R rated Transformers would have owned.

Fixed that for you

You'd be surprised how much plotholes and bad acting can be glossed over in action movies with titties, blood, and liberal use of "fuck".

Example: The Expendables

amen, x2 that dawg

It's worse when you are watching it at home instead of in the theater

I like that movie, very fun, lets remember, many movies are for entertainment, not analyzing the deep underlying meanings or anything.

Spawning low-budget sequels is not a good sign. "The Punisher", for instance, got a direct-to-DVD sequel even though it wasn't a huge box office success. Or, look at all of the "Universal Soldier" sequels that didn't get theatrical releases. Usually, if a big-budget movie has several lower-budgeted sequels, that's an indication that investors are only confident that the franchise has appeal to hardcore fans of the original and/or the source material, not mainstream audiences (where the big $$$$ are). That's the situation with "Starship Troopers" now - the novel may have fans, but for most people (even sci-fi lovers), it's a relic of the Cold War era. If I were a producer, I would be hard-pressed to convince my investors that such material has enough box-office appeal to be worth $150 million of their money.

Attaching some big Hollywood names (director, actors, F/X houses, etc.) might help, but it's still hit-or-miss when the material has such limited appeal to contemporary audiences. "Transformers" may have done well, but look at, say, last year's "Land of the Lost".

They Will Ferrelled that movie to Hell and back.

I haven't seen it, and I used to watch the TV show when I was a kid.