before it effects a movie?

There have been quite few threads about scenes in the newest Transformers movie that rub people the wrong way. Be them racial slurs, unrealistic gags for the sake of infantile laughs, etc. The main defense of these scenes seems to be that they are short.

The point of this thread is to discuss how long these scenes in this, or any movie you can think of, have to be before they negativly effect a movie.

Let's try an keep it professional and by no means should anyone's opinions be taken with any more or less value than any others and please announce spoilers as usual.

 

I think it can depend on the movie... Some movies those jokes have no place, but based upon TF1 setting the expectation, the family humor and fart jokes are gonna be there because they have decided to make this movie Campy and not a serious thriller action.

I think it has more to do if the jokes are funny or not. If the jokes are funny, people enjoy them. If the jokes are not funny and fall flat... they fall flat. When a movie is full of jokes that fall flat, people notice and it ruins the movie. (IE: Land of the lost and possibly year one)

Those who do not enjoy that sense of humor regardless of the scenes won't care either way and can either look past the jokes or walk out. TFs is an action comedy adventure so I personally just gotta wait to see if I enjoy the jokes or not.

Personally, I like Sam's Parents and I really liked Glenn. I thought Simmons was flat and not funny. So depending on the scene and who is delivering the jokes, I may like them or not. The twins doing a joke may be funny but starscream doing the same joke may not be.

(edit: I haven't heard any reports about any racial slurrs in ROTF... )

 

That's one point we can agree on. Sam's parents had some of the most awkward and risky lines with "happy time" but they were delivered in an appropriate context so I think they really went over better.


I think the slurs that are being mentioned are Jazz from the first movie and Mudflap and Skids, more stereotypes than anything.

 

The biggest offender in movies are the running gags or jokes. They make the main joke at one point in the movie, and decide to keep bringing it up as it goes on. It may have been funny the first time, but repeating the same joke will start to bore the audiance.

I do agree that Jazz was treated as a stereotype, but that's due to the time he had on screen. He could have had some reasonable character development if given enough time, but oh well, he's dead.

Skids and Mudflap, from what I've seen and heard, don't seem stereotypical at all to me, but I'll find out next Saturday.

 

Yeah, it's more about context and the severity of the offense than how long it is on screen. The pee scene in the first one was incredibly short, but I still cringe everytime I see it. The rest of the humor felt more or less par for course, but that scene just struck me as really awkward. I have a bad feeling about the balls, but I'll have to see what they do with it.

 

I wouldn't mind if all the jokes came from Sam's parents, a la "Sam's happy time" from the first movie.

But I mostly overlook these jokes and enjoy the movie's action scenes and all the really awesome effects they used to make it as though the Transformers are really real. That alone helps me get drawn into the movie. The jokes, since they're sprinkled here and there, are just minor things compared to big, explosive action.

 

Well we lall know how I feel about that stuff but I have decided that I will actually write and honest to God review for this one.

 

I felt that whole scene with Agent Simmons and the SUV part was akward. The interaction with Optimus prime, the handcuffing and the taking off all his clothes. That scene was long and not funny. While it attempted to be 'straightman' humor, The actor playing Simmons was simply too goofy and couldn't pull it off. I also felt the 'second in command guy repeating everything Simmons said was awkward and didn't work.

That whooooooooole scene became unfunny and noticeably long from when he walked into the house and tried to be serious and scan the house for energy to the end of the handcuff scene. The only funny part was Sam's mom screaming about her flowers and her dog, that was hilarious and believable.

I think it comes down to the actor and acting. Sam's mom = Funny and good actor, Simmons = Not a good actor and not funny. I saw him in Pelham 123 and he wasn't very good in that movie as well.

"Bumblepee" might have been funnier if the scene wasn't so awkward and the actor wasn't so bad. I think a potentially funny joke was ruined before it hap pend because everything leading up to it.

So I will wait to see ROTF before I see if any of these reported jokes are comedy gold or terrible jokes...