Honestly, I tend to like Shia in a lot of his roles. He has the nervous nerdy guy with just enough guts to step up to the plate down to a T. When I went to see Transformers, I thought that his role as Sam would be the big downer for me....actually, he was one of my favorite parts of the film that Micheal "KER-PLOW!" Bay single-handily crafted to mar my childhood. Shia's a good actor, and he's on his way up.
That said, I didn't really buy him as a greaser. I'll give him credit that he did the best he could with the role, but I found him out of place. Meh...maybe I'm just too much in the Short Round camp
To veer off topic once again, just by chance Seven Samurai showed up at my door via Netflix this weekend. It's been in my que for months and months. What a fantastic movie. I really, really, enjoyed it up until I fell asleep. Let me point out that it was not the movie that put me out

I had stayed up way too late the night before and got way too comfy on the couch once i popped the DVD in. I think i pretty much missed the third act

However, I could really see why it is borrowed from so heavily in western film making. Incredibly good, what I saw of it, and I plan on giving it another go in the future:thumbup: