Michael Bay should move to an island

[Michael Ryan]

Hello All,

I was talking with a pal of mine about some film Michael Bay is working on and it got me to thinking.

Bay is perhaps one of the most over rated Hollywood directors. Granted, I enjoyed THE ROCK, but look at the list of his other films. Let's not forget THE ISLAND. It cost over 120 million to make and grossed less than 37 million in North America.

I was reading the August issue of AMERICAN CINEMATOGRAPHER and the DP for THE ISLAND (Mauro Fiore) said he was shocked in the pre-production meetings that Bay had no storyboard and hadn't really planned out anything for the film.

Maybe he should go back to shooting MTV videos. You couldn't pay me enough to watch PEARL HARBOR again and I love war movies.

Mike

[romanD]

well, I guess Mr. Bay just shoots each scene with at least 10 cameras simultaneously, so what does he need a storyboard for then?

also with budgets like those he can fix whatever he wants in the postproduction.

But that also shows that he has no clear idea of how to tell a story. The way I heard you make films is that you think about your shots before you shoot them

I promise I will never watch a Bay-movie ever again... ISLAND was an insult and proof of bay's no-talent.

[mkaroly]

This si too funny- I saw the subject posting and burst out laughing. I don't like his directing style at all- funny that the truth always comes out int he end. I guess the guy really is a hack.

[AndyDursin]

I think the guy is a hack too -- but even worse are the people emulating him!

THE ISLAND will go down as an all-time "Golden Turkey" as Michael Medved used to say. That and STEALTH will end up two of the big bombs of this decade -- and to think they were released within two weeks of each other!

[Monterey Jack]

Bay is perhaps one of the most over rated Hollywood directors.

Um, how, exactly, is Bay "overrated"? He's arguably the most critically revilled director of the past 20 years.

[romanD]

overrated by the paying audience... all his movies except island made ridiculously much money.
I admit it, when BAD BOYS came out I loved the style, though I guess looking back much of its success came from the visuals paired with Mancinas top-score.
THE ROCK rocked then, but makes me yawn now constantly. ARMAGEDDON is still too long and the Bay-Patent-Shots get clicheed already, but still the destruction scenes and many space shots are fabulous.
Still, the movie showed already warning signs and with PH all went down the gutter.
I'd say it would be fair to compare Bay with Fincher.. .same age, same background, successful video and commercial directors. But while Fincher reinvents his style and invents new ways to show certain things Bay never got a new idea, he shots all his stuff in any movie the same way. His movies will be what the actioners of the 90ies will be remembered for and people will laugh about it in decades to come.

[AndyDursin]

I've never been a fan of Bay.

I remember getting into all kinds of email confrontations with readers over ARMAGEDDON back when that movie came out -- I hated that movie then and still do now. THE ROCK, while a better movie, was never a favorite of mine either. His direction was over-the-top on every score.

Ironically enough PEARL HARBOR is the one movie of his I can watch...and I don't particularly like it, but I can watch it, which is more than I can say for BAD BOYS 2, ARMAGEDDON, etc.

[mkaroly]

I've never been a fan of Bay.

I remember getting into all kinds of email confrontations with readers over ARMAGEDDON back when that movie came out -- I hated that movie then and still do now. THE ROCK, while a better movie, was never a favorite of mine either. His direction was over-the-top on every score.

Thanks Andy- I'm so glad someone else out there hated ARMAGEDDON- most people I talked to thought it was entertaining, but I hated it. I disliked it because you knew everything there was to know about a character's "depth" in only a couple of minutes. They were so one-dimensional, and Liv Tyler making out with Ben Affleck to an Aerosmith song made me literally want to puke. And it was toooo loooong. UGH!

[Eric Paddon]

"Armageddon" just literally seems to go out of one's way to insult the intelligence of the audience. I don't know what was worse, the "animal cracker" sequence, or the ridiculous moment where Liv and Ben have to share this very inappropriate public clench in front of everyone else while the other guys start singing, "Leaving On A Jetplane" or whatever it's called.

"Deep Impact" is no great work of cinema but at least there is some semblance of trying to treat the premise with a bit of seriousness.