Scrap Metal

Surely there comes a point in an actor's career where you've got to wonder, "what the hell am I doing this for?"

There certainly comes a point as a filmgoer when I ask that question, and half an hour into Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen is that point.

I didn't mind the first Transformers film. Yes, it was stupid. Utterly, utterly stupid... but it was also fun. I was never a Transformers fan, and the best bits of that flick were the bits where the robots were off-screen, but it made you believe a giant robot could turn into a truck and back again, and that's all it ever claimed to do.

Sadly, most of the things that worked in #1 have been marginalised in the sequel - while everything else has been turned up to eleven. Two and a half hours of scrap metal porn, only brightened by fifteen minutes of prime ham from John Turturro who's mugging for all its worth. He doesn't save the film, but he kept me from walking out. I hope he was well paid. I hate to think what was going through his mind while he made this.