Literally and constantly on the run, LaBeouf rarely pauses to turn on that boyish charm that worked so well for him in the first film. Fox does her bit, getting by on few clothes, lots of pouting, and having a robot rub up against her leg. Through countless blasts, drops, falls and a dash through the blazing desert, her hair never loses its sheen. Can’t say the same for the film.

Cowards do survive, says someone at the end. So unfortunately, does metal. And that means Transformers 3 isn’t too far into the future.

THE PROPOSAL
CAST: Sandra Bullock, Ryan Reynolds, Malin Akerman, Mary Steenbergen
DIRECTOR: Anne Fletcher
Love born of strict business deals isn’t new to the film world, the one difference this time being it’s the woman who as the boss is dictating the agenda. And that’s about the only difference.

Never straying from the well-trodden paths of “two people forced together falling in love” stories, The Proposal has it all — one parent-less, the other with a devoted family, especially a doting grandmother who wouldn’t perhaps be as endearing in person; one uptight, the other carefree; one loner struggler to the top, the other born rich but preferring to slug it out; one city-bred and toting designer luggage, the other brought up in a mansion next to a lake in pristine Alaska. Whenever the twain shall meet, love is sure to follow.

Fletcher even fails to cash in on Bullock’s deftness with comedy, allowing her miserably few scenes where she breaks away from the cold, tough exterior of the top-notch, no-nonsense editor-in-chief of Golden Books, Margaret. To be fair to Bullock, in those few scenes, she demonstrates why she is so well liked.

... contd.