Tag: Betsy Sharkey

After seeing the third installment in Michael Bay‘s big-budget blockbuster action film franchise, Los Angeles Times film critic Betsy Sharkey writes in her review that “Transformers: Dark of the Moon” takes the audience on a romp, delivering excellent 3-D, a cleaner story and more eye candy than its critically panned predecessor. That’s not to say “Revenge of the Fallen” set the bar very high, Sharkey writes, saying the series “remains as much an endurance test as a movie.” Sharkey praises performances by Frances McDormand, John Turturro, Shia LaBeouf and even newcomer Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, “who delivers just as convincing a pillowy pout as Megan Fox did” in the first two films, but notes that the real stars are the robots themselves. Though the bulk of the film follows Bay’s babes, ‘bots and blasts formula, Sharkey writes that it also allows the ...

Is it time for Jack Sparrow to sail off into the sunset? After seeing the fourth installment in Disney‘s “Pirates of the Caribbean” mega-franchise, Los Angeles Times film critic Betsy Sharkey writes in her review that Johnny Depp‘s kooky pirate charm keeps “On Stranger Tides” afloat, but the film is “not seaworthy, nor Sparrow worthy, for that matter.” Sharkey gives props to a few sparkling moments, including creepy mermaids and a cameo by the Rolling Stone‘s Keith Richards, but said that despite Oscar-nominated director Rob Marshall‘s efforts at the helm, overall, the movie lacks fun. Sharkey blames a bloated, overly complicated plot and bizarre production design. “Now if all that sounds like a promising place to work a lot of 3-D magic, then boy are you in for a major letdown,” Sharkey writes. “The Ds in this instance stand for dark and dismal and disastrously claustrophobic.” Here’s ...

Wondering whether you should answer the call and take a chance on “Scream 4” this weekend? Critic Peter Travers writes in Rolling Stone that despite the “diabolically funny start and a surprise climax” the movie isn’t worth your time, and Michael O’Sullivan’s review in the Washington Post offers one of the stranger metaphors in recent cinema criticism by calling the Wes Craven film “a 17-year-old bulimic girl … alternately bingeing on cheesy slasher-flick cliches, purging, by pointing out, over and over, just how gag-me-with-a spoon cheesy they are.” Roger Ebert just seemed weary after seeing the movie, reflecting on “one victim after another being slashed, skewered, stabbed, gutted and sliced, with everyone in on the joke” before shaking his head at the reader with this closing line: “Maybe that’s your idea of a good time.” The “good-start-but-slow-middle” assessment popped up ...

Welcome to the madhouse. We’ve thought for months that “Sucker Punch” would be the most divisive popcorn film of the year, and it hasn’t disappointed on that front. The reviews are all over the place — mostly not friendly — but Betsy Sharkey of the Los Angeles Times says the surreal, sexed-up adventure is one  she wouldn’t have missed for the world. A quick excerpt from her review: Some will see the worst sort of objectification in its Victoria’s Secret-esque femme front line that also includes the scantily clad corps of Abbie Cornish, Jena Malone, Vanessa Hudgens and Jamie Chung. Others will argue that “Sucker Punch’s” sexy guerrillas represent female empowerment, to say nothing of the benefits of diet and exercise. I’d suggest the film is a wonderfully wild provocation — an imperfect, overlong, intemperate and utterly absorbing romp through the ...

Los Angeles Times film critic Betsy Sharkey saw “Paul” and thinks it’s worth phoning home about… Don’t let “Paul’s” R-rating fool you. In the latest comedy from those funny Brits of “Hot Fuzz” and “Shaun of the Dead,” the wise guys have gone more off-center than off-color with this whimsical and surprisingly gentle road trip adventure about two friends, an obsession and an alien named Paul. After the sharp bite and harsh light of most American-style, guy-based funny films today, “Paul” comes as such sweet relief. If not for a lot of F-bombs and other naughty words, this would be a family film, a sort of fractured “E.T.,” with Seth Rogen never more likeable than as the bald-headed extraterrestrial who just wants to phone home (he should consider this kind of disappearing act, a la Mike Myers and Shrek, more ...

Los Angeles Times film critic Betsy Sharkey has your intelligence report on “Limitless”… Very early on in “Limitless,” a psychological tease about a pharmaceutically enhanced brainiac, star Bradley Cooper is teetering on the thin rail of a high-rise balcony, contemplating one of those jumps that guarantees the sweet hereafter. It turns out to be as good a metaphor for Cooper as it is for his character, Eddie Morra; both are courting considerable risks in director Neil Burger’s wannabe thriller about a super-pill that will make anyone who takes it super-smart. For Cooper, the question was: Could he play smart-Eddie? He comes close enough to suggest there is something more to the actor than just smirking arrogant handsome guy, which until now has been the definition of most of his characters, notably his breakout role in “The Hangover.” For Eddie, it’s ...

 Los Angeles Times film critic Betsy Sharkey went into the woods with “Little Red Riding Hood,” here’s an excerpt from her review… The horror-tinged romance of “Red Riding Hood” is at its heart nothing more than a fashionable fairytale version of what’s all the rage in teen love stories these days. The basic formula includes a moody beauty falling for the wrong boy, who may actually be a vampire-alien-werewolf-whatever. Can “Pinocchio at 15” be far behind? With “my, what big eyes you have” Amanda Seyfried as the girl in the scarlet cloak and that edgy shaman of young angst, Catherine Hardwicke, in the director’s chair, the movie comes with great expectations. So it kills me to say — or at least it bothers me a lot — that what we have here is a sheep in wolf’s clothing. Gorgeously shot, ...

Los Angeles Times critic Betsy Sharkey took a tour of duty with “Battle: Los Angeles,” here’s an excerpt of her review… Before we begin, a moment of silence please for all the brick and mortar that made the ultimate sacrifice for “Battle: Los Angeles.” Sob. Let me just grab a tissue. Sorry. Let us not forget the rockets’ red glare, the bombs bursting in air either. The pyrotechnics are patriotic, sizable, and clearly the star of “Battle: Los Angeles,” so don’t let the tight shots of Aaron Eckhart’s chiseled jaw and cleft chin fool you. The movie, directed by Jonathan Liebesman, is very much in the tradition of those old World War II films you find on late-night cable with rickety fighter planes engaged in long skirmishes that you can’t follow all that well except you know a few good ...

Los Angeles Times film critic Betsy Sharkey says Gore Verbinski’s first animated feature crackles with innovation … A marvelous mash-up of Old West and newfangled, “Rango” rewrites the animation playbook with its eye-popping critters and varmints, and its hero’s tale (tail?) of a chameleon desperate for a SAG card and a town desperate for a sheriff. What fun. In a world choked with animated films — the good, the bad and the ugly — it’s hard to be either original or great. Yet director Gore Verbinski has done both — and without 3-D — breaking the rules and new ground in the town of Dirt. In this time-bending, mind-bending, just-go-with-it fable, the story shifts from overcrowded freeways, Hawaiian shirts and modern problems to covered wagons, chaps and long-running issues of water rights, land grabs and greed. And, in a genuinely ...

WELCOME TO THE MACHINE: On Friday, the Disney film “Tron: Legacy” picks up the story of the 1982 movie “Tron,” which was neither a critical nor commercial success but somehow still echoes in pop culture as an early signpost of the digital era’s glowing frontier. “Tron” is remembered more for its ideas and images (and its namesake video game) than for its story or characters, and that is a challenge presented to this new film, which is directed by Joseph Kosinski and stars Jeff Bridges, Garrett Hedlund and Olivia Wilde. We’re counting down to the release date and today’s post is an excerpt from the review by Los Angeles Times Film Critic Betsy Sharkey. “Tron: Legacy” is as much legacy as Tron. You can feel the deep imprint left by the 1982 cult classic with every flip of a light disc, every zoom ...