Joey Magidson
Few directors let you know where they stand as consistently as Michael Bay. Whether you love his work, hate it, or somehow fall in between (which seems unlikely), you know a Bay film when you see it. Bay’s movies are singular in their desire to cause mayhem and thrill, often at the expense of all else. With Ambulance having hit theaters this weekend, it seemed like a perfect time to rank his flicks. However, I quickly became depressed and exhausted by that, so instead, I’ve turned it into an Awards Radar Community Question. Yes, today we want to know how you rank Bay’s filmography, to date!
As a reminder, this is some of what I thought about Ambulance in my review from earlier in the week:
You go into a Michael Bay movie with a certain set level of expectations. Without really any exceptions, Bay traffics in action mayhem, with a kinetic feeling of adrenaline rushing through your body. Everything else is secondary. Occasionally, he stumbles upon a fun thrill ride. More often than not, his films are a chore, at least to me. With Ambulance, however, Bay has one of his more effective and successful outings. At the same time, it’s so purely designed to just thrill, while being the car chase to end all car chases, it loses any of the heart it’s attempting to have. It’s upper echelon Bay, so it’s simply a matter of what that means to you. Pardon the pun, but your mileage may vary with Ambulance. For me, it was fun until it became exhausting.
This is how I rank Michael Bay’s filmography:
15. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
14. Transformers: Dark of the Moon
13. Transformers: The Last Knight
12. Transformers: Age of Extinction
11. 13 Hours
10. Transformers
9. 6 Underground
8. The Island
7. Bad Boys II
6. Pearl Harbor
5. Armageddon
4. Pain and Gain
3. Ambulance
2. Bad Boys
1. The Rock
The choice is now yours. Where do you fall on Bay’s films? Which, if any, are your favorites? Do you hate his movies? Are you even interested in seeing Ambulance? No matter what your answer is, we’re keen to find out…
How do you rank the films of Michael Bay? Let us know!
Having not seen Ambulance yet, I have to concur with your ranking of The Rock at #1.
Nicolas Cage and Sean Connery have exceptionally good buddy cop chemistry; among the best of any 90’s movie, and with the exception of one gratuitous car chase that could have very easily been cut from the movie, the action and carnage are very self-contained. One of my big problems with most Michael Bay films is his casual depictions of innocent bystanders being slaughtered, and The Rock mostly avoids that.
For sure. I might even go so far as to say it’s the only one of his that I actually enjoy. At a certain point on the list, things become essentially unwatchable.