BEFORE: Another film with inanimate objects that become animated objects - the world of "Cars", which oddly has no people in it, as the cars drive themselves. The voices of Bonnie Hunt and John Ratzenberger carry over from "Toy Story 3"...
THE PLOT: Star race car Lightning McQueen and his pal Mater head overseas to compete in the World Grand Prix race. But the road to the championship becomes rocky as Mater gets caught up in international espionage.
AFTER: This was pretty sad - this is a good lesson in how to kill a movie franchise. Cars as spies? Was being racecars not exciting enough? It seems like the writers couldn't find ways to maintain the suspense about which car's going to win the race...
Plus, this is all flash and no substance. The original "Cars" film had so much heart, with the snobby racecar stuck in the podunk town of Radiator Springs, and learning its small-town ways. All that got thrown out the window in this 2nd installment, which whisks us away to races in Japan, Italy and London. Sometimes bigger is not better, it's just flashier.
OK, so there's a small message about the value of friendship, but it's hidden behind the gadgets and explosions, and flying cars and cars that can somehow be lifted in the air by deploying a parachute (aren't they a little too heavy for that?) They seemed to be shooting for James Bond, but they ended up with "The Man Who Knew Too Little" with hints of Austin Powers.
There's some kind of conspiracy where the "lemon" cars, like Gremlins and Pacers, get together and...well, that's where they lost me. They want to kill racecars? Why? The main plot (the Grand Prix) is a throwaway, and the B-plot is very foggy and makes no sense. What a waste of everyone's time. Plus, why write a plot point in this day and age that makes alternative fuels look bad, and gasoline look good? When we all know that's not the case...
NITPICK POINT: Cars that travel on planes? Why? It seems unnecessary, why don't they just drive there? Why do they need to go to the airport, and why do they need to go through metal detectors at the airport? Aren't they all, you know, made of metal? Maybe this was meant as a joke, but it just doesn't read as one.
NITPICK POINT #2: A Formula-1 racecar and a NASCAR-style racecar wouldn't ever be in the same race - it would be like a heavyweight boxer fighting a middleweight. I don't know enough about racing to say which one is faster, but I know they're in different classes.
Also starring the voices of Owen Wilson (last seen in "Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian"), Larry the Cable Guy, Michael Caine (last seen in "Inception"), Emily Mortimer (last seen in "Lars and the Real Girl"), Eddie Izzard (last seen in "Valkyrie"), John Turturro (last seen in "The Color of Money"), Joe Mantegna, Tony Shalhoub, with vocal cameos from Bruce Campbell, Vanessa Redgrave, Cheech Marin (last heard in "The Lion King"), Paul Dooley, Edie McClurg, Richard Kind (also last heard in "Toy Story 3"), Jeff Garlin (ditto), Katherine Helmond, and NASCAR racers Jeff Gordon, Darrell Waltrip, and announcer Brent Musberger.
RATING: 3 out of 10 air filters
As for your nitpicks, I would say this film is driven by little boys imaginations while playing with their cars. They give them personalities and have them go on adventures without considering practicalities.
ReplyDeleteThen again, there were those of us who just tried to see how fast we could get our matchboxes to go down the stairs.