Clue Is Easily The Best Film Adaptation of a Toy (Exempting The LEGO Movie)

Movies based on toys haven't taken off to the same extreme as comic books or TV shows since, like video games, artistic properties that place most control over to the audiences tend to be difficult to translate into a more strictly molded medium of storytelling like film. Still, we have seen our fair share of movies based on toys, especially in the last twelve years since Transformers became a box office juggernaut. Before most of those motion pictures came Clue, one of the very first movies to be based on a toy. A 1985 directorial effort from Johnathan Lynn, Clue took the characters and murder mystery set-up of the original 1949 board game of the same name and in the process took what could have been a cashgrab for Hasbro into something mighty hysterical.

Bumblebee Has Got The Touch And Also Has The Power To Emotionally Move Viewers

Bumblebee takes the live-action series of Transformers movies into a bold new direction, namely in the direction of actually good filmmaking! It's also taken the series into prequel territory, which means this feature takes place in 1987, about twenty years before the first Transformers movie, with Bumblebee arriving on Earth to help establish a new base for his Autobot brethren. While arriving on this unfamiliar planet in a damaged state, an 18-year-old girl named Charlie Watson (Hailee Steinfeld) stumbles upon Bumblebee in his VW bug form and takes him home as her very first car. It isn't long before she discovers that this new automobile of hers is actually a robot and the two develop a friendship just as two evil Decepticon robots come to Earth searching for Bumblebee.

Beefcake Kellan Lutz Seems To Be In The Running To Play He-Man In That Live-Action He-Man Movie

I'm more than a little surprised we haven't gotten a live-action He-Man movie in the 21st century yet considering how successful that live-action adaptation of fellow 80's toy/kids TV show property Transformers was. Such a project is finally coming to fruition, with McG coming onboard to direct this past January and now Kellan Lutz has dropped a tweet on the Twitter that indicates he's likely playing the real role. Here's the tweet:

What Is 10 Cloverfield Lane? Who The Hell Knows, But The Trailer For It Is Pretty Memorable

Let's time travel back to the year 2007, when an eleven year old NerdInTheBasement saw Transformers on its second day of release. My first theatrical PG-13 experience, I got a thrilling rush when, prior to the screening, the trailer for the R-rated Superbad played. Woah! An R-rated movie! What a time to be alive! Sure, it was the green-band trailer and so no nudity, drug use or explicit swearing was to be found, but still, it was the trailer for what was pretty blatantly an R-rated feature film. Could it get any better than this??

Michael Bay Is Doing Transformers 5....But He Can Quit Anytime He Wants, Don't Worry

Over the next 12 months, Paramount Pictures is releasing a number of movies from a veritable who's-who of well-known filmmakers. Features from the likes of Charlie Kaufman, James Gray, Denis Villeneuve, Robert Zemeckis, Richard Linklater and Martin Scorsese will all receive wide theatrical releases from one of the biggest movie studios on the planet. At the same time, this very same company is responsible for enabling Michael Bay to churn out wretched Transformers sequels, over and over and over again, to the point where I feel like Tom Cruise in Edge of Tomorrow, repeating the same goddamn events relentlessly.

Brace Yourself Humanity, Transformers Is Becoming A Cinematic Universe

I've said it before, but it always bears repeating: cinematic universe aren't inherently bad, they just can be in the hands of poor storytelling, just like any other aspect of cinema. The Marvel Cinematic Universe is how to do this tactic right, The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (which shoehorned in countless characters in an effort to establish potential spin-offs) is obviously how to do it wrong. Call me crazy, but I have a hunch the newly announced Transformers cinematic universe might not be a recipe for artistic brilliance.

Box Office Analysis: Nostalgia Is More Powerful Than Any Weapon

This morning was a whirlwind of questions and wondering. It seems everybody wanted to know just how Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles had managed to hit $65.5 million in its own opening weekend. Many internet commentors proclaimed it to be the end of cinema as we know it. I've kind of been desensitized to such hyperbolic announcements, and frankly, I believe the success of this new Ninja Turtles incarnation is more of a testament to the power of nostalgia than anything else.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Review

Lacking Cinema In A Half-Shell

I've been obsessed with a bunch of items in pop culture in my time, but I must say, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are not one such item. Oh sure, I know about the TV shows, and characters like Krang and Bebop and Rocksteady, but that's more due to encountering actual fans of the shows and various movies. I do enjoy the puppets used in the original three movies if that counts for anything. So this new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles didn't have to jump through any kind of massive hurdles in my book...just be entertaining and fun for two hours.

Franchise Frenzy: Transformers

SOOOOOOO AWESOME!!!!

Robots in disguise, waging their war against the evil forces of the Deceptions....ah, what a theme song! For many 80's kids, along with this Transformers nut, that tune is one that brings up memories of a fun show with likable characters and....Dinobots!!!  I got into it older than most (13, when it was finally released on DVD in preparation of Transformers: Revenge of The Fallen), but while I feel things post-Season One can be iffy, the show at its best puts these movies to shame. They embraced material with absurdity where the films attempted to convert it into overly serious gibbly-gock. Where the shows laughs derived from cheesiness and character interactions (Megatron and Starscream were always a hoot!), these found "laughs" in racism.

Even if now far superior cartoon existed, the Transformers franchise would be a never ending series of disappointments.....except for that first film.

From The Interwebs: Film Critic Hulk Takes A Look At Michael Bay

The glasses really make this picture for me, as well his hands

I don't wanna use the phrase "Great minds think alike" here, since I don't wanna imply that my mind is in even the same realm of greatness as the masterful film lover Film Critic Hulk. So lemme just say that Film Critic Hulk (whose Twitter feed is as glorious as the critic himself) also took a look at the filmmaker Michael Bay, and wow, is it great. Check it out immediately.

If you haven't yet, also take a gander at my essay on my long, emotional turmoil-filled experiences with Michael Bay, as well as my Box Office Analysis on why the Transformers franchise has lasted so long. And of course, I have a massive review of Transformers: Age of Extinction for your pleasure. And finally, come back tomorrow for when Franchise Frenzy returns (my bi-weekly column looking at various notable film franchises) to conclude all this Transformers coverage by looking at all four movies and answering the immortal question, where'd it all go wrong for the robots in disguise when it comes to 21st Century filmmaking?

Editorial: You Got A Bay....Or Nah?

So, Michael Bay did it again. Another big hit for the filmmaker, another movie torn to shreds by critics. One of those critics happen to be yours truly, who would easily consider Transformers: Age of Extinction one of the worst movies, not just of the year (it's by far the worst, juuuuuust edging out God's Not Dead) but of all-time. It's an incoherent mess that can't even use robotic dinosaurs in a fun manner, let alone give us a screenplay that works on any level.

Box Office Analysis: Can Some Franchises Go On Forever?

The Dinosaurs are barely in the movie. There. Just saved you from
seeing this garbage.

I've got a lot to talk about when it comes to Transformers this week; I've got a Franchise Frenzy entry on all four movies, and I've got an Editorial brewing for tomorrow about the movies defenders. But for now, let's talk about the biggest opener of 2014 (I know, I know, I'm terrified too), and look at if some franchises really can go on for eternity.

The List!!!: Five Notable Fourth Movies

                                     
In The List!!!, I do a list that just reeks of being click-bait, analyzing a particular topic or subject that pertains to something major occurring in pop-culture. This week, in honor of a fourth Transformers movie being unleashed onto the world, I take a look at other notable movies that were the fourth entries in their respective franchises. Just a heads up; to be in this particular list, you have to be the fourth movie released in a franchise, not fourth chronologically.