Now, I'll start this off by stating that I have no problem with Michael Bay. Granted, his recent output has been atrocious (his last decent film being The Island) but on a good day its hard to find much better than a Michael Bay film for sheer action and mindless entertainment. However, on re-watching this film for the first time in years, something surprising happened - I found that it hasn't aged well. Not at all.
Whereas once I saw…
There's not much to say about this classic from Paul Verhoeven that you can't find elsewhere online, but when Paul Verhoeven gets it right he gets it seriously right - this film is a prime example.
A disappointing end to what could have been a great trilogy given how much I enjoyed the first film. Too many extras added and too many characters crowbarred in for the sake of it. It had its moments but it felt like it was being dragged out for no reason (well, other than to justify splitting the story into 3 films of course). I'm sure I'll buy the extended version and watch it a few times, but I can't see it making any "top" lists for me.
A highly underrated Arnie film that carries with it a very well written plot. Its rare to see an Arnie film in which his character isn't able to withstand multiple firefights with elite soldiers and survive unscathed but instead sees him quite vulnerable and more human than normal. It still has a few downsides, the length of the film being one of them (20 minutes shorter would have improved it greatly), but its always worthy of a watch.
