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BETSY SHERMAN

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Review: The A-Team

We love it when a plan comes together
This fun big-screen reboot takes the quartet of fugitive vigilantes-for-hire into the digital era, and it succeeds because director Joe Carnahan doesn't let technology overpower personality.

By: BETSY SHERMAN | June 18, 2010

Review: Birdemic: Shock and Terror

Campy, no-budget homage to Hitchcock
Birdemic: Shock and Terror begs to be judged on the compellingness of its awfulness — if not by its creator, James Nguyen, then by its distributor. So here goes.

By: BETSY SHERMAN | June 20, 2010

Review: MacGruber

Sick fun
From one of Saturday Night Live ’s lamest recurring sketches comes one of its funniest spinoffs.

By: BETSY SHERMAN | May 28, 2010

Review: OSS 117: Lost In Rio

Eyebrow Arch of Triumph
This sequel to the hilarious OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies supplies the further adventures of Hubert Bonisseur de la Bath, a secret agent so chauvinistic, he pities anyone not lucky enough to be French.

By: BETSY SHERMAN | May 19, 2010

Review: The Runaways

Doesn't quite take them back home
The mid 1970s was a time of tight pants and even tighter radio playlists.

By: BETSY SHERMAN | April 08, 2010

Review: Lbs.

A double-wide in the woods
With obesity now a pop-culture as well as a medical issue, Lbs. offers insight — as well as laughs and heartstring tugging — into the struggles of a food addict.

By: BETSY SHERMAN | April 06, 2010

Review: Mystery Team

Those meddling kids
Indie comedy has it tough in the marketplace, so though it's no fun to pan the first feature by the Derrick Comedy troupe, neither was it fun to watch Mystery Team .

By: BETSY SHERMAN | January 26, 2010

Review: A Town Called Panic

Bilge from Belgium
This stop-motion comedy from Belgian filmmakers Stéphane Aubier and Vincent Patar is the anti– Fantastic Mr. Fox — its lack of visual and psychological nuance is, merci, quite deliberate.

By: BETSY SHERMAN | January 20, 2010

Review: Chelsea on the Rocks

Abel Ferrara paints an affectionate portrait
Manhattan’s Chelsea Hotel has been the roost of artists, writers, musicians, actors — and a lot of wanna-bes.

By: BETSY SHERMAN | October 14, 2009

Review: World's Greatest Dad

Bobcat Goldthwait gets dark and deep
Robin Williams is Will Hunting good in Bobcat Goldthwait's dark comedy about a failed novelist whose fantasy of becoming a literary lion comes true in a way that's just plain wrong.

By: BETSY SHERMAN | September 04, 2009

Interview: Bobcat Goldthwait

Bobcat unleashes another not-so-funny comedy
"Not many people may know of my films, but I think they may have more legs than, like, a Kate Hudson movie."

By: BETSY SHERMAN | September 01, 2009

Review: Not Quite Hollywood

A peek into Australia's seedy cinematic underbelly
Not Quite Hollywood is about the empowerment of a people — through exuberant if excruciatingly cheesy movies.

By: BETSY SHERMAN | August 19, 2009

Review: Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg

The woman behind the big heart
The Goldbergs debuted in 1929 as radio's first domestic sit-com; it moved to TV in 1949. As part of her series on Jewish heroes, Aviva Kempner ( The Life and Times of Hank Greenberg ) spotlights the show's star, Gertrude Berg, who few realized was its writer/producer.

By: BETSY SHERMAN | August 04, 2009