Over the weekend my nephew dragged me to see “Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen”.

I was surprised at how much I enjoyed it. By the time the original cartoon was playing in the 1980s, I was not into robots or animation so I never saw the first Transformers movie. Also, I usually find lead actor Shia LaBeouf incredibly annoying and don’t care much for director Michael Bey’s loud music-explosions-overdone style of filmaking.

Well, somebody must have reined LaBeouf in and Bey’s not as ham-handed with the loud music and explosions this time around albeit there is plenty of flash, splash, explosions and spectacle. The film starts off with a flashback explaining that there is a secret war brewing on earth between two tribes of mechanically transforming alien lifeforms. It picks up with LeBeouf’s character, Sam Witwicky, heading off to college and trying to deal with a long-term relationship with his fetching girlfriend Mikeaela (the stunning Megan Fox).

Sam has a bizarre experience with a shard from a mechanical device that causes his mother’s kitchen appliances to come to life, but is rescued by his car, which is one of the Transformers. Things really don’t get much better for Sam once he arrives at college. His new roommate is a pushy robot conspiracy theory freak and he winds up alienating one of his professors when he begins seeing alien glyphs and corrects one of Albert Einstein’s mathematical formulas.

He also makes the acquaintance of a strange and pushy female which leads to one of the film’s funniest scenes. The new hottie is in Sam’s car, which begins playing “Your Cheatin’ Heart” by Hank Williams Sr.

In the meantime, the Transformers are getting involved in battles with the Deceptacons, which is covered up by a paramilitary strikeforce called NEST (albeit you never find out what the acronym stands for). Many of the soldiers in NEST have developed strong friendships with the transformers, which look like Diesel trucks, sports cars and motorcycles when they are not in giant robot form. Unfortunately, a sneering government bureaucrat who apparently knew less of the Transformers’ backstory than I did has stepped in and is trying to shut NEST down and send Optimus Prime and pals packing.

It seems that centuries earlier a powerful alien weapon was hidden in the desert of Egypt and the Deceptacons wish to find the key and use it. Soon Sam, his girlfriend and his roommate are rushing across the world with John Turturro’s character Reggie Simmons, a former government agent turned conspiracy theorist and butcher-shop manager.

Ironically, two of the more interesting characters are Josh Duhamel as Major William Lennox, a special forces soldier in NEST, and Tyrese Gibson as Robert Epps his friend and fellow NEST member. If there is a third Transformers film, I would like to see more of these two in it and less of LaBeouf.

There is a lot of action and a lot of comedy in Transformers 2, and plenty of solid performances by actors even in smaller roles. You don’t have to have a small nephew to enjoy this film, and, to be honest, I was glad to see a lead actress in a major Hollywood film who didn’t look like she was suffering from anorexia. For those of us who are action junkies, I guess Transformers 2 will have to tide us over until GI Joe hits the theaters later this summer.

Directed by Stephen Somers of the first two “Mummy” films, I am really looking forward to GI Joe, despite the fact that I am unfamiliar with most of these characters. When I grew up in the late sixties and early seventies there was no Ninja in GI Joe although Joe did sport a kung fu grip along with his buzz cut hair.

I am hoping that my nephew will drag me to that one so he can explain who all those characters are.

For more adult fare, you can still catch “The Hangover” at some theaters like The Fountain Place Cinema 8. Basically, it’s the story of four guys who head to Las Vegas for a bachelor party and wake up the next day with memory loss and a missing groom. The hapless dudes go from place to place trying to backtrack where they had been in the hopes of finding their buddy in time for the wedding and to hopefully figure out why one of them married a stripper and how they managed to steal a large, Bengal tiger.

The ads for this film make it seem a lot more raunchy and raucous than the film really is. It’s actually a lot like the older comedies from the early 1970s like “The Out of Towners” which take their time in establishing characters so that you start to care about them when they get into trouble. The directing is good and the acting is excellent.