I saw Transformers the week of July 4th. There is not much to do in the city in the summer other than go to the movies. At some point during the movie I just started counting how many characters in the movie said, “No no no no no…” I suppose if you leave parts of the script loose so the actors can improvise, a few might end up improvising “No no no no no” as dialog. By the way, I counted three characters.

Michael Bay is the director that most often employs one of my favorite devices in movies. It is the, “we need the best [insert profession here] in the world.” In Armageddon, they need the best drillers in the world. I’m pretty sure somewhere in The Rock, they say they need the best Alcatraz escapee in the world. In Transformers, he really perfects this formula. In the movie, the government needs the best signal analysts in the world. One of those signal analysts goes and gets the best hacker in the world, played by Anthony Anderson and conveniently living nearby. I’m glad to see Michael Bay perfecting the “best x in the world” formula.

Anyway, is Josh Duhamel a poor man’s Timothy Olyphant? Is Timothy Olyphant now big enough to have a poor man’s version?

Rotten tomatoes rating: 56%