It's become a tradition for us in recent history to cover a disaster film on or near the 4th Of July, so this year's choice is the Auteur Of Explosions, Michael Bay. Armageddon is crass, it has tonal problems, it's edited into incoherence, but, truth is truth, this blockbuster still worked on at least one of us. And we both acknowledge how entertaining it is. Bay's macho, in-your-face filmmaking style seems appropriate for a story about wisecracking oil drillers being asked to become spacemen and then save the planet from an asteroid coming to wipe out all life on the planet. We spent a lot of time mocking the "science", although tension and emotion help soothe SOME of those factual problems. What works best of all though is an eclectic cast, most of whom weren't stars yet (Ben Affleck, Liv Tyler, Owen Wilson, Michael Clarke Duncan). Of course, not even Affleck has ever gotten to be as big as Bruce Willis was then and continued to be for another decade. Oh, and Steve Buscemi! He always makes things better. So break out your American flag, shout "USA, USA" and give episode #522 of Have You Ever Seen some of your attention on this holiday weekend.

Well, Actually: It's debatable to say that Bay's movies have never lost money. The Island, 13 Hours and Ambulance are 3 examples of his works that barely broke even worldwide. After you account for marketing costs, those 3 movies DID lose money.

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