Top 5 – Michael Bay Movies

Michael Bay is the definition of all style, no substance.  He badgers our senses until we can no longer hear, see, or smell.  His movies are dumb, plotless, and mildly racist, but man does he make explosions and action a spectacle for the eyes.  With Transformers: The Last Night coming out this week, let’s look back at the Bayest of the Bay and look at the director’s five best movies.

Yes, there are five, amazingly.

5 – THE ROCK (1996)

The Rock was the start of everything we know of Michael Bay today, just on a smaller scale.  It was loud, bright, chaotic, and preposterous, but is no doubt a blast to watch thanks to its thrill-a-minute pace and action.  Sean Connery is having a ball and Nicolas Cage is perfect.  The two have a buddy comedy rapport between them, similar to a few films we will see down the list.  This is a mindless summer blockbuster at its finest.

4 – ARMAGEDDON (1998)

The plot to this movie is incredibly dumb, as it would have been easier to train astronauts to drill rather than train drillers to be astronauts.  But I’ll be damned if I didn’t love the melodrama and ridiculousness of this movie.  This is the best cast Bay has ever worked with, featuring the likes of Bruce Willis, Ben Affleck, Liv Tyler, Steve Buscemi, William Fichtner, and Billy Bob Thorton, among others, who all do solid work.  And, we get not only one of the best original songs from a movie ever, but one of the best Aerosmith songs in the last 30 years with “I Don’t Wanna Miss a Thing”.  The space scenes are thrilling, the characters are fun, and the ending is sad.  This movie elevated Bay to superstardom.

3 – BAD BOYS (1995)

Bay’s first feature film is his smallest film in terms of explosions, but there is no shortage of shoot outs and laughs through out.  Much of the films credit goes to Will Smith and Martin Lawrence, who both were mostly known for T.V. at this time.  They made a perfect duo of the suave, single gun slinger (Smith) and the worrisome family-man (Lawrence).  It is a perfect buddy pairing.  This is an impressive debut for a director who spent most of his career making music videos.

2 – TRANSFORMERS (2007)

Transformers is a film that shows how far we have come in terms of special effects.  This is a movie that, if you grew up playing with Transformers and watching the cartoon, is everything you wanted and more.  Seeing Optimus Prime and Megatron and the whole gang on the big screen looking the way they did was jaw-dropping.  An astonishing feat I never thought possible.  It was also the first film where I really noticed the sound design, which amazed me.  The movie is also a lot of fun to watch, with some pretty fun jokes and one of the few times Shia Lebouf is tolerable.  And even with the bloated run time of two and a half hours, the movie flies through thanks too the biggest, baddest explosions and the most insane robot on robot carnage in cinematic history.  It’s a shame the sequels are all god-awful, because Transformers is a spectacle for the eyes.

1 – BAD BOYS II (2003)

Bad Boys II is, in my mind, an action classic.  Led once again by the dynamic duo of Will Smith and Martin Lawrence, who are at their bests, Bad Boys II takes everything that was great from the first one and elevates it to new heights.  It’s bigger, it’s bloodier, it’s funnier, and it’s a better film.  This is also the one Bay film with a lot of heart to it.  At the core of Bad Boys II, beneath the car chases and bullet casings, is a story of friendship and brotherhood and growing up and growing apart as you get older and life gets in the way.  Bad Boys II is full of fun, excitement, and heart and one of the best action movies ever.

What are your favorite Michael Bay movies?  Are you going to see 13 Hours?  Comment below or hit me up on Twitter @kevflix or on Facebook at Kevflix.