Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (2009) ***

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen follows the continuing adventures of those wacky Autobots and Decepticons as they continue their intergalactic battle for stuff. The Autobots are now working for the U.S. government (which never did Superman any good) as they hunt down their enemies around the globe. They're up to something, but what? Convienetly there seems to be yet another power source on earth even grater than the Hellraiser cube that was fried in the first film. Throw in everyone else from the first film (except Jon Voight) and you get a trans continental action-adventure that is choke full of those Transformers that we played with as kids.

Now I know there's a lot of bashing being thrown at this movie. I'll be the first to admit that it's far from perfect, though it is understandable that all of the government backed Transformers are disguised as government backed automobiles. The acting sucks. All around. No way around it. Don't want to get into it. And of course Michael Bay's direction is like smashing a Playstation 3 game and a car commercial into one. There's no soul in it.

But what is Transformers 2? I had someone explain it to me very short, sweet, and to the point. "It's about fighting robots from the '80's," he said. And for some unknown reason it made the movie better. This isn't Bergman, Kubrick, or Scorsese. This is pure, brain dead entertainment. It's junk food for the brain. It's the cinematic equivalent of cotton candy. And when you look at it like that it works. It's entertaining! I honestly liked it better than the first one because it goes right into the ass kicking. Sure it's predictable as hell, but you still sit there watching the mayhem and loving every minute of it.

Sometimes your mind needs potato chips too.