Cars 2 (DVD/Blu-Ray) - Dir. John Lasseter, Brad Lewis. Starring Larry the Cable Guy, Owen Wilson, Michael Caine.
Two-hour toy commercial representing the darkest side of kids' movie cash-ins.
In this successor to 2006's Cars, hillbilly tow truck Mater is now the main character, caught up in a battle between British secret agents and supercriminals during one of Lightning McQueen's global racing tours.
Yes, it's one of those sequels.
Whatever unique potential the talking cars premise might have had is now abandoned for good as the film becomes an absolutely generic "clueless spy" movie replete with gags about Mater humiliating himself in inventive new ways, including eating too much wasabi and being confused by a Japanese washroom.
This raises questions. If the cars still run on gasoline, why do they eat wasabi, and why do they have washrooms? For that matter, who built all these cars? What happened to the humans in this world?
Did did the cars kill them?
Until now, Cars has been the only black mark on Pixar's otherwise spotless record. Dull-witted, unoriginal, and unambitious, it pursued no questions bigger than "Dude, what if, like, cars were people?" and didn't even come up with a very interesting answer to that. About the only worthwhile component was its moral of "don't be an insufferable jackass," which is far more relevant to children than the usual sissy messages about love and hope and bravery.
Cars 2's contribution to the formula is the addition of guns, violence, and a moral of "never change, even if you are so oblivious to the world that you're destroying the lives of everyone around you." It's hard to see any of these things as improvements.
The script is highly polished-as much as its hopeless starting material can be polished-and the action scenes are vivid. Still, a film this hollow, mean-spirited, and dumb has little to redeem it.
Rated G for depictions of torture to the death (seriously).
2 out of 5
Crazy, Stupid Love(DVD/Blu-Ray) - Dir. Glenn Ficarra, John Requa. Starring Steve Carell, Ryan Gosling, Julianne Moore.
Romantic comedy with brains as well as looks.
After a hopeless middle-aged man (Steve Carell) is left by his wife (Julianne Moore), a bar pickup artist (Ryan Gosling) takes pity and offers to teach him the art of seduction.
This premise has brought us more than one mediocre comedy, but Crazy, Stupid Love uses it as a launching point for a master's thesis on love, weaving together four or five other plot lines and a cast of characters absurd enough to be funny but complex enough to feel real. All of them have an essential place in this jigsaw puzzle of a story, even if it isn't clear until late what it is. The script by Dan Fogelman (Cars, Tangled) is sharp and clever, folding back on itself in ways that never cease to surprise.
The lead actors are good, but the standout comedic performances come from the sidelines: Emma Stone, Marisa Tomei, and Analeigh Tipton.
Crazy, Stupid Love is similar in style and story to the excellent (and much lower-profile) 2009 comedy City Island, but more cheerful in its tone. The film has an infectious optimism and a clear love for its characters.
If it has a flaw, it's that it gets a bit sappy and long-winded towards the end.
The best so far in 2011's steadily improving lineup of comedies.
Rated PG-13 for simulated Swayze.
4 out of 5
