Monday, June 26, 2006
Movie Review part deux: Cars
Cars
Lightning McQueen, a hotshot rookie race car driven to succeed, discovers that life is about the journey, not the finish line, when he finds himself unexpectedly detoured in the sleepy Route 66 town of Radiator Springs. On route across the country to the big Piston Cup Championship in California to compete against two seasoned pros, McQueen gets to know the town's offbeat characters--including Sally, a snazzy 2002 Porsche, Doc Hudson, a 1951 Hudson Hornet with a mysterious past, and Mater, a rusty but trusty tow truck, who help him realize that there are more important things than trophies, fame and sponsorship.
Source: Cinema Source
I'll try not to make this review a referendum on the baffling popularity of NASCAR, but Pixar certainly knows what audience will gravitate to its latest animated endeavor, Cars. Furthermore, I can only write this review as an adult, despite what my fiancée might tell you, and that's going to influence my thoughts on this movie, not because of its medium (animation) but because of its subject matter (automobiles).
With those two caveats in mind, let's wave the green flag.
Cars takes place in a world of, well, cars. In fact, this is Pixar's first film to not acknowledge the human world in any way. The only living things in this world are cars, which drive themselves and talk to each other. Tractors replace cows, and bugs are tiny Volkswagon Beetles with wings.
The particular car this movie revolves around is Lightning McQueen (in deference to racing enthusiast and "coolest guy who ever lived" Steve McQueen), a brash rookie on the NASCAR circuit on his way to California to compete in a three-car tiebreaker race for the Piston Cup. Along the way, he accidentally falls out of his trailer, gets lost and winds up in a little town that Route 66 forgot called Radiator Springs.
Ordered to repair the road he tore up while trying to outrun the local sheriff, Lightning (voiced with juvenile cockiness by Owen Wilson) befriends the town folk, including a daft hillbilly tow truck named Mater (played by Larry the Cable Guyâyes, that's his name, don't ask me why), tire shop owner Luigi (Tony Shalhoub), hippie refugee Fillmore (George Carlin) and the husband and wife owners of a body shop and gas station (Cheech Marin and Jenifer Lewis).
He also falls in love with Sally Carrera (Bonnie Hunt), a sassy Porsche and former lawyer who settled in Radiator Springs after tiring of the rat race in L.A. Hunt is only seven years Wilson's senior, but if Lightning is a rookie race car, in human terms that puts him around 20 years old; and if she's a former big city lawyer, that probably puts her somewhere in her mid-30s. There's clearly some kind of odd MILF thing going on here, but it's too complex to explore in the backdrop of a kids' movie about carsâmaybe if I go back to grad school someday.
Back to the story, there's one resident of the town who wants nothing to do with Lightning, an old Hudson Hornet named Doc (Paul Newman) with a secret past who's seen his type before. A race car driver himself, Newman's portrayal as a stern, regretful and ultimately magnanimous character full of age and wisdom is the only one in the film that makes you forget you're watching a talking car. How great an actor is that? It's a shame he says he's only got one more film in him before retirement.
John Lassiter's return to the director's chair after a three-picture layoff (his last movie was Toy Story 2 in 1999) is like slipping into a comfortable pair of old shoes; but there's only so much new laces and a shine can do. Cars is far too long and slow, especially for its audience in the three-to-five-year-old range. (Many of them were a bit restless in our theater; of course, that might have had something to do with it being 10 p.m. to midnight. What are these parents thinking?)
Unlike other Pixar characters (toys, monsters, bugs and fish), getting attached to these vehicles as an adult is more difficult because we all drive one everyday. We like to think of animals as having personalities, but not our cars. When I see Richard Petty in an accident on Sportscenter, I stay tuned to see if he's OK. When he has a devastating wreck in Cars, I couldn't care less. It makes it hard to stay focused on a movie in which the outcome has no emotional impact whatsoever.
As far as adults go, Cars is geared for the NASCAR setâa cultural phenomenon with which I'm admittedly out of touch. Juxtaposing some funny bits for non-gearheads like me (Jeremy Piven as Lightning's agent, ala Entourage, is hilarious) with a heavy dose of pop-country music just can't replicate the universality achieved by Pixar's other films. Ultimately, Cars is a hit-and-miss picture that only appeals to some of the folks, some of the time.
