Everyone's Got A Guilty Pleasure...Mine's "Transformers"

 It's true. Everyone has a guilty pleasure.

When it comes to movies, I think we all have a film that whenever it's on, we stop and watch--if not the whole thing, at least part of it. Last night I was channel surfing and I came across one of my guilty viewing pleasures...

Transformers

I'm sorry. I know there's a lot not to necessary like about the film. It's "over the top" and gratuitous in places. I know that the film's protagonist went on to have a turbulent career with several questionable choices (both onscreen and off...). I know that it's the type of movie where you turn off the logical side of your brain and just watch, but I can't help it.

I think it's a gas.

Being the first of many, the movie that starts a franchise needs to be good. I thought the casting in Transformers was exceptional. The side characters make me laugh every time. It's well-paced. There's lots of action, even if much of it makes little sense. We have patriotic themes, fantasy themes, science fiction themes, government conspiracy themes...lets face it--it's got it all.

The show was on last night and so I sat down and watched it unfold. Nerdy kid gets his first car, a car that's not really a car, but an alien. Nerdy boy also gets the "bad" girl and together the work with government officials, military heroes, and sidekicks to literally save the world from invasion.

The film spawned others, two more with Shea LaBeouf, then two more, with another slated for 2023 (at least, according to IMDb where I lifted these photos without permission...). I do not like any of the other Transformer films as much as I like the original, though I did enjoy Bumblebee, mostly because the alien is a VW, not a Camaro. It is also a guilty pleasure, though they don't play that one as much as Transformers.

There will be a time in the future, I will once again find myself surfing the channels and I will come upon this film--first debuted in 2007--and I'll find myself watching it, and enjoying it again.

Posted A Picture From "UHF" Not Knowing How Many People Loved The Show...

A few days ago I needed a "Pic Of The Day." Actually, I need to find a picture to use everyday. Sometimes I find the picture early--other times it's a last-minute thing. While I was watching a movie, I realized I hadn't found my picture yet. Luckily for me, the movie I was watching was a classic, Al Yankovic's UHF.

I took the picture and posted it.

Then people came out of the woodwork on Facebook to let me know how they felt about the movie.

Turns out, they think about the show about the same way as I do.

UHF is not a high mark in cinematic excellence. In fact, it's a little slow. Then again, my wife and I watched Ferris Bueller's Day Off the other day and that's another film that's slow. Comedies have evolved over the years and movies we hold up as hilariously funny are still funny, but something's changed. And since the movie's not changed at all, it's us that's changed.

Here are some scene's from the movie. If you're a fan of the flick, you know I could have taken screenshot after screenshot, plastered them on this blog post, and still not gotten close to capturing all the great moments in the film. It is, after all, just a collection of sketches. But it's done well, and one of the characters is named Philo. I hope the character's named for the inventor of television, Philo T Farnsworth, a Utahn. Philo in UHF was played by Anthony Geary, another Utahn best known as General Hospital's Luke Spencer.

As I watched, I remembered parts and re-discovered things I had forgotten about. I don't think I'd want to watch the show over and over again. It would take away some of the charm. But re-discovering it after a long time, it's like catching up with a childhood friend and remembering just why you like them so much.