Cars 2 Review

Lightning Macqueen and Tow Mater zoom past danger in Cars 2

Cars 2

C+

A Review by Frederick Cholowski

Well the streak had to end sometime. Pixar’s 16 year streak of not making a bad movie has come to an end. While Cars 2 is by no means a terrible motion picture that should be burned, it’s just incredibly average. Everything from the jokes to the emotions feels forced where in other Pixar films it would be top notch. Cars 2 is by far Pixar’s worst movie to date and one that I sadly cannot really recommend to anyone over 10.



Cars 2 again follows Lightning McQueen (voice of Owen Wilson) a young race car who has now gained super stardom in the US. He just came home to Radiator Springs after capturing his fourth piston cup to meet his best friend the tow truck Mater (Larry the Cable Guy). After a brush up with the biggest European race car Francesco Bernoulli he is thrust into the Word Grand Prix, a large race tournament to promote a new alternative fuel. Meanwhile good old Mater has gotten involved with two British spies Finn McMissle (Michael Caine) and Holley Shiftwell (Emily Mortimer) who are trying to find out who is behind a plot to destroy the Grand Prix race cars.



Lightning McQueen takes a back seat in this film as dose the racing. Where the focus lies is Mater’s spy subplot. The humor here though is obvious and heavy handed. It’s not handled with the usual finesse that Pixar is known for. Neither is the emotional part of the film. It just does not have the level of sophistication required to keep an older audience engaged in the characters and plot.



The performances here are good but not great. The one fun standout here is Michael Cane who works well as the older, more experienced spy. Other than that though Owen Wilson is ok although he lacks some emotion, Mater feels forced as a character to me but I guess that’s not the fault of Larry the Cable Guy. Most of the supporting cast (except of course the late Paul Newman) returns although most of them make small cameos throughout the film.



Visually, Cars 2 is stunning. Pixar’s animation is still the most vibrant and colorful in the industry. Each location the characters visit has its own unique and fun visual flare to it and the visuals are never dull and boring. I cannot comment on the 3D though as I chose to see it in brighter more vibrant 2D.



Cars 2 is the first Pixar film I didn’t like. It lacks the sophistication and finesse of past efforts from the company. Don’t get me wrong it’s by no means a terrible or unwatchable film but it’s not up to Pixar’s standards. Hopefully Pixar will ditch the sequels next year and bring us something original and special.



Super 8 Review

Super 8

A

A review by Frederick Cholowski

 

    Super 8 is director J.J. Abrams's homage to the film's producer Steven Spielberg. It's also a love letter to people who have embraced the art of filmmaking at a young age. Super 8 also manages to be the first film this summer that emphasizes character and plot over special effects and action set pieces. For that reason Super 8 is also my favorite film of the summer so far.

 

    Super 8 follows Joe Lamb (Joel Courtney) a young man who's troubled by the death of his mother. He and bunch of friends are helping Charles (Rickey Griffiths) complete a Zombie film for the local film festival. The group includes the always panicking Martin (Gabriel Basso), the lighting guy Preston (Zach Mills), the pyromaniac Cary (Ryan Lee), and the girl Joe has a crush on Alice (Elle Fanning). They soon find themselves in a fighting situation when as they are shooting a pickup truck derails a train. It seems like an accident until strange things start happening to the town and the air force shows up.

 

    The monster mystery set up is only a backdrop for the characters to settle their issues. For example Joe has some issues with his police officer father Jackson (Kyle Chandler) who is a bit of a workaholic. The story and characters shine here with good writing and excellent direction by J.J. Abrams. The characters are likeable and complex.

    

Some people don't like the ending of this film as much. I kind of like the ending as it feels very much like the way a Spielberg film would end. The ending fits perfectly with the tone of the film and to me never crosses the line and becomes corny.

 

For child actors there are some great performances here. This is Joel Courtney's first film and man dose it not show. He is fantastic as the awkward and sweet Joe. Also Elle Fanning (yes Dakota Fanning's younger sister) is spectacular as Alice. I would have never have guessed Elle was just 12 if I hadn't looked it up.

 

The film looks and sounds great as well. As expected with an Abrams/Spielberg creation the special effects are top notch. The beauty of the action and effects though is that they are used well and they never get in the way of the story or characters. Oh and props to composer Michael Giaccihino who creates a great John Williams like score.

 

Super 8 is a great summer film. It's Spielberg nature mixed with the modern influence of J.J. Abrams strike a perfect balance. Same with the film itself witch strikes a perfect balance of good story, character development, and action. Super 8's mix of all these things make it the best picture I've seen so far this summer. (Oh P.S. stay for a bit during the credits you won't regret doing so.)

Kung Fu Panda 2 Review

Kung Fu Panda 2

B

A review by Frederick Cholowski

    Animated sequels have a bad rap for not living up to the original. Shrek 2 wasn't as good as the original nor were any of the ice age sequels. Along comes Kung Fu Panda 2 the sequel to the fun yet flawed Kung Fu Panda and eyebrows raise. Well I'm glad to report that the second Kung Fu Panda is just as good as the original.

 

    Kung Fu Panda 2 continues to follow the panda Po (Jack Black) who is now the full time dragon warrior. Po's next goal is to find inner piece (which PS involves his past). This is where are villain comes in (wait for it, wait for it) an evil peacock Shen (Gary Oldman) who found the deadly usage of gun powder. Shen knows how Po ended up where he is today and this is a key for Po to find inner piece. So Po accompanied by the furious five (Tigress, Mantis, Crain, Monkey and Viper) go out to save China from the impending doom of a peacock with gunpowder.

 

    The plot is decent despite the fact that everything moves too quickly. The plot has no time to breathe and truly develop into something special. For example the inner piece story line (the most interesting of the two plot points) feels a bit rushed and unable to get past that wall between decent and really good.

 

    The voice work is fine here. All the American superstars from Angelina Jolie to Jackie Chan are good. The standout here though is Gary Oldman who clearly has a ton of fun as the evil peacock Shen. He's both the funniest and the most charming character here and he's the villain (go figure right).

 

    DreamWorks has clearly mastered the art of animation. Both the computer generated and the hand drawn animation looks great with great detail and lots of colors. I chose not to see this film in 3D so I don't know how well the it works but in essence I say save the money go for the brighter colors.

 

    Kung Fu Panda is a solid sequel to a good animated film. Well it feels rushed and sometimes uneven to me the film still looks and sounds great. Kung Fu Panda 2 is good solid summer entertainment that just misses being a really good animated feature.

Pirates of the Caribbean 4: On Stranger Tides Review

Pirates of the Caribbean on Stranger Tides

C

A review by Frederick Cholowski

    Well after the disappointment that was the 3^rd Pirates film we return for a fourth time to the Disney amusement park ride. This time we have a new director a new supporting cast and a new treasure to go find. Unfortunately this time around the series falls flat on its face. Unimaginative, predictable and boring Pirates 4 is the perfect example of a film that is there just to take your money.

 

    Captain Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) returns as the title character this time he is going after the fountain of youth. Jack reunites with his old flame Angelica (Penelope Cruz) whose father Blackbeard (Ian McShane) is after the fountain as well. Oh but it doesn't end there. The British want to get to the fountain too. The British fleet is manned by former pirate Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush) and assisted by Jack's former right hand man Gibbs (Kevin McNally). Oh and did I fail to mention the Spanish are after the fountain too… because they are.

 

    The plot is a clumsy attempt at an average adventure story. It never gets off of the runway, correction it never gets close to off the runway. At the beginning of the film it moves to fast with no chance for you to connect with anyone. After the first 30 minutes it starts to drag, and I mean really drag. By the end I was bored out of my mind. The expedition is not interesting, there is nothing interesting for the characters to say and it goes on and on and on and on.

 

    Johnny Depp manages to carry this film for about 10 minutes and then you get bored of him. The writers have given him nothing super interesting to say and he ends up repeating the same kind of speech many times. Penelope Cruz is even more plastic than Kiera Nightly (who surprisingly is sorely missed) in her role and Ian McShane is an uninteresting villain.

 

    The action scenes are alright. The opening scene is cool but all the scenes after it are predictable and uninteresting. One of the things I can now appreciate about the director of the original Pirates trilogy Gore Virbinsky is the way he did action scenes. He made them suspenseful and interesting. The action scenes in this film while flashy are drab. They feel too much like an uninspired video game than a convincing movie set piece.

 

    Pirates of the Caribbean on Stranger Tides fails to compel on basic levels. The dialog is basic, the characters uninteresting, and the plot unsatisfying. Throw in the film being way to long for what it tries to accomplish and you have another summer sequel that's not worth your time or money.