Video reviews: Lack of magic stalls Pixar's 'Cars'

Mike Pearson, Rocky Mountain News

Friday, November 10, 2006

Cars

Disney. 116 min. Rated G. $29.99.

Grade: C+

The people at Pixar aren't infallible after all.

Consider Cars, the most pedestrian movie to date from the studio that gave us The Incredibles, Monsters Inc., Finding Nemo and Toy Story. It's nowhere near that level.

Director John Lasseter has concocted a story for the NASCAR crowd that cleaves to cliché. Everything about the plot is predictable.

At its center is Lightning McQueen (voice by Owen Wilson), a cocky young race car on his way to winning the prestigious Piston Cup. En route to the last race, Lightning gets stopped for traffic violations in a backwater town named Radiator Springs. He can't be on his way until he does several days of community service.

Lightning prides himself on being a one-man band; no pit crew, only an agent and sponsors. He doesn't plan to make nice with the cars of Radiator Springs, which include a cranky judge (Paul Newman), a redneck tow truck (Larry the Cable Guy), a sexy Porsche (Bonnie Hunt) and a VW hippie (George Carlin). Eventually their kindness wears him down, and he discovers that even in the sticks there's a measure of sophistication.

OK, the message about community, friendship and how no man is an island comes through loud and clear. What's missing here is the magic.

Instead of humans, Cars is populated by cars, each with a distinct personality. Sadly, those personalities are overly familiar, whether the redneck twang of tow truck Mater or the Chicano low rider.

Nor is the humor especially nimble - the jokes are over the heads of youngsters and below the expectations of adults - and at 116 minutes, the length of a movie aimed at kids can seem like War and Peace.

And yet, some things Pixar continues to do extremely well. The animation often is exquisite, especially during the racetrack sequences where cars whiz by and light bounces off chrome bumpers. And the country rock soundtrack is a keeper.

You want to wrap your arms around Cars, but too often in attitude and execution it keeps you at windshield wiper's length.

Cinema Paradiso: Special Edition

The Weinstein Co. DVD. 174 min. Rated PG. $39.99.

Grade: A-

Most studios re-release classic movies to mark anniversaries: 10, 15 or 25. But 17? That's an odd number.

Odd but scarcely unwelcome in the case of Cinema Paradiso, winner of the 1989 Oscar for Best Foreign Film, and one of the finest movies ever to come out of Italy.

The Special Edition packages the original version of Giuseppe Tornatore's film released in the U.S. and a director's cut with 51 minutes of additional footage. (Both are available for $29, but for $10 more you get mini lobby cards and a soundtrack of music from the film.)

Cinema Paradiso is the story of Toto, a 10-year-old boy obsessed with movies. He pesters the gruff projectionist Alfredo (Phillip Noiret) at his small town theater until the old man takes the boy under his wing. Theirs is a feisty yet warm-hearted relationship, and we follow Toto as he grows into a young man in love, and later, a success in Rome.

Cinema Paradiso is a love story to and about the power of movies. It's funny, sad, compelling and heartbreaking, a rich tapestry of emotions fueled by performances that never ring false. The extra footage is mostly concentrated at the end of the film, expanding on Toto's aborted love affair earlier in the story. It deepens the story, but hardly lessens the impact of the original.

If you love great movies, Cinema Paradiso belongs at the top of your list.

Little Man

Sony. DVD. 98 min. Rated PG-13. $19.98.

Grade: C

Whatever their artistic failings, give the Wayans brothers credit for audacity.

With White Chicks, you had two black comics playing, well, white chicks. Teen-agers loved it. Connoisseurs of more sophisticated humor? Not so much.

Now they've made Little Man, in which Marlon Wayans plays a pint-sized thief and Shawn Wayans is a man whose biological clock is ticking. He mistakes Calvin for an orphaned baby and takes him home. He's trying to convince his wife (Kerry Washington) to have a child. Having Calvin in the house is a trial run.

Calvin is there for business, not pleasure. He stashed a stolen diamond in Mom's purse, and he'll sleep in a crib and make goo-goo sounds until he can retrieve it.

Don't bother looking for logic; it's not there. This B-movie comedy is bawdy and loaded with sight gags. Thanks to special effects, which put Marlon's face on the body of a muscular 2-year-old, you're able to suspend disbelief in fits and starts.

More enjoyable are the supporting performances, especially John Witherspoon as a cranky old man who knows something's not right with that kid.

Don't go out of your way to rent Little Man. But if it's the only thing left on the shelf, you could, theoretically, do worse.

Mike Pearson is features editor. pearsonm@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-2592