TRANSFORMERS: AGE OF EXTINCTION (Rated PG-13)

With the proliferation of sequels that allow the Hollywood film industry to not even break a sweat, it’s hardly a surprise that director Michael Bay, whose affinity for explosions is unsurpassed by anyone else, has churned out yet another “Transformers” movie.

“Transformers: Age of Extinction” is the fourth film in the franchise and the first one not to star Shia LaBeouf, whose legal troubles seem to be mounting by the day.

Fittingly, on the eve of the film’s release, LaBeouf was arrested for disorderly conduct during a Broadway show.

Though LaBeouf is missing, disorder appears to be the modus operandi of director Bay, seeing how he loves to blow things up with wild abandon.

The franchise has turned into a surfeit of CGI-generated explosions and an orgy of destruction of everything in the path of giant robots.

The whole volatile premise is so overworked that the incessant clash of robots and the crunching of metal are just too much for anyone with a pulse to endure.

This is the type of mindless, idiotic nonsense that not only dulls the mind but causes one to lose brain cells.

Okay, so LaBeouf is out, and so is Megan Fox. At least on the distaff side, Bay finds another hottie in Nicola Peltz’s Tessa Yeager, a high school senior who favors very brief shorts and whose single father Cade (Mark Wahlberg) is a besieged inventor of robots working out of a barn on his rural Texas homestead.

Struggling to keep his property from being foreclosed, Cade is unable to resist buying an old semi truck rusting inside an abandoned theatre. Carefully restoring the vehicle, with the help of his friend Lucas (T.J. Miller), Cade discovers that he has unearthed Optimus Prime.

For the uninitiated, Optimus Prime is the leader of the Autobots, the good aliens who helped the human race to fight off the Decepticons, the aliens whose only goal is apparently to rid our entire planet of any human existence.

In any case, if you don’t know the difference between an Autobot and a Decepticon, this would be the moment to forget any thought of seeing this movie and perhaps consider catching an indie film that likely no more than a few dozen will ever watch. Better yet, just stay at home.

Meanwhile, creepy CIA honcho Harold Attinger (Kelsey Grammer), assisted by his even creepier henchman Jases Savoy (Titus Welliver), has teamed up with a Decepticon named Lock Down to hunt down the Autobots, looking for spare parts that can be sold to a sleazy industrialist.

The film’s most interesting character is Stanley Tucci’s Joshua Joyce, CEO of Kinetic Sciences Institute, an industrial plant that is trying to replicate the giant alien robots, ostensibly for more benevolent purposes, but likely not, considering the shadowy figures lurking about.

One reason that Tucci’s Joshua is fascinating is that he has the best lines, mostly ones that provide comic relief to a story that becomes increasingly dull. To his credit, Tucci can come across as both pompous and ridiculous.

On the other hand, Wahlberg’s Cade has little to do other than to be an overprotective father. Boy, he gets a rude awakening when he meets her secret Irish boyfriend Shane (Jack Reynor), a more worldly character but one who proves handy for his race car driving skills.

The best car chase sequence comes fairly early when the Yeagar family, with Shane driving his sporty car, eludes the elite, deadly CIA commando squad that swoops down on the Texas ranch like the assault on the Branch Davidian compound near Waco, Texas.

The Yeagers and Shane end up in Chicago, which was pretty much annihilated in the last “Transformers” movie. The search is for Optimus Prime’s fellow Autobots, and again destruction follows. Hasn’t Chicago suffered enough from Michael Bay and the fact that Cubs haven’t won a World Series in more than a century?

At Joshua’s KSI complex, faceless scientists in white lab coats are busy creating a robot named Galvatron, and when Optimus Prime and his fellow bots show up, chaos and mayhem rule the day.

The scene shifts to China and Hong Kong (I already lost track of the transition), and more bedlam and disorder become the norm as robots engage in more destruction. At this point, one must stifle the inevitable yawns as the dull action becomes more repetitive.

“Transformers: Age of Extinction” is aimed at slack-jawed adolescents that spend all of their free time (or is it all the time?) watching violent video games or playing pinball machines in an arcade.

Unfortunately for the vestiges of intelligent life that still remain, there are more “Transformer” movies to come, and I can only hope that I may be on an extended overseas vacation at the time, sparing myself the agony of losing three hours of my life that are forever lost.

Tim Riley writes film and television reviews for Lake County News.

I’m especially fond of sparklers because they were among the very few fireworks we could obtain in Iowa when I was a boy.

And also because in 2004 we set off the fire alarm system at the Willard Hotel in Washington by lighting a few to celebrate my inauguration as poet laureate.

Here’s Barbara Crooker, of Pennsylvania, also looking back.

Sparklers

We’re writing our names with sizzles of light
to celebrate the fourth. I use the loops of cursive,
make a big B like the sloping hills on the west side
of the lake. The rest, little a, r, one small b,
spit and fizz as they scratch the night. On the side
of the shack where we bought them, a handmade sign:
Trailer Full of Sparkles Ahead, and I imagine crazy
chrysanthemums, wheels of fire, glitter bouncing
off metal walls. Here, we keep tracing in tiny
pyrotechnics the letters we were given at birth,
branding them on the air. And though my mother’s
name has been erased now, I write it, too:
a big swooping I, a hissing s, an a that sighs
like her last breath, and then I ring
belle, belle, belle in the sulphuric smoky dark.

American Life in Poetry is made possible by The Poetry Foundation ( www.poetryfoundation.org ), publisher of Poetry magazine. It is also supported by the Department of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Poem copyright 2013 by Barbara Crooker from her most recent book of poems, Gold, Cascade Books, 2013. Poem reprinted by permission of Barbara Crooker and the publisher. Introduction copyright 2014 by The Poetry Foundation. The introduction's author, Ted Kooser, served as United States Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 2004-2006. They do not accept unsolicited manuscripts.

LAKEPORT, Calif. – The June Spring Concert of the Lake County Symphony Association Youth Orchestra proved very popular, with the young musicians attracting a large crowd to the Soper Reese Theatre.

The concert – which took place on Sunday, June 8 – opened with a special presentation of the LCSA String Classes made possible by a grant from the Lake County Wine Alliance.

Because of this generous grant, new teachers, Clovice Lewis, cellist, and Jeff Ives, violist/violinist, came onboard to help teach the classes.

The beginning violin, viola and cello classes each played a selection, then all classes joined together for the final selection of the first part of the concert.

A viola solo was played by Rafael Contreras, whose primary instrument is violin. Ives worked with him on more advanced viola music, and suggested he play a solo as part of the viola string class presentation.

The string classes were well attended this year with students second grade to adult, and hopefully the students will become members of the Youth Orchestra in the future.

The string class presentation was followed by the full LCSA Youth Orchestra, delivering an impressive demonstration of their musical abilities.

The youthful musicians were led by conductor Sue Condit, who has challenged the students with higher levels of music. They have all met the challenge and presented an outstanding concert.

Presented were classical selections by Mozart – themes from two different symphonies and “Classical Symphony” by Prokofiev.

Also on the program was an energetic Morris dance, the exciting theme from a video game, and movie themes from the “Titanic,” “The Avengers” and ending with a grand finale of “Back to the Future.”

Members of the symphony joined them in the finale, and a slide presentation from “Back to the Future” was presented by Wally Fuller of the Soper Reese.

High school graduating members were recognized for their years of service in the orchestra and a few of them played a special presentation of two very difficult fiddle tunes.

First violinists, Clayton Rudiger, Lars Tisell and Edison Serena, received much applause after their energetic rendition of the challenging selections.

Thank you to Dr. Charles Marion Hovden who was so impressed with the concert that he donated $1,500 to the Endowment Fund for the “Youth Orchestra Conductor Chair” in memory of Thomas Bruner.

The Lake County Symphony Association also thanks the Soper Reese staff and volunteers for partnering with us to make this performance of the youth music groups possible in their wonderful community venue.

The Youth Orchestra and the string classes will resume in September in Kelseyville.

Anyone interested in our LCSA youth programs is asked to please contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or the Lake County Symphony Association Web site www.clearlakeperformingarts.org .

COBB, Calif. – The Cobb Mountain Artists group will host its open studio tour on Saturday, July 12, and Sunday, July 13.

It will be held from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. both days.

Artists and craftspeople will offer the public the opportunity to “go behind the scenes” to visit the places in which they create.

This year's tour includes returning and new artisans with a wide range of media: ceramics – from functional to custom tiles – paintings, felting, jewelry, photography, glass, woodworking and much more.

Maps with directions easing you from studio to studio will be available at Mountain High Coffee, in Cobb and Hidden Valley Lake; Grinders Steep, Middletown; Loch Lomond Store, Loch Lomond; on the Web site, www.cobbmtnartists.org ; and at individual studios on event days.

For more information contact Joanne Sharon at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or 707-987-8827.

JERSEY BOYS (Rated R)

Did you happen to know that Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons, at one time banded together as “The Lovers,” obtained the group’s name from that of a New Jersey bowling alley from which they were unceremoniously booted without the ability to fulfill an engagement?

“Jersey Boys” – more of a biopic about the fortunes of hardscrabble boys from a working class Italian-American neighborhood in Belleville, New Jersey than a musical – is full of nuggets of biographical information, more than had been provided by the Broadway musical upon which the movie is based.

It seems most doubtful that a major motion picture about streetwise crooners, whose heyday goes back about a half-century, would have been made in today’s world without the incredible success of a Broadway show now running for more than eight years.

The stage version of “Jersey Boys” put the music of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons back into the public conscience long after the group retired and gained well-deserved acclaim by being inducted in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990, an event that bookends the film.

Nostalgia is the driving force behind the appeal of “Jersey Boys.” It worked on Broadway, with the revival of upbeat pop songs like “Sherry,” “Walk Like a Man,” “Dawn (Go Away),” “Big Girls Don’t Cry,” and “Rag Doll,” just to name a few of the endless hits.

That legendary Clint Eastwood is the director of “Jersey Boys” on the surface seems like an unusual choice, but his love of jazz music arguably puts this venture into his wheelhouse. Besides, the real Frankie Valli and songwriter Bob Gaudio are executive producers.

The film’s Frankie Valli is John Lloyd Young, the obvious pick for the singer with the falsetto voice as he won the Tony Award in his Broadway debut for the stage production that also won the Tony for Best Musical.

Young’s Frankie Valli is the natural fit, and it would be hard to imagine someone else in the pivotal role of the often temperamental singer with the Jersey accent, the perfectly-coiffed pompadour and natural style of a neighborhood kid making the big time.

Frankie and his street pals, Tommy DeVito (Vincent Piazza) and Nick Massi (Michael Lomenda), would as often as not get into trouble with the law for petty crimes. There are occasions in the early days when one of them would end up for a short prison stint, though this did not happen to Valli.

Local mob boss Gyp DeCarlo (Christopher Walken), a fixture in the community, proves to be a big fan of Valli’s crooning talent.

DeCarlo figures into the story to help smooth out problems caused when the hotheaded, profligate Tommy gets the group deep in debt to the wrong people.

Bouncing around in lousy nightclub acts, the group finally coalesces when they discover Bob Gaudio (Erich Bergen), a natural talent for songwriting who does not come from the neighborhood. In fact, his background is more upscale but he fits in nicely with the group.

Gaudio’s talent is that he was either the writer or co-writer of “The Four Seasons” hit-parade of great songs.

With Gaudio on board, the group meets up with flamboyant record producer Bob Crewe (Mike Doyle), whose urbane flair is far removed the Jersey shore.

The members of “The Four Seasons” were not related by blood, but they were as close as family and sometimes just as dysfunctional.

As they rose to fame, infighting and squabbles became the norm, often because Tommy was the source of their dilemmas.

Performing at the Ohio State Fair, they are arrested by authorities for having skipped out on a hotel bill from their appearance the year before. None of their legal troubles proves daunting, and their career continues to soar with national TV appearances.

Frankie Valli is the lead singer and the star attraction, even to a female journalist who succumbs to his charms though he’s still married, while his wife Mary (Renee Marino) has become predictably angered by his aloofness and absence from the family.

But Valli is frequently eclipsed in presence by the volatile Tommy, the putative band organizer who prides himself on booking events and dealing with producers.

Tommy is the catalyst for much of the action, particularly the kind that gets the group on the wrong side of talent agents, producers and even the law.

“Jersey Boys” is about the music, but also very much tuned into the chemistry of “The Four Seasons” and how these strong-willed individuals cope with fame and fortune, and those bumps in the road that threaten to derail the storybook journey.
 
One device taken from the Broadway show is that the actors break the proverbial “fourth wall” – talking directly to the camera and, thus, right to the audience. It’s an effective means for each member of the “Jersey Boys” to tell the story from his own point of view.

Having seen the Broadway musical, an experience recommended to anyone, I would say “Jersey Boys” still works better as a stage production.

Nevertheless, many elements from the show translate well to the screen, and “Jersey Boys” the film is definitely worth seeing and the soundtrack worth buying.

Tim Riley writes film and television reviews for Lake County News.

The poems of Leo Dangel, who lives in South Dakota, are known for their clarity and artful understatement. Here he humbly honors the memory of one moment of deep intimacy between a mother and her son.

In Memoriam

In the early afternoon my mother
was doing the dishes. I climbed
onto the kitchen table, I suppose
to play, and fell asleep there.
I was drowsy and awake, though,
as she lifted me up, carried me
on her arms into the living room,
and placed me on the davenport,
but I pretended to be asleep
the whole time, enjoying the luxury—
I was too big for such a privilege
and just old enough to form
my only memory of her carrying me.
She’s still moving me to a softer place.

American Life in Poetry is made possible by The Poetry Foundation ( www.poetryfoundation.org ), publisher of Poetry magazine. It is also supported by the Department of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Poem copyright 2013 by Leo Dangel from his most recent book of poems, Saving Singletrees, WSC Press, 2013. Poem reprinted by permission of Leo Dangel and the publisher. Introduction copyright 2014 by The Poetry Foundation. The introduction's author, Ted Kooser, served as United States Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 2004-2006. We do not accept unsolicited manuscripts.