Okay, I know it’s the 4th of July and everything, but I think the stars of TRANSFORMERS might be getting a bit ahead of themselves, as they are now talking about how patriotic the film is. “We haven’t seen a movie where America’s painted real nicely,” said star Shia LaBeouf. “Approval ratings blow and recruiting numbers aren’t doing well and it’s just that the country’s not in a good place. Movies like this kind of give you that hero vibe. You start turning the military into a hero. It’s good for people to see that, to have that pride in their country. They make heroes out of the government and military, which hasn’t happened in a while.”
But one cool aspect of the film is that the producers and casting directors cast real Marines as extras for battle scenes, which I gotta give them props for doing. And check out what Tyrese Gibson had to say about his interactions with the real-life Marines: “The best part about this movie is that when a bomb is about to go off they actually tell us before it happens,” said actor Tyrese Gibson. “But them, they’re overseas, they’re walking in fields, they’re running into land mines, losing legs and you name it. It’s all unexpected. So to be around those guys and then they say, ‘Man, we wish it was like this in Iraq. We wish we had us a Michael Bay in Iraq that can tell us where some shit is about to explode at, so we can go on home.” Okay, I’ll agree with Gibson on that front, but doesn’t this all seem like a cheap way to sell a few extra tickets. It’s just hard to believe that TRANSFORMERS is genuinely patriotic when the Marines in the film are getting worked over while fighting the “Decepticons.” Oh well, worse ways of selling movie tickets have occurred.