Product Placement Showcase (a.k.a. 'The Island)
 

One of the worst movies I've ever seen. I've never expected great things from Michael Bay (Bad Boys, The Rock, Armageddon, Pearl Harbor, Bad Boys 2), but this movie was a joke from start to finish. From start to finish the movie is filled to the brim with product placement adds ranging from Michelobe and Aquifina, to Dodge and Caddy (and, yes, MSN). Despite the great acting talents of the cast including Ewan McGregor, Scarlett Johansson, Djimon Hounsou, Steve Buscemi, and Sean Bean, every plot twist was predictable and not in any way enjoyable. The decent acting is a desperate attempt to overcome the terrible script, directing, and editing. Not even the force can save this.
This recieves 1 piece of popcorn out of a possible large popcorn (about 1 out of 700 pieces).

Hmmm.. I'm surprised you didn't say anything about MSN.

i'm going to have to see this "Logan's Run" wanna be which comes out before the remake because well Ewan makes the wife squishy.

I did notice the product placement in The Island. A few times it was terrible. Didn't really detract from the movie though; one could argue that it makes the movie more realistic since it is set in the near future.

I liked the first half of the movie a lot more than the second half. I'd consider it a good movie, but it would be great if the second half was more along the lines of the first.

-Lasereth

I agree, the product placement was blatant, but it was so consistent that it helped with the near-future setting. It’s difficult for a movie to depict a convincing futuristic city (in this case L.A.) particularly the vehicles. Either they modify existing cars (i.e. Blade Runner, Back To The Future, etc), or they go with CGI. This movie took a different approach; they used mostly current vehicles, but only chose ones that looked unusual, edgy, or futuristic. Lots of Chryslers and Dodges (300, Charger, Magnum), Caddies (SRX, SLR), Lexus, Honda, Hummer, etc. Chrysler intends to sell a version of the Charger as a police cruiser, but I doubt we’ll ever see Caddy SRX taxis!

Also, this movie had one of the best highway chase scenes I’ve ever seen. The car wrecks were incredible!

I think we might. I mean, 2006 Caddy SRX, in 2019, did they say the year was? It'd be like us buying a used car from the 90s. I bet they'll be cheaper in the future, since they are used.

I don't recall how far into the future the movie takes place but all the cars looked brand new. It was almost like they tried to use cars that are so new now (hence very few on the road) so as to pass them off as new in the future. Some of the cars were purely fictional (the Mack truck rig), others were prototypes (the caddy super-car). All mixed together, along with the CGI mass-transit trains, made for a fairly believable city.

I liked how they mixed in current bars and futuristic cars. In many movies that take place in the future, only futuristic cars are shown on the road. Why? Today there are older cars on the road, so why shouldn't there be present day cars on the road in the future? In The Island, even cars from the 90's were shown in really bad shape. :) That was a nice touch...by then, today's cars will be 20 years old. It made it seem way more realistic.

-Lasereth

You go out at night, eatin' cars
You eat Cadillacs, Lincolns too
Mercurys and Subarus
And you don't stop, you keep on eatin' cars
Then, when there's no more cars
You go out at night and eat up bars... :D