The Batman

Hands of Stone

Cars 2

Directed by John Lasseter and Brad Lewis.

2011. Rated G, 106 minutes.
Cast:
Owen Wilson
Larry the Cable Guy
Michael Caine
Emily Mortimer
Eddie Izzard
John Turturro
Bonnie Hunt
Joe Mantegna
Peter Jacobson
Brent Musberger

The original Cars introduced us to Lightning McQueen (Wilson), a championship racecar who finds himself stuck in a small town. Before getting back to the big city, fame and glory he learns some homespun values, lessons about humility and makes some friends along the way. Most notably he gets the girl, Sally (Hunt) and becomes best buds with Tow Mater (Larry the Cable Guy). It was okay. Overhyped and overrated, but it made goo-gobs of money. That there would be a sequel was inevitable so here we are.

Given the events of that first movie, it’s only logical that the second would follow McQueen as he continues his career in big time racing, but with his new found friends along for the ride. It sort of gives us this, but not really. The sequel is actually an international spy thriller starring Larry the Cable Guy and Michael Caine. Um…okaaaayy. I’ll give you the short version. Sir Miles Axelrod (Izzard) has developed an alternative fuel named Allinoll and is inviting all the fastest racers in the world to compete in a three race series using it. Someone is sabotaging these races mainly by killing off the competitors during the events. Hmmm…a little dark for a G-rated kiddie flick but I’m game. Anyhoot, it’s up to super sleuth Finn McMissile (Caine) and his sidekick Holly Shiftwell (Mortimer) to stop the madness. Yes, they accidentally involve Tow Mater, mistaking him for a fellow spy.

As with lots of sequels, this one does everything bigger. There is more racing, more action, more jokes, etc. Narratively, it doesn’t hold together as well as its predecessor. How can it? It’s trying to reconcile two incompatible storylines and subjugates the main character of the first movie to the lesser of them. On the other hand, it is simply more fun. Where the first lumbers along at a Romero zombie’s pace until it reaches its Aesop-like moral of the story, this one zips along from one action sequence to the next. True, it culminates in a quick commercial for bio-degradable fuel but it doesn’t lecture us about it.

Cars 2 is the rare instance where the action driven sequel is at least equal to, if not greater than the plot propelled original. The first time around I got the sense that the kids enjoyed the marketing campaign far more than the actual movie. The toys, video games, books and tons of other stuff were all huge hits. However, judging from my own kids, nephews and nieces included, I never felt like it was one of their favorites. This time, the opposite seems to be true. I haven’t seen a ton of Cars 2 merchandise floating around but the movie is more enjoyable.

MY SCORE: 6/10

Transformers: Dark of the Moon

Directed by Michael Bay.

2011. Rated PG-13, 157 minutes.
Cast:
Shia LaBeouf
Rosie Huntington-Whiteley
Josh Duhamel
John Turturro
Frances McDormand
Patrick Dempsey
Tyrese Gibson
John Malkovich
Ken Jeong
Kevin Dunn
Julie White

The Decepticons take a third crack at conquering Earth. Of course, Sam Witwicky (LaBeouf), the Autobots and the guy from Sector 7 (Turturro) stand in their way. Megan Fox does not. There is another pretty face in place of hers. More on that later. Moving on, this tale actually begins with man’s first landing on the moon back in 1969. Unbeknownst to us for over forty years, during that initial lunar expedition Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldridge discovered Sentinel, who appears to have crashed landed on the dark side of the moon. He’s an old Autobot who evidently taught Optimus Prime everything he knows. The astronauts bring what they can back to Earth which includes five thingamajigs. Fast forward to the present when Megatron and company have a bunch more of these things. They plan on getting the five that somehow wound up in the Middle East, but are now possessed by the US government. Once they do that they’ll be able to reconstruct their home planet Cybertron in a place that appears to be extremely close ot Earth. Never you mind the science of any of this just know that this is the bad guys’ plan. Oh, once Cybertron is operational they’re going to use mankind as its own slave-labor force.

Essentially, we get a remake of Revenge of the Fallen. That said, there are some revisions. As you can probably tell, the main change is switching out the whatchamacallit for the thingamajigs. Next, instead of destroying the Egyptian pyramids we tear up Chicago pretty darn good. And don’t forget we trade in The Fallen for Sentinel. These changes are neither here nor there. Some others actually do improve upon its predecessor, thankfully. For starters, the two jive-talking bots are nowhere to be found. Ma and Pa Witwicky’s annoying antics are also scaled back. Don’t worry, there’s still plenty of lame humor to go around. Much of it comes from the go-for-broke performance of John Turturro.

The most easily recognizable difference is we have a new damsel in distress, Carly Spencer played by model Rosie Huntington-Whiteley. She buys collector items for some uber-rich dude. Yes, this turns out to be a very large part of the reason she comes to be in distress. Sadly, she can’t give Ms. Fox a run for her money in the acting department. By the way, it’s not like I think Megan Fox is ever in danger of winning an Oscar. For Ms. Huntington-Whiteley, her looks are all she brings to the table. I wouldn’t be surprised to learn she won this part in a raffle where only models were allowed to buy tickets. Any one of them would’ve been just as good.

The bottom line is that Dark of the Moon is a Transformers movie. If you enjoyed the last one, you’ll enjoy this one. Robots transform, fight, knock over skyscrapers and blow stuff up. Once again, this goes on for a way too long two and a half hours. I will say that this is a step up, though. The Fallen made me want to gouge out my own eyes with a spoon and puncture both eardrums with an icepick. This one merely made me want to bang my head on a hard surface. Heres to progress!

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
2009. Rated PG-13, 150 minutes.
Director: Michael Bay.
Starring Shia LaBeouf, Megan Fox, Josh Duhamel, John Turturro, Tyrese Gibson, Kevin Dunn, Julie White, Ramon Rodriguez.

Plot: An ancient Decepticon known as “The Fallen” returns to Earth to destroy blah blah blah to gain ultimate blah blah blah moowahahahaha (evil laugh). Robot fighting, screaming and anatomy jokes ensue.

The Good: Director Michael Bay knows that the majority of people attending a Transformers movie want to see giant robots beating the crap out of each other so he gives us more of it than the original. Since he also knows that most of these people are boys, no matter what age, he throws in pretty girls, off-color jokes and slow motion, lots of slow motion. Most of it features either a robot being ripped apart or Megan Fox running “Baywatch” style. And living up to its name, nearly everything transforms. Like its predecessor, it’s a visual spectacle.

The Bad: Like numerous other sequels, this suffers from “more is less” syndrome. The action and silly jokes increase exponentially from what was in the original, yet the things that might make it engaging are far flimsier and much less coherent. Its simply two and a half hours of flashing lights and noise. Therefore, we never really care if what’s-his-face activates the thingamajig with the whatchamacallit. Even worse, if your main focus is robot fighting then the robots should be easier to tell apart. This isn’t that big a problem for the Autobots who are pretty much color coded. However, almost all the Decepticons of any significance are plain chrome and blend together in combat. Shallow as it seems, I’d like to know which bad guys are actually fighting. And don’t even get me started on the two jive-talkin’ bots.

The Ugly: Two words: robot scrotum.Recommendation: You probably already know if you want to see this or not. If you’re not sure, see the first one first with a surround sound system cranked up pretty good, if possible. After that, imagine it bigger, louder and dumber.

The Opposite View: Amy Biancolli, San Francisco Chronicle

What the Internet Says: 6.8/10 on imdb.com (6/28/09), 20% on rottentomatoes.com, 36/100 on metacritic.com

MY SCORE: 4/10