Cars 2: From America With a Turbo V8 Engine

Cars 2

Directed By: John Lasseter

Written By: Ben Queen

Starring (The Voices of) Larry the Cable Guy, Owen Wilson, Michael Caine, Emily Mortimer, Eddie Izzard, and John Turturo

Art Director: Jay Shuster, Original Music: Michael Giacchino

Rated: G, though some explosions may frighten the smallest of children.

            There is something unique about the Cars franchise that separates it from almost every other film in Pixar’s history. While Toy Story, Monster’s Inc., and A Bug’s Life among other present mini-universes within our own universe that we just don’t know about, Cars is a world onto its own. There are no humans turned around, unaware that their vehicle is a sentient being (that story is left to Michael Bay). Instead, the Cars live in their own alternate universe, where they eat oil and feel sick when breaking down. Would President Obama show up as a long slick limo?

            Cars and now its sequel, Cars 2, are also known in certain circles with distain as simply cash-cows for the Disney-Pixar brand. While Cars was the least profitable film for the animation giant at the box office, it has also made the most green in toys and merchandising. But such conversations are irrelevant, and make it too easy to attack the Pixar franchise for what is likely to be agreed upon its least successful film to date. John Lasseter, the Pixar founder and current CEO, shows a lot of admiration for the idea of Cars in his directorial style (he passed on directing Toy Story 3 to do this film, after all). And while never as transcendent as Pixar’s other films, Cars 2 zooms its way around a cleverly inspired plot to keep things moving too fast that you won’t mind.

Midnight in Paris: Love in a Timeless City, Thanks to Time Travel

Midnight in Paris

Written and Directed By: Woody Allen

Starring: Owen Wilson, Rachel McAdams, Marion Cotillard, Carla Bruni, Michael Sheen, Kathy Bates, Adrien Brody, Alison Pill, Tom Hiddleston, and Kurt Fuller

Directors of Photography: Darisu Khondji and Johanne Debas, Editor: Alisa Lepselter, Production Designer: Anne Seibel

Rated: PG-13 for sexual humor in the city of love.

            Next week, Terrence Malick’s The Tree of Life will finally premiere after six years of anticipation, making it his fifth film in almost forty years. And then there’s Woody Allen, who has more films than years behind him, all of them seemingly Irish twins. However, since 2005’s Match Point, a new interest has sparked Mr. Allen’s mind, as a lack of funding sent him to Europe, where he has brought his same humor (and at times drama) to a new set of locations besides the Upper East Side.

            For his latest adventure though is his first film set in the city of romance: Paris. In a beautiful pre-credits sequence, Mr. Allen sets his camera to capturing a day through the city, watching it go from a beautiful sunny morning to a rainy afternoon to an illuminating night, lights bouncing off the wet streets and giving it a magical feel. And there’s actual magic in the narrative too, as Owen Wilson plays the surrogate Mr. Allen as he travels through time. Unfortunately, the actual magic can’t make up for the lack of it that Mr. Allen fails to capture for the heart, bouncing to easily around a loose plot without much cohesion and any real stakes.