The Maniac's Weekly Picks and Pans: Transformers: The Revenge of the Fallen and My Sister's Keeper

This is the week we've all been waiting for, well many of us at least. Transformers: The Revenge of the Fallen looks to be the action junkie's fix for the rest of the year. I'm reserving judgement on the quality of the film, but the trailers seem way too action driven and missing much of the charm and fun of the original. I hope I'm wrong and the characters remain more important than CGI. Hollywood sometimes forgets that we went to see Indiana Jones, because it's Indiana Jones, not for the incredible special effects. A mistake I've seen over and over in the film industry. Here's hoping...

I'm afraid of this next one. I don't think it's the time for such a film, but it is about as different as can be by the other wide release film mentioned above. My Sister's Keeper, Cameron Diaz's latest, looks to be a sometimes depressing sometimes uplifting story about a family in extreme turmoil. Diaz decides in order to save her daughter's life she needs to have another baby. The older girl has leukemia and depends on the other (Abigail Breslin) to provide the body parts to keep her failing body alive. I find the film to be disturbing in the least and frightening at most. Can we really look to a future where children are conceived to provide bone marrow or livers to replace the failing ones of their siblings. I hope not.