Saturday 20 November 2010

The Island - Mike's place

A genuinely great Michael Bay film. Will wonders never cease??? It's infected with his bungee cord attached camera work, but spending a lot of time underground does seem to contain him.

Ewan McGregor plays the discontented man in a near future scifi flick where a group of Nike clad well mannered and healthy individuals eagerly await their future on 'The Island'. A little of Logan's Run and a slice of THX1138 help give this some weight, along with some dependable acting from McGregor, Sean Bean and Djimon Hounsou. And for most of the movie runtime this is engaging if a little predictable.

Alas, as soon as it breaks out, Mr Bay gets his dirty OTT action* directional mitts on it and we have some ridiculous action, crazy fighting and lots of running until it all ends in a Polyphonic Spree video. Still, I like it.


*(OTT action is usually great and always was until Michael Bay)

4 comments:

Nick aka Puppet Angel said...

I recall The Island as an acceptable piece of Bay bollocks.

My overriding memory is of Scarlett Johansson being her usual stunning self and that great piece of music they use at the end called 'My Name is Lincoln' which went on to appear in countless trailers. I haven't seen it properly since the cinema so I'll have to sit down and watch it again sometime.

Problem is Transforers 2 traumatised me so much I now break out in a cold sweat any time a Michael Bay film is near.

Zombiestyled said...

Transformers 2!!! - Transformers was bad enough.

Rob said...

Bay movies need to find that very very delicate balance between the dramatic and bullshit-tastic corniness.

This leans too far into dramatic territory to be vintage Bay. But I like it though.

Zombiestyled said...

They are yet to find it yet. He is an actual western version of John Woo 'Western Version'.

They could both team up together to reimagine the Never Ending Story