Just the Ticket

Article by Sean Wilkinson, a.k.a. The Ticketmaster Along with the pre- real -pandemic, peak  Walking Dead  era series, The Last Ship , the last two Transformers  films are proof that Michael Bay is at his best when he is let nowhere near a camera. Gone are the days of over-articulated, barely recognizable, effects-obscured character models; the fetishization of the American military, the female form, and explosions; and the reliance on toilet humor and ethnic stereotypes as "personalities." Oh, and that whole thing where the main character is either a neurotic mess ( Shia LeBouf as Sam Witwicky--Spike from the 80s cartoon ), a state-government-sanctioned pedophile ( Jack Reynor's Shane Dyson), or played by Mark Wahlberg . I stopped watching Bay-directed Transformers  films after Dark Of the Moon , but I am aware of the "Romeo & Juliet Law" thing from Age Of Extinction , so I feel bad for those of you who continued to watch beyond that. The newer films a...

FROM October 15, 2011: I had not seen any of the The Fast & The Furious series prior to watching Fast Five , and didn't have high hopes for the fifth installment despite seeing that Dwayne Johnson ( Faster ) would star in the film. I was pleasantly surprised (but not in love) with the results. Original Fast cast Vin Diesel , Paul Walker , Jordana Brewster , and Matt Schulze reprise their roles as members of a highly skilled auto-theft team, this time falling in with a ruthless Brazillian drug lord ( Joaquim de Almeida , Che: Part Two ) and hiring a team of characters from previous sequels ( Tyrese Gibson and Chris "Ludacris" Bridges , 2 Fast, 2 Furious , Sung Kang , Tokyo Drift , and Gal Gadot , Fast & Furious ) to bring him down, all the while being pursued by Diplomatic Security Service agent Luke Hobbs (Johnson). Diesel appears to have grown as an action star, for once showing a level of personality not seen outside his dramatic or comedic roles, and st...