Cars 2

It's easily been Pixar's worst reviewed film. Everyone knows this movie was primarily made to sell toys, another first for Pixar, and so people are going to be hard on it.

 

I was always going to wait for the home release, and when I do I'll try to remember that Pixar has set their bar so high, that a decent movie may very well still disappoint a lot of people. Pixar's new 'worst movie' will still be pretty good I imagine.

 

 

I love Pixar's work but it's not like this is the first time that they've created a mountain of merchandise from their movies and it isn't the first time that merchandising was a major factor in the existence of one of their movies.

I plan on skipping it. Cars is my least favorite of the Pixars movies. Cars 2 also seems it's more for kids than everyone else.

I've got a pair of free passes for it, so figure that I will see it, no matter what the critics say.

Well, the trailers have looked awful IMO and that's the first time I've ever said that about a Pixar movie.  My least favorite Pixar movie, A Bug's Life, at least sparked my interest with the trailers, Cars 2 has not.

Here's a positive review from Rolling Stone:

 

http://www.rollingstone.com/movies/reviews/cars-2-20110623

My boys liked it.   It is definitely not Pixar's best work, from a story standpoint, but there are a lot of other studios that would kill for something like this.   My two boys ate it up; and quite frankly, I enjoyed it more then "Kung Fu Panda 2" ..   It doesn't achieve greatness like TS3 or Up! but it's fair.  B.

This movie drops the sad heart that was in the first movie and puts the characters in a big action movie. As always, the technical work is perfect and the climax is fun but the jokes aren't as good as I've come to expect from Pixar. I'd say it's Pixar's most kid aimed movie since Finding Nemo. I'm sure kids will love it but there's not as much for adults as there usually is in Pixar's movies.

It appears to me that most of the critics who are trashing this movie didn't like the first one and/ or were expecting a more adult, emotional story like Up or Wall-E. Pixar's been quite up front about the fact that this is lighter fare than they've been doing in recent years -- just a fun adventure with homages to James Bond and Hitchcock.

 

Also, some of the reviews I've read seem almost bitter that Larry the Cable Guy is the star of the show. His standup isn't my cup of tea, but I find Mater hilarious.

 

I'll probably see it this weekend. Just gotta dig up my Cars and Incredibles BDs for the movie ticket codes. :)

 

I think the first movie is woefully underrated and, up to that point, it was their most emotional and adult oriented movie so making a sequel that is a fairly straight action was odd (but not bad) to me. That being said, the trailers certainly showed that this movie is intended to be a actioner so I wasn't surprised. If anything, I've got to hand it to them for not falling into the same trap as most sequels and making the same movie again.

Seriously, a movie with an old guy with balloons and a dysfunctional kid chased by talking dogs more adult ? Up was the first Pixar movie I didn't buy, the adult and emotional part lasted only for the first (brilliant) 15 minutes. And Finding Nemo being mostly kid aimed?  One of their more serious stories? 

 

Much as I love Pixar, I must see their movies differently from many others, Up! was boring and uninteresting, TS3 was way too sentimental and not as good as the first two, Wall-E was good during the first half, but went all mushy during the second, Finding Nemo is one of my absolute favorites, along with Monsters, Inc. Cars is better than most people say, but a sequel with an action and merch twist, so many years later, sounds pretty uninteresting to me. I'll probably rent it once it is availalble, but it wont get me into any summer theater lines...

 

Finding Nemo is a very kid freindly movie. Yes, the story is emotional (as if that's hard when you have a well meaning widower trying to save his cute fish son) but, overall, it's a movie that any child will watch and enjoy even if it's just because there's pretty colors or cutesy fish. Up, Ratatouille, Wall-E and even Toy Story 3 are aimed at kids that are slightly older.

Cars 2 is a mashup of Cars meets James Bonds spy adventure, with far too much running time in Mater's lap.  I can only listen to Larry the Cable Guy for so long before I tire of him, and this was the case for this Pixar movie, that was high on their trademark CGI animated style, but pretty low on heart.  

I give it 2.5 stars, or a grade of C+.

I will be in the minority and say I loved it.   Lots of laughs, probably the most light hearted family romp they've put out since Incredibles.   So, it made it a lot more fun all the way through.   A lot of really good laughs, some great action - hell, the action in this was better then any moment in Green Lantern.   A lot of fun.

I don't mind Larry as Mater -- although I can't stand him otherwise -- and we really enjoyed the flick.  It wasn't as deep as most of the other stuff Pixar has done, and yes, Owen Wilson was pushed to the sideline in this tale.

 

Having said that, the original Cars wasn't the deepest of films, and a big part of that film that I enjoyed (which was similar to the new one) was the scenery, the small car gags in the background, and the plethora of gags in the product names (such as "Greece Grease", with the last part with the movie logo).  The "mystery" came across a bit like one you'd find in Scooby Doo, but overall, the story was fun, and almost followed the reverse format of the original film.

 

The theatre we were in was sold out and packed with kids, and all of them seemed to enjoy it immensely, except for the one that fell asleep in Paris. :)

I thought the movie was a lot of fun. Great animation, with really lush visuals; lots of cool action scenes, and a really cool score. Sure, the message of the movie is a bit weak, but the other parts of it make up for that. I think Pixar's streak is unbroken.

We saw it on Saturday. Am I the only one who was shocked at the level of violence? I mean, seriously, a character gets tortured to death on screen and that's not worth a PG rating? I think this has to trump 2001: A Space Odyssey as the most violent G-rated film of all time. My son can't get enough of the PG-13 Transformers movies, and that scene really freaked him out. (MPAA Haters, watch this and then the R-rated Once and see if your head doesn't explode.) Parents with very small children who loved the first movie might want to screen this one before taking the little ones.

 

That said, my family and I had a lot of fun. It was pretty much exactly what I expected (aside from the violence) based on what I'd read from the Pixar folks. We didn't like it as much as the first one, but it was definitely not the clunker that a lot of critics make it out to be. As far as I'm concerned, Pixar's track record remains intact.

 

Finding Nemo is that rare film that works on a kid level but also on an adult level. Maybe my favorite Pixar film. Maybe that's because I'm the father of a young boy. :)

 

Up and Ratatouille have a lot of things going for them, but also some serious issues that for whatever reason people tend to gloss over. Still great on a general scale, but the most overrated of Pixar's oeuvre.

 

I guess car-on-car violence doesn't quite get the scrutiny from the MPAA, even in CGI-animated form. 

 

You and me both. "Cars" and "Finding Nemo" are my favorite Pixar films. I've never understood all the gushing over the TS series (I guess I find Tim Allen equally as irritating as some find Larry the Cable Guy), and was quite disappointed with the past few Pixar films (WALL-E, Up, and TS3).
 

 

Worst.

Pixar.

Movie.

EVER.

I'll be going to see this soon. I'm sure I'll like this one as I haven't really seen a bad Pixar film yet. In fact, CARS (which is bashed on the most) is actually one of my favorite films in the Pixar series. I've spun CARS a lot more than any of the TOY STORY flicks. The only other two Pixars that I spin as much as CARS is RATATOUILLE and THE INCREDIBLES.

Cars 2 is by no means a bad film. I think it is the least accomplished, story-telling wise, Pixar film to date. But it's still a 3 star film. And it is technically amazing. It's just truly a kid's film. Nothing wrong with that.

You articulated it much better than I could but that's how I feel as well.

CARS 2 was quite a change from CARS. All of the introspection present in the first film was basically jettisoned for this entry. I thought the film was entertaining enough but it definitely is not as good as CARS was; although, I have to give them credit for producing a sequel that really is different from the original film. At least, they didn't repeat themselves with this entry. It is also interesting that they took the step of changing the focus to Mater from McQueen. They, at least, realized that McQueen's story had been told and didn't try to squeeze another drop from that lemon. This film was basically a Mater Tall Tale come true which is probably one of the reasons that Pixar produced all of the Mater Tall Tale shorts to begin with. They were basically a signalling that CARS 2 was going to be a Mater action/comedy vehicle. The fact that they basically made a paen to old style Bond films was both a strength and a weakness. On one hand, I actually thought that it was a better written old style Bond flick (minus the sexual angles) than most of what has passed for Bond flicks in the recent past; however, it's biggest weakness is also the fact that it IS a Bond parody and as such is something that leaves you with the feeling that you have seen it all before.

I saw CARS 2 in 3D and I have to say that I actually liked how the 3D was used in the film. There weren't any gimmicky in-your-face moments but I thought the 3D was effectively used in the flying sequences of the film, so I would probably purchase the 3D version of this film on Blu-ray. All-in-all I would give this entry a B. It was more entertaining than most of what I have seen this year, so far, with its biggest downfall being the use of an over familiar Bond parody storyline.

" I have to give them credit for producing a sequel that really is different from the original film."

It's a simple reversal. The first one is "sophisticated guy in the sticks." Reverse it, and you get "unsophisticated guy in the big city," which automatically makes it Mater's story, expands it, and precludes much of the introspection. So you end up with a very different story in the same world. Personally, I like the first one better because of that smaller, more personal scope, and the nostalgia for old Route 66. The sequel is more for pure entertainment.

I saw this at the El Capitan on Hollywood Blvd, and after the show you have access to a themed funfair set up on the athletic field of Hollywood High School. Unfortunately I'm not a kid anymore, but I did like the display of unusual cars from the Petersen Automotive Museum.

This is a good observation that I missed. I felt the story was quite different from the first one, because it was heavily action orientated and took most of its beats from Bond movies. Like you observed, the second movie is less personal and less nostalgic. I didn't mind CARS 2, because it reminded me of the old Bond flicks, but I still think CARS is a much better film because of the more personal tone and the nostalgic look at route 66.