Transformers: Age of Extinction (12A) **
Convoluted, dull and running at a bum-numbing two hours and forty minutes, Age of Extinction is slightly better than the dire third film in the series, but has none of the originality or humour of the first.
Still, Irish actor Jack Reynor, cast by Bay on the strength of his performance in What Richard Did, will benefit from the international exposure the film allows - and already has a couple of other films on the way.
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Age of Extinction is a juggernaut of a movie, at times deafeningly loud, packed with blatant product placements and so heavily effects driven that it’s hard to know, or care, what’s going on.
At least in the first hour, some effort is made to cobble together a plot. Mark Walhberg plays the kind of badass we’ve come to expect of him as Cade Yeager, the protective father of Tessa (Nicola Peltz) who has a secret boyfriend (Reynor).
Strapped for cash, Cade has a sideline as an inventor - and when he does some repair work on Autobot leader Optimus Prime, that puts him on the radar of some tough government types.
Kelsey Grammer plays a state official who has joined forces with a tech mogul (Stanley Tucci, having fun). Their plan is to build their own robots and wipe out the alien ones.
We’re barely an hour in before old and new robots start battering each other is a series of elaborate set pieces, some of which are audaciously enjoyable.
But for the most part this is bombastic and convoluted, one for ardent fans of the Transformers series only.
Tammy (15A) **
MELISSA MCCARTHY’S turn as bawdy chick with a big heart crashes spectacularly in this poorly conceived attempt at comedy.
Her routine wears painfully thin in this film and she can’t even blame the writers - McCarthy co-penned the script herself.
It’s a shame, because on occasion you can see shoots of what those involved were doubtless trying to achieve here - a female-orientated drama spiced up with bad-taste humour.
Tammy’s having a bad day. She’s lost her job and pranged her car - and that’s even before she gets home early to find her husband romancing their next door neighbour.
Desperate to get out of town to escape her woes, she enlists the help, and the bank account, of her wacky grandmother, Pearl (Susan Sarandon) who’s keen on one big hurrah before she’s put in a retirement home.
The stage is set for a crazy road trip as the girls head for Niagara Falls but it all misfires horribly, with a series of set ups that will make you cringe rather than laugh.
A potential romance with Mark Duplass brings out her more vulnerable side but for the most part Tammy is such a shrill and dislikeable character that the audience aren’t given enough to root for.
And the crude humour she and Sarandon - via sex and drink jokes - are aiming for pans out in a series of jaded situations.
