Cars 2

Hey that car has eyes on it, hey that car has eyes on it, hey...that car has eyes on it, wait a minute...that mountain is shaped like that car and that car has eyes on it...and that is my five year old's review of Cars 2. Wait a minute, but this isn't her blog...oh well, here's my review of Cars 2. I was a little hesitant when we decided to take the kids to see Cars 2. I knew that they would enjoy it so I rested upon those laurels and didn't set my expectations too high. "But why", you may ask; well if you would be patient I just might tell you...sheesh...some people. Anywho, my primary concerns with another Cars movie was that I had already seen it before. All the gags about how the cars are people now and how a world can be rebuilt with nothing but automobile euphemisms had been force fed to (that seems harsh...let's go with: pleasantly gobbled up by) me already in a great and memorable film known as Cars and I didn't want them to beat me in the head with all of it again and make me not like the franchise anymore. So the question remains, was this an accurate prediction of the events to come? Nope. They ignored most of that cars are people too stuff, took us way into left field, and we enjoyed every minute of it. Surprisingly the plot didn't even revolve around racing that much either; I mean sure it took place during a race but that wasn't the focus of the story. The second Cars film follows Mater as he is mistaken for a secret agent and has to help Micheal Cane prevent a mad man from monopolizing the oil industry. The movie deals with complex, important, and relate able issues (such as friendship, tolerance, and being judgmental) that kids can really focus on and enjoy. I thought the fact that they took this film in a completely new direction, instead of just re-telling the old story again, was a home run for this production team. Not to mention there was a decent cast to boot including those from the previous movie, Micheal Cane (as mentioned before), Eddie Izzard, Bruce Campbell, John Turturro, Emily Mortimer, and Joe Mantegna (just to name a few). Was it as good as the first one? Hard to say, it was different which made it entertaining in it's own way, but didn't have the same charm as the original. Should they make a Cars 3 (or worse, Cars 3D!)? Absolutely...not. In conclusion, if you want answers to the age old Cars questions: How do they use the restroom? How do they fly in planes? How do the political and economical struggles that our country and/or world face today translate into a world completely made up of cars? and if you want to sit through a two hour pilot episode of "Cars: The Animated Series" (cause I can see that coming from a mile away); then Cars 2 is the film for you. I give it (as a dad taking his kids to go see a movie) 3.5 Giant Eyeball Windshields out of 5!

Tony Smith
The Revolution Review 2011