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Notes from the back row

More to Fox than meets the eye

Transformers 2 hits theatres Wednesday and all the hype this week is focused on 23-year-old star Megan Fox, a ravenous beauty with the face that launched a thousand ships... into Kleenex.

The latest Internet theory is that Fox is too perfect to be a real person and is in fact CGI. That the latest fantasy girl is merely a digitally created special effect.

She has a special effect on me, and most of the rest of the male population, but Megan Fox refuses to be just the latest pretty face. In recent interviews she's called for the legalization of pot, admitted to stealing her mom's car as a kid, blown the whistle on Hollywood's "Casting Couch" culture and also laid down this fantasy sound bite for Britain's Heat Magazine when asked if she had a crush on Angelina Jolie.

"Absolutely. Every time a relationship ends, I say, 'If I could just be Angelina's girlfriend, I would be so happy.'"

It gets better. Talking to Entertainment Weekly Fox says we have only seen seven percent of her talent and that working with Transformers director Michael Bay is not about acting.

"I know," Fox says, "that when he calls Action! I'm either going to be running or screaming, or both.'"

Calling out Michael Bay (still rumoured to be a CIA operative making subversive propaganda) is what I am talking about. Megan Fox is hot, young, feisty, tough, pro-weed, a little bit crazy, a little bit wild, with a sarcastic sense of humour and two big handfuls of clever - in most of her photo shoots she sucks or bites on her thumb for a few frames to guarantee a money shot. Fox also likes comic books, she's starring in the upcoming Jonah Hex adaptation as well as this fall's Diablo ( Juno) Cody penned zombie satire Jennifer's Body.

The theories about Megan Fox being an android or a computer graphic are admittedly tongue in cheek but you have to admit she does seem almost too good to be true, a fanboy's (or fangirl's) dream. Even just seeing "Megan Fox" and "tongue in cheek" in the same sentence feels kind of good doesn't it?

But what about the movie? Transformers 2 is two-and-half hours long, loud, hyperactive, and very effects-and-action-based. It's a movie based on a children's toy though, so what do you expect? Autobots and Decepticons battling it out while Megan Fox runs through the sand in slow motion sounds like a good time to me.

Shia LaBeouf also stars and, although it's as subtle as a sensory deprivation chamber, Transformers 2 is still the first really big popcorn movie of the summer. It's tough with a sequel to surpass the 'wow' factor of the original but Fox alone makes it worth admission and the CGI robots are seamless.

Another movie opening at the Village 8 this week is Year One, a smoke-'em-if-you-got-'em caveman movie starring Jack Black and Michael Cera as cavemen banished from their village who stumble into biblical mythology. Looks funny but forgettable. Looks pretty bad actually, but I like that about it.

Also hitting screens is The Proposal. where a successful but bitchy female-cliché played by Sandra Bullock has to fake-marry her sweet assistant played by Ryan Reynolds and meet his family at their country house so the usual dog jokes and clichéd characters can appear. Betty White, not looking a day over 134, is the highlight as the sharp-tongued grandma cliché. Unless you like crap like 27 Dresses , Bride Wars and He's Just Not That Into You I' skip this one. Save your money for Megan