Cars Review
by Steve Rhodes (Steve DOT Rhodes AT InternetReviews DOT com)June 7th, 2006
CARS
A film review by Steve Rhodes
Copyright 2006 Steve Rhodes
RATING (0 TO ****): ** 1/2
With its fundamentally flawed concept of talking cars, you'd be best advised to just skip the movie and buy the toys. Even the best of Pixar's talent can't put a shine on this jalopy. Sure, there are several nice moments and characters, but the movie manages to be considerably upstaged by the much cuter short, ONE MAN BAND, which precedes it. CARS is far from being in racing trim, poking along at almost two hours in length. An hour-plus would have been more than enough, given the thinness of the plot. The story is not helped in the least by being bracketed by two big races, which are the most boring and least original parts of the entire production. Only in its midsection, set in the sleepy, old Route 66 town of Radiator Springs, does the film ever work.
As the story opens, we meet a young racecar named Lightning McQueen (voiced by Owen Wilson), who is trying to win the famous Piston Cup. A cocky one-man-show, Lightning is going up against Chick Hicks (voiced by Michael Keaton) and The King (voiced by Richard Petty). A three-way tie forces race officials to schedule an unprecedented, special three-way race for the championship. On the way to California for the big race -- in a spectacularly lit night sequence -- Lightning gets lost and ends up in Radiator Springs, a time-warped community on Route 66, a road no longer traveled.
The surprise of the movie is that (almost?) the largest number of the lines go to Larry The Cable Guy as a redneck tow truck named Tow Mater, or just Mater for short. In easily the funniest sequence in the picture, Mater takes Lightning to a farmer's field for some late night tractor tipping. Everyone and everything in the movie are made from cars, and the most surprising of these are the horseflies, which are really little car flies. One of the least surprising of the jokes is that the governor of California is played in a cameo by a Hummer.
Most of voice talent proves relatively bland and wasted. As an old race car named Doc Hudson, Paul Newman lends his voice but not his talent. The animators, when they aren't trying to do what proves to be the impossible task of making cars come alive, do a marvelous job with the sets and the background settings. The rugged west has rarely looked better.
In a movie filled with messages, including the need for friends and the respect for elders, safe driving is definitely not among them. Lightning and his new girlfriend Sally Carrera (voiced by Bonnie Hunt), a sexy blue Porsche, like speeding around dangerous blind curves on the wrong side of the road. Most of these episodes, however, while visually appealing, amount to just more wasted time. The movie keeps feeling like it is about to get a ticket for going too slow on the freeway.
CARS runs way too long at 1:56. It is rated G and would be acceptable for all ages.
The film opens nationwide in the United States on Friday, June 9, 2006. In the Silicon Valley, it will be showing at the AMC theaters, the Century theaters and the Camera Cinemas.
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Originally posted in the rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup. Copyright belongs to original author unless otherwise stated. We take no responsibilities nor do we endorse the contents of this review.
