Cars (2006)reviewed by Benn "Where's the Humanity?" Farrell
An up and coming popular race car named Lightning McQueen, voiced by Owen Wilson (Wedding Crashers), is trapped in a nowhere town named Radiator Springs, while trying to make it to a special tie breaking race in Los Angeles. After trashing the town's main road, McQueen is forced to stay until he fixes the community's main street. While he's there, he meets a handful of bumpkin characters and one immigrated Porsche and soon learns life in a small town isn't all that bad, neither is relying on people to help you. The best thing about this movie is its message. It covers how small town life has its advantages as well and it all depends on a person's priorities and perspective. The vocal talents in the picture were decent. Paul Newman (Road to Perdition) provided the best performance as the town's only judge with a secret past. Pixar gave its audience a very cute movie with a handful of cute lines of dialogue, but one that is far inferior to its previous releases. I think "Cars" is not a bad movie, but it's definitely the worst movie Pixar has released and here is why. The previous Pixar movies i.e. "Toy Story 1 & 2," "A Bug's Life," "Monsters Inc.," "The Incredibles" and especially "Finding Nemo," there best to date (June 12, 2006), all involved decent hearted characters in dire situations. We are immediately engaged by the characters and the story because of this. In "Cars," we're given a stubborn, cocky character we don't like right away whose main goal is something we don't care about. We don't even want him to win the big race right away, he want the veteran race car from Dinoco to win. The point is, the movie is far less engaging until McQueen finishes his character's arc. Up until that point, it's difficult to give a crap about the story, I thought. Overall, "Cars" is more for the kids; fast cars, funny characters with a couple of messages for the adults. It just didn't make me do handstands like ANY of Pixar's previous films. Benn - Where's the Humanity? |