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Shuck and Jive Will Not Return in Transformers 3

By TK | Posted Under Trade News | Comments (18)

skidsmudflap.jpg

I never thought that I would be reporting good news about Transformers 3. Last week I reported that human suck magnet Jamie Kennedy was cast in the film, as well as that kid from Can’t Buy Me Love. There’s actually a surprising amount of solid acting pedigree in the movie — Frances McDormand, John Malkovich, and the quite funny Ken Jeong as well. Of course, that means nothing because look what Michael Bay did to poor John Turturro — reduced to being forced to run around in his underpants in the first one, and run around a giant pair of steel testicles in the second. Yeesh.

Anyway, the good news… or rather the less bad news, is that Skids and Mudflap, the horrifically derogatory and denigrating duo that I affectionately refer to as the Stepin Fetchit Twins, will not be returning. Bay received a substantial amount of backlash for the characters (which were his sole creation and not the responsibility of writers Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci). In Dustin’s review, in fact, he said “Mudflap and Skids, the Jar Jar African-American racial caricatures (gold tooth, hip-hop lovin’, bad slang, can’t read) of Transformers, …really are offensive, though it’s not too surprising: Racists have notoriously small dicks.”

Yeah. When I read that, I figured he was overreacting, since he’s all sensitive and shit. He’s not. They were two of the most ridiculously ignorant characters I’ve ever seen. Bay posted a quick and easy response that said, simply, “The Twins are not back in T3” on The Official Michael Bay Forums, which… actually exists. Mind=blown. Oh, don’t go there. I’m warning you. It’s like gazing into the abyss. The people that post there are… they’re different. Wrong somehow. I realize that sounds hypocritical from someone who writes and comments on a movie website, but… trust me.

Regardless, it’s good to know that a big enough backlash can prevent a director from continuing to use idiotically stereotyped characters. Now if only we can generate enough backlash to get the series to stop altogether (and I actually guiltily admit to sort of enjoying the first one). What’s that? They’ve grossed a more than 1.5 billion dollars worldwide? Oh, fuck. So much for that idea.

(Source: Slashfilm)









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Comments

Now if only we can generate enough backlash to get the series to stop altogether

I'm doing my part. I still have not seen the 2nd one and refuse to do so.

Posted by: EricD at May 12, 2010 9:23 AM

I still have not seen the 2nd one and refuse to do so.

I'd really recommend sticking with this plan. I went in in order to see just how bad it was - which is kind of like those movies where people go into the eerily abandoned town 'just to find out what happened'.

Watching on DVD and excising the movie in half-hour chunks it was still the worst thing I've seen apart from LXG.

Posted by: twig at May 12, 2010 9:33 AM

and I actually guiltily admit to sort of enjoying the first one

I really liked the first one. I own it! I know...people might kill me. But it was just a good fun action film. I haven't seen the second one, all I've heard are bad things, so I don't think I'll bother any time soon.

Posted by: Carrie (Teabelly) at May 12, 2010 9:37 AM

Why, oh, why does Ken Jeong insist on doing shitty movies lately? First Furry Vengeance and now this?! He's so much better than that.

Posted by: stardust at May 12, 2010 9:43 AM

"The people that post there are… they’re different. Wrong somehow. I realize that sounds hypocritical from someone who writes and comments on a movie website, but… trust me."

HAHAHHAHA! That tickled me more than I can say.

Posted by: BWeaves at May 12, 2010 9:58 AM

Dammit! One of the best rules in the Transformers Drinking Game is "Drink whenever something completely racist happens." It's so like Michael Bay to give us a terrible thing and then, once we've found a silver lining, just to take it away from us.

Posted by: esme at May 12, 2010 9:59 AM

stardust, Ken Jeong doesn't "insist" on doing shitty movies, he "insists" on working.

I get tired of this view of actors as though they lounged around in smoking jackets, picking the movie that best suits their current disposition.

These people are desperate to have a job, and desperate to know that they will have a job 5 years from now.

Michael Caine said it best: "First of all, I choose the great [roles], and if none of these come, I choose the mediocre ones, and if they don't come, I choose the ones that pay the rent."

Posted by: morganew at May 12, 2010 10:05 AM

I don't know that exact quote from Michael Caine, but I have read interviews where he has shared that exact sentiment -- just work. Your job is to act so act.

Also, I don't think anyone needs to feel guilty about liking either of the Transformers movies. Are they stupids? Uh-yeah. Are they filled with mind-blowing 'splosions and Megan Fox's middrift? Uh-yeah, they are. That's what you signed up for when you rented it, so you might as well enjoy it.

I own both movies. Good times.

Posted by: superasente at May 12, 2010 10:47 AM

Yeah yeah yeah, work pay the bills blah blah blah. That doesn't change the fact that I still think he's better than Furry Vengeance and Transformers 3, especially when he's getting a steady paycheck from the awesomely awesome Community. I know he's only done two crappy movies, but if an actor, any actor, does only crappy movies then eventually all that actor is going to get are crappy roles.

Posted by: stardust at May 12, 2010 11:08 AM

Unfortunately, while this is good news, taking away the Jive Turkey Twins in this circumstance is like taking away the sexist undercurrents from a Tyler Perry film; the movie's still going to suck either way. Ignoring it is the only thing that can be done when T3 rolls around.

Posted by: Oracle at May 12, 2010 11:23 AM

Are you sure by "the twins" he just means Megan Fox won't be back? It's not like she's got any other marketable talents.

Posted by: Mrcreosote at May 12, 2010 11:41 AM

I don't think anyone needs to feel guilty about liking either of the Transformers movies

First one, no. Second one, yes.

There's a distinct difference between stupid and fun, so stupid it's good, and movies where even the action sequences aren't done well. Also, there are hot chicks in better movies.

If I don't demand at least some small modicum of ability in my stupid action shit, in ten years the only thing left at the movies will be multiple showings of "Ow My Balls VI: The Ballening".

Posted by: twig at May 12, 2010 11:47 AM

Transformers 2 was so forgettable, I had to dig through my memory to recall if I had even seen it. I mean, I had all this resentment for it--surely I must have seen it, right? No. In fact, it was so forgettable that I forgot it without having ever seen it. Kind of like The Matrix 3.

Posted by: Lindsay at May 12, 2010 12:40 PM

I still have not seen the 2nd one and refuse to do so.

Me neither. I know that if I watch it brain cells will march out of my ear saying "Fuck it! We gave him a chance and he's just not interested in helping us!"

Posted by: Fredo at May 12, 2010 12:58 PM

They are going about Transformers 3 all wrong with the huge explosions and exotic locales and whatnot. All you really need in these movies is to have Optimus Prime, Starscream, and Megatron speaking to each other in mighty proclamations with bass-shaking reverb in their voices. Everything they say is awesome.

OPTIMUS: MEGATRON, YOUR DISHES ARE IN THE SINK. AGAIN.

MEGATRON: STARSCREAM WAS TO EMPTY THE DISWASHER. {Megatron blasts Starscream through the wall, through the wall of the next door apartment, through ANOTHER wall, and sends him careening into a GM billboard. Hold on GM logo for 10 seconds.}

STARSCREAM: {Picking himself up.} APOLOGIES GREAT MEGATRON!

MEGATRON: YOU'VE FAILED ME AGAIN.

OPTIMUS: THE SINK. IT IS STILL FULL. IT IS THE RIGHT OF ALL SENTIENT BEINGS TO HAVE A ROOMMATE DO THEIR FAIR SHARE.

And...scene.

Posted by: TylerDFC at May 12, 2010 2:03 PM

Oh, well you convinced me. Now I'll definitely be seeing it!

Posted by: DarthCorleone at May 12, 2010 3:32 PM

TylerDFC, I'd watch that movie. My brain cells have verrrrry low standards. I've trained them well.

Posted by: MM at May 12, 2010 3:41 PM

Sigh, last year, sadly, I as an avid connoisseur
of pirated movies, I broke with tradition ON MY BIRTHDAY and went to see Transformers 2. Mind you, I sat through tmnt: secret of the ooze, various Jean CLaude Van Damme films, and yet, I have never been so angry, confused and downright flabbergasted at how shiteous this movie was. People were laughing at jokes that weren't funny, stuff was blowing up for no reason every nano second. I had to watch Megan Fox "cry"... If you haven't seen it, bless you... bless you all

Posted by: michele at May 12, 2010 7:26 PM