I'd give KKBB and The Nice Guys both solid A grades. Both do that perfect genre sendup/homage/embodiment thing where they parody/deconstruct/satirise while exemplifying. The Nice Guys isn't as tight a script, but I love the way it puts the daughter character in there to basically question every action movie assumption we have about what makes the good guys "good" anyway? I love those movies.
I haven't seen Predator, but Iron Man 3 was very forgettable, and while I might be kinder than your ranking, I don't think I'd go higher than B- on my most charitable day. I'd go with C; maybe C+.
For Michael Bay, I've seen The Rock (B+), Armageddon (D), Transformers (D), and Part of The Island (?). I would like to see Pain and Gain, which looked fun.
What keeps The Rock down as a B, for me, is: whereas KKBB and TNG go way beyond their genres to give us something unique and special (while also being wildly entertaining and fun), The Rock basically just lives up to its Action Movie expectations. It gets a B+ from me because it's a good, fun action movie that does what it's supposed to do, but by failing to set itself apart in any meaningful way, it gets relegated to B territory.
For the record, a C-grade movie would be one where huge fans of the genre would probably enjoy it as a quick fix and others need not apply, or a film with some good elements held back by serious flaws.
D-grade movies aren't worth the ticket price for anybody. Case-in-point: I have enjoyed Transformers properties like Transformers: The Movie, but I don't like Transformers (Bay's film) at all. It's bloated, lazy, and features that frustrating shaky-cam so even the fun action isn't fun.
To get an F, I think it'd have to be a D-grade film that goes "below and beyond" in the same way I'd compare an A movie to a B movie. F would be something not only bad, but tasteless. I haven't seen films like Cannibal Holocaust, I Spit On Your Grave, or The Human Centipede, but these films might enter that category.
And for the record and what it's worth, I don't think these films should be censored (I'm very pro-free speech) nor do I think all offensive material auto-equals an F rating, since I see the value in films that are shocking or subversive.
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