15 Best Michael Bay Movies

The Rock is the ideal Michael Bay film: Nicolas Cage chasing green balls of face-melting nerve gas, Sean Connery crawling through plumes of bright orange fire, and Ed Harris as the world's most irritated general. It shares some flaws with Bay's weaker work, but has a raw, elemental power and a look at male friendship forged in violent times.

Bad Boys, the film with which Bay jumped from music videos and commercials to the big leagues, stars Will Smith and Martin Lawrence in a buddy cop film that let his talent for extravagance shine.

Ambulance is Bay's 'small' film, made under pandemic protocols, remaking a 2005 Danish thriller about two brothers who hijack an ambulance after a heist. It's one of his more humanistic films, recalling the streamlined pleasures of Speed.

Pain & Gain is Bay's only true comedy, a satire of American exceptionalism based on a dark true story. With brilliant performances by Dwayne Johnson, Anthony Mackie and a fully committed Mark Wahlberg, it has a dangerous, wicked energy.

Armageddon is in the Criterion Collection and needs little explanation. Tight, skillfully made and loud, with meteor destruction and a final mission to blow up an approaching asteroid, but it's the cast, including Bruce Willis, Ben Affleck, Owen Wilson and Steve Buscemi, that makes it so memorable.

The Island, the one acknowledged flop of Bay's career, is a futuristic sci-fi tale about human clones starring Ewan McGregor and Scarlett Johansson. Still a Michael Bay film full of explosions, but its vision of a dystopian future is surprisingly thoughtful.

Michael Bay's Netflix-financed action spectacle opens with a 20-minute car chase through the streets and museums of Florence. Ryan Reynolds plays a tech billionaire who fakes his death and forms a team of vigilantes. A globe-trotting adventure deliberately designed as an affront to 'good' taste.

The original Transformers combines Steven Spielberg's love of coming-of-age stories with Bay's love of action and explosions. In hindsight it's modest, with impressive action scenes and a story that remains entertaining despite its flaws.

13 Hours tries to avoid the political controversy around Benghazi by focusing on the action. Tense, but it can't escape its pro-military stance, making for an exciting but superficial account of events.

In Dark of the Moon, Bay reaches an almost hallucinatory quality with the destruction of Chicago as backdrop. Visually stunning, even if the story and characters are less impressive.

Bad Boys II is often seen as an excessive display of Bay's style, full of crude humor and explosive action. Criticized for its content, but action scenes like the Haitian shootout can't be ignored.

The fifth Transformers film is packed with so much action and so many plotlines that it becomes almost incomprehensible. Still, it offers enough bizarre gonzo weirdness to be entertaining.

Pearl Harbor tries to balance a teen historical romance with action-packed WWII scenes but ends up laughable and embarrassing, often criticized for its superficial patriotism and lack of focus.

Bay returned for this fourth Transformers film starring Mark Wahlberg. Despite spectacular action, it was criticized for its lack of story and depth.

Often seen as a messy, overblown mess, partly due to the Writers Guild strike during development, which meant there was no real script. A 200-million-dollar hot mess.