Cars 2
Village East Cinema, June 29, 2011
Movie #39 for 2011
I kinda liked the first Cars movie. I freely admit it was not Pixar’s best - certainly not their most sophisticated - but, y’know, they can’t all be The Incredibles.
In Cars 2, Lightning McQueen (OWEN WILSON) participates in the World Grand Prix in Italy, Japan and England, taking his best friend Mater (LARRY THE CABLE GUY) along for the trip. Mater gets mistaken for an American secret agent by Finn MacMissile* (MICHAEL CAIN, pictured with Mater) and Holly Shiftwell* (EMILY MORTIMER) and while McQueen races, he’s saving the world from evil corporations that want to kill people and stuff the environment.
It makes me sigh heavily to even have to write this review - there’s so little about the film that engaged me that I’d just as soon not bother. The writing was not very good, the characterization bland and the action cliché. The plot is ripped out of an early Ben Elton novel and then further convoluted. Worst of all, though, was that greatest crime of sequels - “let’s have characters from the first film that have absolutely nothing to do with this current story do a short scene reprising their schtick”. It’s lazy film-making and it’s boring for the audience.
If Cars was not Pixar’s best, Cars 2 is easily their worst.
* I cannot tell you just how irredeemable stupid I feel for typing out those ridiculous names.
