Michael Bay. Love him or hate him, you can’t deny the director’s ability to make energetic, entertaining, and profitable action films for general audiences. His testosterone-fueled directorial style has influenced the visual vocabulary of the contemporary Hollywood blockbuster more than any other filmmaker.

Bay’s films have grossed $4.5 billion worldwide and are often characterized by explosions, lens flares, 360 Steadicam shots, and never-ending sunsets. While he’s often considered nothing more than an egotistical hack, Bay’s distinct high-octane style is instantly recognizable and – for better or worse – he’s been incredibly consistent throughout his career.

One aspect of Bay’s films that often gets lost in all the explosions and mayhem is the impressive lineup of actresses he’s included in his predominantly male movies. With his latest film, Pain & Gain, about to hit theaters this weekend, I thought it might be a good time to look back at Michael Bay’s filmography, specifically the leading actresses who have since went on to insanely successful careers.

So, check out below The Leading Ladies of Michael Bay’s High-Octane Cinema.

The last time I saw such wonderful chemistry between a human and a robot was Duncan Jones’ Moon. While Frank and Robot doesn’t possess the same dark tones that Moon had, it does have a lighter and more whimsy look at the relationship between man and machine. Since the film was a hit at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year, I have been waiting to see some form of footage from it. Now, Samuel Goldwyn Films has released the first trailer for the film, which you can check out below.

Based on the reviews I have read and the trailer that I just saw, Robot and Frank has a lot of heart, and there is just enough tomfoolery in the film to keep me interested. In it Frank, an aging jewel thief, is given a robot caretaker. When he finds a reason to take up the crime he retired from, he trains his robot caretaker in the craft of stealing jewels.

With this year’s Sundance Film Festival bringing the newest film from director Ti West, a found footage film he co-directed entitled V/H/S, Deadline has the scoop on who will be joining him for his next project.

The outlet is reporting that Liv Tyler has joined the upcoming project, The Side Effect. The film will follow a woman who becomes part of a pharmaceutical company’s strange experiment that will see her spending several months in space. While there, she somehow becomes pregnant and begins losing her grasp on reality as she tries to figure out how this could happen and how to get out of this astronomical prison she’s stuck in.

The Ledge
Blu-ray | DVD
Directed by: Matthew Chapman
Starring: Charlie Hunnam, Terrence Howard, Patrick Wilson, Liv Tyler
IFC/MPI Home Video
Release Date: September 27, 2011

Movies and faith, when blended well together, make magical partners.  Be it great pieces based around specific biblical events or narratives surrounding those who may be questioning their own faith due to hardships encountered in their lives, cinema plays as a wonderful vessel for filmmakers looking at giving the world distinct and singular takes on what makes organized religion so pertinent in today’s culture.

The Ledge isn’t that film.

Super
DVD I Blu-ray
DIRECTOR: James Gunn
WRITER: James Gunn
STARRING: Rainn Wilson, Ellen Page, Liv Tyler, Kevin Bacon, Michael Rooker, Nathan Fillion, Gregg Henry, Sean Gunn
IFC Films
RELEASE DATE: August 9, 2011

Just recently I reviewed a little indie flick called Griff the Invisible, one of three fairly recent movies about normal everyday folks creating and becoming their own superheros. The other two are 2010’s Kick–Ass, and director James Gunn‘s Super. At the time, I said that the three movies shouldn’t be compared (having a basic understanding of Super but not having seen it yet), and now, having seen all three, this is confirmed: all three are unique in their own special ways, and all three are very much worth seeing.

Super tells the story of Frank D’Arbo (Rainn Wilson), a lowly and rather pathetic man who works as a cook at a local diner. Frank only has two “perfect moments” in his life: when he married his wife, Sarah (Liv Tyler)””a recovering drug addict he met at work””and when he pointed the cops in the direction of a purse–snatching criminal.