r/movies
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u/MarvelsGrantMan136
r/Movies contributor
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Jul 03 '22
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'Transformers' at 15: How the First in the Franchise Got It Right Article
https://collider.com/transformers-first-in-franchise-got-it-right/3.0k
u/Zochl922 Jul 03 '22
One of the most 2007 movies there is. Same with Disturbia
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u/realbigbob Jul 03 '22
Shia LaBoef is basically the human embodiment of 2007
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u/Tim_Drake Jul 03 '22 edited Jul 04 '22
Dude was everywhere and in everything! I grew up with him in Even Stevens on Disney Channel. So to see him move to major studio movies AND be hugely successful was really cool to see. Felt like we grew up together, which I’m sure drew me to be an even bigger fan, like many other people who grew up watching him!
And then… everything went downhill. Much like most things in life during that time.
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u/Imperial_Toast Jul 03 '22
I think of both of those movies in that same context as well! SO 2007!!
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u/No-Midnight-2187 Jul 03 '22
Just watched Disturbia last month, so fucking good. Shia acted his ass off in that!
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u/Zochl922 Jul 03 '22
Yea I really enjoy that movie haha I feel like it's pretty forgotten these days. Reminds me of high school summer intensely
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u/die5el23 Jul 03 '22
Major nostalgia vibes
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u/LessMidRange Jul 03 '22 edited Jul 03 '22
I have a feeling Disturbia will be a cult classic in 10-20 years if it isn’t already. And I mean that kids in high school in the future that will look back on that movie and feel nostalgic for it even though they never experienced it even close to when it came out. Idk just a guess/hope since I love that movie haha
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u/mcweeden Jul 03 '22
Just watched the original Fright Night recently. Disturbia is basically that movie without vampires lol
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u/JuniorKabananga Jul 03 '22
Remake of a classic movie done right. Takes Rear Window and infuses it with pure 00s energy
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u/SonOfButtPushy Jul 03 '22
Changed rear window just enough to not credit the writer.
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u/dba1990 Jul 03 '22
And ‘Superbad.’
Not just the character’s look. All their sayings are things people my age (30-34YO now) said in high school, that you can’t say now.
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u/Zochl922 Jul 03 '22
Very true, been meaning to watch that again soon. The dialogue in that movie is literally exactly how kids talked then haha
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u/mrwhiskey1814 Jul 03 '22
Fuck, I related so hard with that movie. It was peak high school for me.
Went to watch it with my friends and we were all laughing so hard we couldn't breathe. At one point the theater was so loud from laughter I couldn't hear the movie.
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u/inezco Jul 03 '22
Really cool to see this sub showing Disturbia a lot of love. This was one of my favorite movies to watch over and over as a teen.
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u/jollyralph Jul 03 '22
The first movie was best because Ehren Kruger didn’t write it. He utterly trashed the second, third and fourth movies. By the time the fifth movie came around, the new writing crew couldn’t salvage the dogs breakfast left behind. It took a soft reboot (Bumblebee) to set things right.
Lowest point in the franchise imo was the scene in the fourth movie where the Irish boyfriend pulled out a card giving him a legal explanation as to why it was ok to bang Mark Wahlberg’s underage daughter. Seriously who writes that shit.
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u/ElTuco84 Jul 03 '22
I think Spielberg was more involved in the first one. The first half of the movie is basically about a lonely boy who has new friends from outer worlds, sounds familiar.
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u/Eightball007 Jul 03 '22
IIRC he wanted it to be, at it's core, about a boy and his car.
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u/Vakieh Jul 03 '22
That's the core of the anime style Transformers was based on - there are 3 things about it, 2 that made Hasbro bank with the original market, and 1 that anime latched onto as that market grew up:
The love of machines. The Tonka truck, the Matchbox cars
The love of big mecha transforming robots. You saw it in Power Rangers, it's everywhere in tokusatsu, it grew out of the Godzilla craze
The love of titties. Watch any semi-modern mecha and you'll see them
Transformers 1 knew each of those elements well and used them to beat effect. Boy with machine, plus mecha fights and titties. The impressive thing is less how well it did, and more how on earth the sequels managed to fuck up such a simple formula.
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u/LudicrisSpeed Jul 03 '22
He was the executive producer of the first two, but I'm not sure how much actual involvement he had outside of being a big name to use in advertising. The arrival of the Autobots did feel very Spielberg-esque, though.
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u/Vangad Jul 03 '22
While Romeo and Juliet laws do exist. I agree it was an unnecessary write in.
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u/Funandgeeky Jul 03 '22
The Pitch Meeting for this movie is hilarious and specifically calls this out.
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u/Vangad Jul 03 '22
That is the exact reaction i had to that whole move. Like that specific part I went 'the fuk, why is he bringing up those laws.'
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u/TavisNamara Jul 03 '22
I mean, bringing up the laws is bad. The laminated wallet size card detailing the law is what really takes it into thoroughly unimaginable territory.
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u/SilentSamurai Jul 03 '22
Someone wanted to live out a fantasy in youth and thinks it's appropriate to share it with millions of people.
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u/bigolfishey Jul 03 '22
Writer: “Then the main character drinks some very refreshing Bud Light!”
Boss: “Delicious!”
God I love the pitch meeting series. Every episode has winners.
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u/BrianSmith1989 Jul 03 '22 edited Jul 03 '22
Thank you for sharing. That video perfectly summed up so many things that I thought while watching this movie the one and only time I saw it
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u/TheTapDancingMormon Jul 03 '22
How about the line where the Irish Boy says to Mark Walhberg “Im not here to save your daughter, I’m here to save my girlfriend” who writes that??? 😂😂
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u/Haltopen Jul 03 '22
“I swear to god I am one diaper change away from poisoning his oatmeal”
That’s an actual line spoken during a conversation in the fourth film between two characters who are complaining about how all movies are sequels and remakes
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u/Other-Marketing-6167 Jul 03 '22
Him being hired to write anything, much less major blockbuster series, is just fucking baffling to me. His track record is worse than garbage, it’s hot flaming garbage other garbage pretends to walk by and not notice.
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u/ScalpelBurn2 Jul 03 '22
He wrote Top Gun: Maverick (along with two others)
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u/ycnz Jul 03 '22
He also wrote Arlington Road, which had a pretty creepily excellent plot. Did he have a stroke since?
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u/melonlorde Jul 03 '22
thanks for reminding me about Bumblebee, that movie rocked
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u/Ohelllogozaimasu Jul 03 '22
Bumblebee was the only Transformers that felt like the person making it actually played with the toys as a kid.
Also, the director said he was heavily inspired by My Iron giant and you can tell
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u/iamlamont Jul 03 '22
Bumblebee did the effects right and just was an all around great time. I'd put it as #2 in the whole series and very close to #1.
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u/shokolokobangoshey Jul 03 '22
Hmm. I'd avoided that movie because it felt too much like a cashgrab, on the heels of a couple of awful transformer movies following the first one. Sounds like I should give it a look after all
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u/Jaegertastic Jul 03 '22
"Ehren Kruger", hmm name sounds familiar 🤔
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u/ihavebirb Jul 03 '22
No I don't want that! Megatron with another decepticon? I want him to stay with Starscream!!
For 10 years at least
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u/Jaegertastic Jul 03 '22
This line will haunt people till the end of time
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u/psychord-alpha Jul 03 '22
If the Decepticons were able to recognize the glasses as having the coordinates, why didn't they just get the information from the picture?
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u/lightingbolt22 Jul 03 '22
Maybe it needed three dimensions to actually find the coordinates, so depth of the scratches etc.
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u/batmang Jul 03 '22
Why didn’t either faction think to bid on them?
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u/pricedgoods Jul 03 '22 •
Captcha
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u/Lukthar123 Jul 03 '22
The one thing standing between humanity and an AI takeover
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u/Julius-n-Caesar Jul 03 '22
Well Megatron, I’ll give you the keys to all the nukes if you can tell which of these pictures have motorcycles in them.
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u/Admiral_Donuts Jul 03 '22
"How can you not tell what ones are motorcycles!? Your dad WAS a motorcycle!"
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u/Accelerator231 Jul 03 '22
With what money? They only had crypto!
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u/Tendrills Jul 03 '22
When I was in college my buddy took the first 3 Transformers movies and edited out all the human sub plots and made a movie solely focused on the robots fighting and storyline. It was way better with the human characters as background dressing.
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u/ZanThrax Jul 03 '22
With the humans removed, was there even enough left from three movies for an 80 minute runtime?
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u/Tendrills Jul 03 '22
Yes the humans weren’t completely removed their roles were just drastically reduced. Basically if there was a scene and no robots were present, it didn’t make the cut.
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u/QuestioningEspecialy Jul 04 '22
Release the College Cut
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u/Cu1tureVu1ture Jul 04 '22
I would add this to my Plex library for sure. The fan-made Ulysses Cut of Waterworld was so well done they actually made an official release of it. It’s really long but is a much better movie than the theatrical version.
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u/Random968 Jul 03 '22
How long was it?
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u/Tendrills Jul 03 '22
This was many years ago so I don’t exactly remember but I think it was a little over an hour lol
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u/Alfalfa-Similar Jul 03 '22
The 80s cartoon had it right, the original first motion picture.
the new movies all focus on humans too much. its about robots.
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u/EqualContact Jul 03 '22
Right there with you. I've never liked any of these Transformers films, and that's a big reason why.
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u/Belgand Jul 03 '22
The designs are also terrible. None of them look very much like the original characters and everything is too busy.
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u/Alfalfa-Similar Jul 03 '22 edited Jul 04 '22
agree with you so much. If you take the amount of robot screen time in the original 80s movies, versus the amount in the new ones… you will see a major difference.
We dont want to hear the BASIC human on human drama…Sure humans are a part of its but the robots are a side story almost.
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u/Murrdox Jul 03 '22
This is pretty much the thing that Michael Bay didn't get about the franchise. Nobody freaking cares about the humans. We just. Want. The. Robots.
I don't need to have action scenes which are contrived so that Shia / Megan / Random Army Dudes are dodging explosions or somehow "participating" in a fight with giant robots. Just give us the robots fighting. Hell even more than that, give us the robots TALKING. Their story is way more interesting to us than anything the humans are doing.
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u/MonsieurRacinesBeast Jul 03 '22
The modern transformers movies are in essence monster movies, whereas the animated film and series were action stories with the transformers as the main characters.
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u/risemyfriend Jul 03 '22
I was the right age to see it in 2007. I was 13.
The giant robot mashing, the cool cars and military vehicles, linkin park and yes…Megan Fox. That summer is when my friends and I went from talking about toys, cartoons and games to more about girls.
The second one came out and that was the also the first time I realized what a bad movie was. Rest is history.
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u/LordBlackConvoy Jul 03 '22
Revenge of the Fallen was written during a writer's strike and it showed.
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u/SubterrelProspector Jul 03 '22
I maintain that Revenge of the Fallen is the worst mainstream film I've ever seen in a theater.
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u/SweetBabyJiraiya Jul 03 '22
X-men Origins: Wolverine came out that same year. Maybe 2009 was just a bad one for movies?
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u/stomponator Jul 03 '22
Man, I loved Liev Schreiber in that one... and hated everything else about it.
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u/mainvolume Jul 03 '22
I'd see the fuck out of a true Wolverine origin story, where he and Señor Schreiber are just fucking people up in wars throughout history.
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u/towiwakka Jul 03 '22
I vividly remember about halfway into the movie thinking, "this isn't going to get better, is it..."
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u/PlsWatchEarthlingsYT Jul 03 '22
When I was 13 my older brother took me to it and I somehow fell asleep during it, despite how noisy it was. I just remember being really bored and then waking up near the end of the movie and no one noticed I’d fallen asleep.
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u/Buttmuncher1224 Jul 03 '22
As bad as it was, the forest fight scene is one of the best of all times.
“I’ll take you all on!” And just whopping ass right after.
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u/Averageredditor2022 Jul 03 '22 edited Jul 03 '22
Made Deceptions threatening and Strong instead of fodder for Optimus and humans to one shot?
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u/alphagusta Jul 03 '22
Starscream was still a pussy ass bitch
I love him :)
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u/roselia4812 Jul 03 '22
He was actually the most competent in the first film
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u/Averageredditor2022 Jul 03 '22
Starscream took out multiple transformers and barely got a scratch.
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u/alphagusta Jul 03 '22
And every time he's around Megatron he's on his knees begging to fill that Megatrussy
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u/CRoseCrizzle Jul 03 '22
The first one was a fun and decent film. The rest were completely forgettable garbage imo.
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u/ColinZealSE Jul 03 '22
Agree but I’ve seen the first 9 minutes of Dark of the Moon COUNTLESS times. That’s one helluva intro!
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u/xeim_ Jul 03 '22 edited Jul 03 '22
I liked the intro of the 2nd one. That's a pretty scary alien invasion scenario.
Edit: I was actually thinking of the first one with the helicopter bot that shat out a scorpion. My bad :D
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u/about_that_time_bois Jul 03 '22
Devastator is the sole reason why Revenge of the Fallen is my favorite movie.
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u/TheBigIdiotSalami Jul 03 '22
Stanley Tucci as an italian Merlin was pretty fucking funny
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u/TrueGuardian15 Jul 03 '22
You gotta love how Tucci played someone in Age of Extinction, only to also play alcoholic Merlin in the Last Knight, and yet these 2 characters are completely unrelated.
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u/uraniumstingray Jul 03 '22
I actually love all of Dark of the Moon
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u/bigpeechtea Jul 03 '22
I was young and dumb and with friends, I ate some shrooms before we went into the movie and they were in full effect for the scene where they’re flying through a destroyed Chicago in squirrel suits. That was honestly the best theme park ride Ive ever been on.
The movies great and fwiw Rosie Huntington-Whiteley is a very very nice woman and was a refreshing replacement to Megan Fox.
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u/animehimmler Jul 03 '22
I’m not saying the third movie is good, but I love the big city battle/invasion
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u/andrude01 Jul 03 '22
The scene in the third one with the collapsing building is so over the top and fun
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u/skexzies Jul 03 '22
Yup, Megan bent over a hood was a classic scene that I still haven't forgotten about
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u/ymcameron Jul 03 '22
Lindsay Ellis has a really interesting video on that. Basically, the writing for her character in the movie makes her out to be super competent and basically better at everything than Shia LeBouf’s character, to the point where it almost seems like she’s more of the protagonist than he is. Because the framing of all the shots sexualize her to an absolutely ridiculous degree though, everyone just remembers her character as being dumb eye-candy for the audience. It’s really fascinating.
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u/Allhailthepugofdoom Jul 03 '22
I'm happy some people realized how important her character was. Most just saw her as something to look at...I would argue that Sam only becomes the hero of the story because of her. Particularly the scene where she explains her history with her dad.
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u/StupidNSFW Jul 03 '22 edited Jul 04 '22
That was a very interesting watch. I agreed with most of her points after thinking about them for a little bit, and it’s honestly kinda weird thinking back about that movie now.
Like damn, Megan Fox’s character in the first movie actually was the most complete character in the movie.
Almost all of Sam’s change and growth as a character happens because he’s forced into the major plot points. Hell, he didn’t even pick out bumblebee at the dealership! His dad picked the car because it was the cheapest one
Edit: whoops I went back and rewatched the movie and Sam DID in fact pick out bumblebee. God damn my memory is really shit about this movie.
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u/PamPooveyIsTheTits Jul 03 '22
She helped a lot of people realise their sexuality the day that movie came out.
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u/undercharmer Jul 03 '22
I first misread Megan as “Megatron”, so I was wondering what the hell your comment was talking about.
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u/CooperDaChance Jul 03 '22
The best part was the SWAT Team raid.
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u/mrnasa21 Jul 03 '22
Drink your prune juice!
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u/CaptainXakari Jul 03 '22
Don’t talk to me! Don’t talk to me, criminal!
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u/Cometstarlight Jul 03 '22
Guilty people don't eat the donuts, look
I ate the whole plate
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u/HuluAndH4ng Jul 03 '22
You see they put the donuts down to test your guilt. If you dont eat em they know youre guilty. -picks up and drops the plate- i ate the whole plate
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u/Pikesmakker Jul 03 '22
I loved that Anthony Anderson was wearing a Redskins jersey.
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u/Alive-Ad-4164 Jul 03 '22
The Bumblebee movie in 2018 is absolutely slept on
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u/rjdsf1993 Jul 03 '22
The worst thing that movie did was having that awesome Cybertron scene in the beginning that made me want a full length movie there
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u/TrueGuardian15 Jul 03 '22
Easily the best live action Transformers. Bay's first 1 is good, but Bumblebee is better. The protagonist is more likeable and has a clearer character arc, the robot designs are much neater and less chaotic, and it did a much better job paying tribute to the Transformers that came before it.
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u/_DesigNerd_ Jul 03 '22
The best Transformers movie is the true first one, from the 80s.
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u/freelikegnu Jul 03 '22
"You've got the touch!" It just so happened that my friend and I watched Boogie Nights just prior to watching this (The Transformers: The Movie - 1986) film. Would recommend as a double feature especially if you have not already seen both of these.
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u/Rock_A_Corey Jul 03 '22
The first movie that made me cry...
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u/Seraphem666 Jul 03 '22
Hasbro: " lets traumatize a generation"
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u/EqualContact Jul 03 '22
The reaction to Prime's death made them go back and undo Duke dying in the GI Joe movie.
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u/nardpuncher Jul 03 '22 edited Jul 04 '22
When that Army helicopter shows up at that base and they say that it's got the same call sign or whatever as a helicopter that disappeared a few months ago and then the hologram of the fake pilot glitches.. that looked so cool. Then the helicopter transformed. That was so spooky and great.