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I guess if I´d have to choose, I´d take Donald.
Kiefer´s got at least as much balls as his dad, making such a successful career out of being a son, and I mean talent-wise. But Donald´s grin is just unbeatable.
Though she not related to Donald or Kiefer. I enjoy Both of them. :)
I have seen Kiefer try something other than his usual strong man roles; he has to play pretty weak yet nerdishly smart in Dark City and I don't think he does a great job convincing me.
I've always liked Kiefer. He brings an intensity to his roles which I really enjoy. In a way, Kiefer's been doing what Craig is doing with Bond (the gritty intensity) for years. I prefer it when he plays a bad guy (like in Phonebooth). His voice alone is worth the price of entry.
Even though Donald has had a more successful (in terms of time and diversity) career, and probably is a better actor overall, I'm going to have to go with Kiefer. 24 seals it for me. Yes, the role was made for him, but he really owns it, especially in the benchmark 5th season.
Love them both but if pushed it would have to be Kiefer!
</b>Evaluate the Michael Bay directed films</font>
Quick reminder:
Bad Boys
The Rock
Armageddon
Pearl Harbor
Bad Boys II
The Island
Transformers
Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen
Transformers: Dark Of The Moon
Pain & Gain
Transformers: Age Of Extinction
The Island
Armageddon
The Rest
Michael Bay's directorial efforts are like a bag of potato chips for me, and really fatty, salty ones. They're bad for one's health and one simply doesn't walk into a restaurant with it either. But every now and then, some crispy potato chips can taste like heaven.
This is the position I'm in when I watch a Michael Bay film. The ingredients are simple, the end product an assault on the intellect. But I don't need my share of Kubrick, Welles, Hitchcock or Mann every single day. And between a Citizen Kane and a 2001: A Space Odyssey, I don't mind some Bad Boys or Transformers.
Enough with the apologies already. I love Bad Boys. Call it nostalgic pleasure, but Smith and Lawrence are pretty good in this film. The story is simple but it has energy and some teenage comedy that I enjoyed quite a bit in '95. I like the action a lot. The Rock packs punch and Sean Connery is a better senior citizen going Rambo than Stallone and co in The Expendables. The Rock is heavy metal but it surprises me how good it still looks today. I honestly think Armageddon is a great movie too. Say what you want, I have very fond memories of 16 year old me watching this film in the theatre in '98.
Pearl Harbor may be my most controversial choice. I really dig this film. Granted, it's basically an episode of any teenage soap series that suddenly turns into Saving Private Ryan, but that second half, where Japan attacks Pearl, I'm holding my breath for an hour or so. I know the backlash this film received back in the day but I mostly disagree. The images are great, the spectacle amazing.
Bad Boys II let me down; it tried to be Bad Boys 2.0 but ended up being the Windows 8 to a fine Windows 7. Loud and often unfunny, possibly my least favourite Bay film. But next comes The Island, another good film in my book. Though it borrows heavily from Logan's Run, the combo of Ewan McGregor and Scarlet Johansson is great fun. I like this stuff.
Next on is Transformers. Look, I grew up in the 80s. Transformers, GI Joe, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles... I grew up on this material! So when a friend had VIP tickets to the première of Transformers and drove us there in, you guessed it, a yellow camaro, I had a good time. The Transformers films are brainless metal-on-metal porn, incredibly loud and full of CGI, but I'm having so much fun with it, I feel like an 8 year old again. In fact, I thought Age Of Extinction was rather good.
Pain & Gain is the only one in the list I have yet to watch.
I went through this phase where I sort of denounced all my teenage favourites in favour of more art-house movies. Then Bay started producing a couple of really intense horror remakes via Platinum Dunes. With Texas Chainsaw Massacre it hit me that Bay has a talent for finding the right tone for these modernized versions of some of the greater classics. Let's say he hit a special spot there.
I have come to accept that Michael Bay stuffs a lot of elements in a film that he knows will appeal to the Red Bull generation: gigantic sets, fast cars, big explosions, loud action, hot girls and some Hans Zimmer or Zimmerish score, but in the end these things are the salt, pepper, fat and starch in my potato chips and sometimes, a bag of potato chips makes me happy. So while I don't think the man is an artist, I admire him for the good times he manages to give me time and again.
So those 3 would be, in order of my preference:
The Rock (fun enough)
Armageddon (good popcorn fun)
Pearl Harbor (which could have been great and was mostly a disappointment for me)
The two chase scenes in BB2 are also great fun, even though one is blatantly ripped off The Matrix and the other off Jackie Chan´s Police Story.
Haven´t seen P&G.
I have heard good things about Pain and Gain so I have ordered the DVD. Ready for more Bay.
Incidentally, may I offer some more controversy? :D Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles... Cowabunga dudes!!! One more memory from a distant past. Bay did not direct the recent Turtles film but I'm pretty sure that as a producer he had a few fingers in that pie. It was stupid, silly and totally unnecessary, a quick cash grab, a summer money maker, ... But I was back in young Dimi mode, I smiled, I laughed, I had great fun.
Transformers: Dark Of The Moon
Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen
The Island
Bad Boys
Transformers: Age Of Extinction
I happen to enjoy The Island as it is (and, actually, I have no idea who Terry Gilliams is).
Armageddon
The Island
Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen
Transformers
I re-wachted the first two last year.
Do.
Not.
Like.
Mr.
Bay.
:-S
Excellent example, @Agent007391. There are times when I wonder if Connery's facial expression is still in character. He sometimes stares at Cage like he's expecting Bay to yell "cut!" for another take. ;-)
So you wanna play Superman, then?
;-)
"Do you like the Elton John song Rocket Man?" "I only ask because... it's you. You're the Rocket man!"
"Pig tails are naugh-ty!"
There are just some horrible lines in that film. I imagine Connery probably wanted to say "But of course you are" to all of them.