them each with one million dollars. The most famous and consequently most popular episode, “Road Hogs,” finds a cheerful couple (W.C. Fields and Alison Skipworth) using the funds to take their revenge against inconsiderate drivers. My favorite of the dramatic interludes is “Grandma,” a moving piece centering on the lonely residents of a gloomy rest home for women, followed by “The Forger,” in which the title crook (George Raft) has trouble cashing his million-dollar check. “The Clerk,” starring Charles Laughton, is cute but slight (it lasts all of two minutes); “The Three Marines,” with Gary Cooper, offers some rollicking humor; the dramatic “Death Cell” almost qualifies as a character study but suffers from Gene Raymond’s awful central performance; “China Shop” seems incomplete; and “Violet” feels like filler.

Blu-ray extras consist of film historian audio commentary; the theatrical trailer; and trailers for other titles on the Kino label, including Fields’ best picture (1940’s The Bank Dick) and a genuine oddity co-starring Cooper and Fields (1933’s Alice in Wonderland).

Movie: ★★★

THE NIGHT OF THE HUNTER (1955). This is it, folks, the one that includes a character with the words “LOVE” and “HATE” tattooed on his fingers. That would be Preacher Harry Powell, portrayed by Robert Mitchum in the finest performance he would ever deliver. Powell is both a murderer and a misogynist, which leads him to kill lonely widows for their money — in the name of God, of course. After a brief incarceration (for stealing a car) that places him in the same cell with a bank robber (Peter Graves) facing execution, he decides to ingratiate himself to the crook’s widow (Shelley Winters) and children (Billy Chapin and Sally Jane Bruce) in the hopes of locating the missing bank money. The kids know its location but aren’t talking; this leads Powell to take some drastic measures and lands the children in the arms of a benevolent woman (Lillian Gish) who understands that “it’s a hard world for little things.” Actor Charles Laughton’s only stint as director is an atmospheric yarn full of striking imagery by cinematographer Stanley Cortez (The Magnificent Ambersons) and knowing dialogue by James Agee (adapting Davis Grubbs’ novel) — a unique blend of fractured fairy tale, Southern Gothic grisliness, and striking German expressionism, it also has some pitch-black humor thrown in for good measure. A flop when released, it’s only grown in stature and influence over the ensuing years — for starters, Spike Lee would pay homage to Powell’s tattooed knuckles via the character of Radio Raheem in Do the Right Thing.

Extras in the 4K UHD + Blu-ray edition include audio commentary by film critic Tim Lucas; an interview with filmmaker Ernest Dickerson (director of Juice and Bones and cinematographer of Do the Right Thing and Malcolm X); and theatrical trailers.

Movie: ★★★★

TRANSFORMERS 6-MOVIE STEELBOOK COLLECTION (2007-2018). It’s not rocket science — or even AllSpark science (to reference the franchise’s MacGuffin). If you’re a fan, this 4K UHD box set is a gift from the heavens, if not from Cybertron itself. If you’re not a devotee, best to steer clear.

I was a fraction too old for the whole Transformers rage when it swept through the nation back in the mid-1980s, though professional dedication (even as a college student) did force me to sit through the crappy animated feature that hit theaters in 1986. Yet even folks who wouldn’t know a Transformer from a Teletubby might enjoy parts of Transformers (2007), the first film in the blockbuster franchise. Shia LaBeouf and Megan Fox star as Sam Witwicky and Mikaela Banes, the high school kids who help the noble Autobots defend our planet from the evil Decepticons, while Jon Voight and John Turturro play grumpy government types. A movie about robots that turn into cars (and trucks and tanks and airplanes) would seem to have a more limited fan base than many other franchise wannabes, and the presence of Michael Bay as director has never helped any cause. Yet perhaps the secret ingredient here is in the producing credits. Instead of Bay’s usual partner in crime, Jerry Bruckheimer, it’s Steven Spielberg who snags an executive producer citation, so it can’t be a coincidence that, in its finest moments, this picture hearkens back to the sort of filmic roller coaster rides that Spielberg often built during the ’80s. Charged by ample amounts of humor that runs hot-and-cold (Bernie Mac amuses briefly as a car salesman) and more character-driven than expected, Transformers initially does a halfway decent job of balancing action with emotion. Unfortunately, this makes the final half-hour — wall to wall battles with little to individualize the raging robots on either side — even more of a massive slog, and it drains any and all previous enthusiasm and goodwill. This earned a trio of Academy Award nominations for Best Visual Effects, Best Sound Mixing, and Best Sound Editing.

Arguably the worst film in the series, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (2009) is a perfectly dreadful sequel that’s the celluloid equivalent of a 150-minute waterboarding session. As before, the Autobots and Decepticons are waging their battle on our planet, with Sam (LaBeouf) and Mikaela (Fox) still offering their support to the good ‘bots. The metallic slugfests — the dullest portions of the first flick — have been elongated this time around, and without any attempt at allowing viewers to figure out who the hell is pummeling who. And by including more fights and more explosions and more military hardware (Bay must fantasize about fondling missiles the way teenage boys fantasize about fondling Fox), that leaves less room for any meaningful human interaction. On the other hand, given that Sam’s parents (Kevin Dunn and Julie White) are even more insufferable than in the first film and that there’s also an annoying new character (Ramon Rodriguez as Sam’s dorkish, dickish college roommate), maybe the less seen of the humans, the better. Unfortunately, the Transformers themselves are no more interesting. Several new ones have been introduced, with the most offensive being two “black” Transformers who sport buck teeth (one gold), admit to not being able to read, and cuss a lot. Forget Jar Jar Binks, who comes across like Paul Robeson when compared to these stooges: You’d have to go back to the days of Stepin Fetchit (née Lincoln Perry) and Sleep ‘n’ Eat (née Willie Best) to find such a jolting comparison (although the first Transformers also had its share of casual racism). Bay doesn’t believe in stooping too low, so he also treats us to not one but two shots of dogs screwing, a mini-Transformer humping Mikaela’s leg, a Transformer with flatulence problems, and a close-up of Turturro’s thong-clad buttocks. And did I mention the swinging metallic testicles on one of the Decepticons? This nabbed a sole Oscar nom for Best Sound Mixing.

Soulless, cynical, and stupid, Transformers: Dark of the Moon (2011) is a fraction better than its predecessor, although I would hate to live on the difference. This film reveals that the real reason the astronauts landed on the moon back in 1969 was to check out an alien construct that turned out to be tied into the long-running intergalactic battle between the Autobots and Decepticons. After much exposition (culminating in a sellout appearance by Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin), the plot carries us to the present day, where Sam (LaBeouf) again has an only-in-the-movies, supermodel-esque girlfriend, Carly (played by Victoria’s Secret supermodel Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, replacing Fox as the requisite sex object). Sam’s mother (White) disturbingly surmises that her son must have a huge schlong in order to land such hot girlfriends, while his father (Dunn) is concerned that he has no job. He finally acquires one, working for an eccentric CEO (John Malkovich), but it’s not long before he’s again fighting alongside the Autobots: Optimus Prime, Bumblebee, Ratchet, Ironhide, Sleepy, Bashful, and Dopey. Bay’s fascistic tendencies aren’t quite as pronounced as in the last installment (although there is an appearance by former Fox a-hole Bill O’Reilly as himself), but there isn’t anything this man won’t do for the sake of arousing himself, be it an establishing shot of Carly that solely captures her ass or a scene in which a little girl unknowingly plays tea party with a disguised Decepticon who then leaps up and murders her mom and dad. From start to finish, it’s a miserable viewing experience, and the robot slugfests are once again incoherent and endless. Like the first film, it snagged three Oscar nominations for its visual effects, sound mixing, and sound editing.

As evidenced by Transformers: Age of Extinction (2014), Bay’s contempt for his audience continues to be matched only by his contempt for the medium of film itself. But here’s some good news: The fourth in the series created by the dream team of Bay, Hasbro, and Mephistopheles, this is better than the previous Transformers sequels. Now for the sobering afterthought: Even a case of syphilis is preferable to that torturous twofer. In addition to replacing the increasingly insufferable LaBeouf with the comparatively charismatic Mark Wahlberg, another reason this one is marginally easier to take is because the attempts at comic relief aren’t as grotesque as in past installments. Sure, there are some lame gags, but at least there are no Amos’n’Andy robots on hand to showcase Bay’s racial insensitivity — and no shot of Turturro’s bare buttocks, either. This entry’s paycheck-chasing celebrity is Stanley Tucci, who hams it up as a scientist creating his own line of Transformers. No one goes to a Transformers flick expecting to hear immortal dialogue along the lines of “Forget it, Jake; it’s Chinatown” or “What we have here is failure to communicate” or even “Yo, Adrian!” but this banter has the ability to make ears bleed. “Where’s your warrant?” asks Wahlberg’s character of a black-ops creep (Titus Welliver). “My face is my warrant!” comes the ingenious reply. Wait, what? As expected, product placements run rampant in this film, with one of the primary offenders being Bud Light. Normally, I would verbally eviscerate Bud Light, but given their current troubles with this nation’s right-wing homophobic monsters, I urge everyone instead to toss them some support.

As a filmmaker, Bay has never seemed particularly interested in coherency or linear thinking or anything that carries an idea from Point A to Point B. With that in mind, here’s my own stream-of-consciousness look at another Bay bray, Transformers: The Last Knight (2017).
1) If nothing else, this is the first movie in the franchise that could be described as educational. For starters, it’s ascertained that not only did King Arthur and Camelot exist, but Arthur and his companions all had Transformer knights watching their backs. The Transformers were also responsible for the Allies winning World War II, for the mystery surrounding Stonehenge, and for Crash winning the Best Picture Oscar over Brokeback Mountain.
2) Wahlberg returns for his second appearance as Cade Yeager, the Transformers’ BFF. Here, Cade’s the one who’s picked to save all of humanity. Marky Mark as The Chosen One? The mind boggles.
3) The latest distinguished actor to slum in this series for the sake of a gargantuan payday is Anthony Hopkins. Unlike, say, past players Frances McDormand and Malkovich, he does not seem particularly embarrassed by his appearance.
4) One scene features a pair of bickering Transformers voiced by John Goodman and Steve Buscemi. With John Turturro also in the film, it’s safe to say this is the reunion movie that The Big Lebowski devotees were eagerly awaiting.
5) Speaking of Turturro, he gets off one amusing quip wherein he states than an ancient book was made out of “goat scrotum or something.” This made me realize that every major Hollywood movie should work the term “goat scrotum” into its script.
6) There’s a Decepticon in this movie called Mohawk and he sports an actual metallic Mohawk. Nuff said.

I suppose after a steady diet of moldy-green, one-month-old bread, even a bite of slightly stale, one-week-old bread would taste delicious. After five flicks, Michael Bay finally relinquished the director’s chair for Bumblebee (2018). To declare that the switch provides the series with a breath of fresh air is an understatement, but to declare that the picture is in any way a remarkable achievement is absurd. Director Travis Knight and scripter Christina Hodson clearly did their homework, not only in walking back Bay’s authoritarian tendencies but also in adding the sorts of ‘80s sops that automatically cater to a viewer’s nostalgic impulses. Alas, it’s not enough to recommend this to anyone but diehard fans. After an opening in which chief Autobot Optimus Snore — excuse me, Optimus Prime (voiced as always by Peter Cullen) — sends Bumblebee (Dylan O’Brien) to Earth following a disastrous battle against the Decepticons, the focus shifts to Charlie (Hailee Steinfeld, excellent), a teenager who comes across Bumblebee in his VW Beetle guise. Anytime a new film is set in the ‘80s, out come the filmmaker quotes about how they worked hard to duplicate the magic of Spielberg and his Amblin efforts. But it’s usually a lost cause, since capturing the look and feel of the films from that era is particularly tricky. Despite a valiant effort, Bumblebee remains firmly rooted in 2018, from its visual palette to its dialogue (there’s a little brother, but nary a mention of a “duck’s dork”). The action scenes aren’t particularly distinguished, although they do display some sense of coherency that was often missing from Bay’s mashups. In fact, there’s little in this picture that doesn’t represent a step or 12 up from the sorry sequels that followed the 2007 Transformers. But in this case, “new and improved” isn’t the same thing as “new and worth catching.”

Trans fans have been treated well by Paramount, as this is a terrific box set in terms of audio, video, and design. The movies are offered on 4K while the majority of the extras are housed on accompanying Blu-rays; digital copies and a collectible decal are also included. Extras on the various films include audio commentaries by Bay; multipart making-of documentaries; and deleted scenes.

Transformers: ★★

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen: ★

Transformers: Dark of the Moon: ★

Transformers: Age of Extinction: ★½

Transformers: The Last Knight: ★

Bumblebee: ★★

Short and Sweet:

65 (2023). Sixty-five million years ago, a spacecraft pilot (Adam Driver) from the planet Somaris crash-lands on Earth, where he and the only surviving passenger, a teenage girl (Ariana Greenblatt), must fend off dinosaur attacks as they figure out how to get back home. Writer-directors Scott Beck and Bryan Woods previously penned 2018’s thrilling and imaginative horror hit A Quiet Place, so it’s a shock to see them masterminding a movie this boring, this lazy, and this derivative. Driver is fine, but even he can’t save this no-frills, no-thrills dud.

Blu-ray extras include a making-of piece; deleted scenes; and storyboard comparisons.

Movie: ★½

WARM WATER UNDER A RED BRIDGE (2001). The final feature from Japanese writer-director Shōhei Imamura (the Cannes Palme d’Or winners The Ballad of Narayama and The Eel) is this odd and oddly endearing piece in which an unemployed and unhappily married man (Kōji Yakusho) journeys to a small fishing village where he becomes involved with a woman (Misa Shimizu) whose watery ejaculations are potent enough to affect nature itself. While the whimsy is occasionally heavy-handed, the film nevertheless works as a celebration of individuality and an ode to female strength.

Blu-ray extras consist of a video essay by author Tom Vick (Asian Cinema: A Field Guide); the theatrical trailer; and trailers for other titles on the Film Movement label. A booklet is also included.

Movie: ★★★

FROM SCREEN TO STREAM

THE KING OF COMEDY (1983). One of the biggest box office bombs of Martin Scorsese’s career (budget: $19 million; box office: $2 million), The King of Comedy was dismissed in 1983 but has since emerged as a cult item that seems more relevant with every passing day. Robert De Niro delivers one of his defining performances as Rupert Pupkin, a major-league dweeb who dreams of becoming as successful a comedian as his hero, talk-show host Jerry Langford (Jerry Lewis in a role turned down by Johnny Carson). Rupert finally gets to meet his idol but repeatedly makes such a pest of himself that he becomes persona non grata; undaunted, he cooks up a scheme with a fellow fan (Sandra Bernhard) who’s even more psychotic. This jet-black comedy is a symphony of unease, as the actions of its extreme characters lead to plenty of seat-squirming on the part of viewers. Yet it’s a fascinating exercise about the perils of celebrityhood and the allure of fame, and De Niro, Lewis, and Bernhard are all mesmerizing. That’s former Charlie’s Angels star Shelley Hack as Langford’s assistant, and look for The Clash members Joe Strummer, Mick Jones, and Paul Simonon as a trio of derelicts.

Movie: ★★★½

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Review links for movies referenced in this column (all links open in new window):
Alice in Wonderland (1933)
All About Eve
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania
The Bank Dick
Bones
Cool Hand Luke
Do the Right Thing
Juice
The Magnificent Ambersons
Malcolm X
A Quiet Place
Rocky
To Be or Not to Be (1942)
The Transformers: The Movie