Reviews

Cars

Pixar's rise of the machines is slow death in the fast lane

By JUSTINE ELIAS | February 20, 2007

1.5 Stars

JITTERY, REVVED-UP NIGHTMARE: Cars

This noisy animated paean to NASCAR and Route 66 gets mired in the middle laps on a grippy track. Young hellspawn high on popcorn and soda may adore the obnoxious hero, a whiny racecar (Owen Wilson) who crashes into chain-gang duty in a backwoods burg; he (and we) can’t escape until the local highway is blacktopped and lessons are learned. Despite some cleverness (like a quick shot of over-fueled NASCAR fan cars all but crossing their tires in a restroom queue) and the mechanical beauty of the film’s landscapes (a pixel-pastel approximation of John Ford’s Monument Valley), Cars is slow death in the fast lane. Bookended by two crazy races, it’s a jittery, revved-up nightmare about the rise of the machines.

Dance, Monkey: Tom E. Morello
We put a comic on the hot seat. This week’s victim . . .
Blue movie?
Talladega Nights will have some seeing red
America Blows
Since George W. Bush took office, the United States has sunk to unprecedented lows in sports and pop-culture domination
More

Topics: Reviews , NASCAR , cars , John Ford , More

Comments

Cars

I can appreciate the negative review of the film, but does the author need to refer to kids, if I understand correctly, as "hellspawn"?

By Veector on 06/07/2006 at 10:49:16

Cars

And, again, what happened to the days when movie reviews in The Boston Phoenix were longer than 100 words?

By Scott W. Black on 06/13/2006 at 9:42:46

Add a Comment

Live from Denver: Blogs, video, real-time updates at thePhoenix.com/Election2008

More: DNC 2008

More Information

Watch the trailer for Cars (QuickTime)

ARTICLES BY JUSTINE ELIAS

BELLE DE NUIT | June 16, 2008
Secret Diary of a Call Girl on Showtime

OSS 17: LE CAIRE NID D'ESPIONS/OSS 117: CAIRO, NEST OF SPIES | May 14, 2008
A hot, tight, seductive, vaguely bisexual James Bond

AMAZING GRACE | February 21, 2007
Polite under fire

THE MESSENGERS | February 07, 2007
Imagine Oklahoma! done as an tuneless pastoral spook show

LE PETIT LIEUTENANT | January 24, 2007
Emotions over procedures

See all articles by: JUSTINE ELIAS

Most Viewed

Most Emailed

THE GADFLY
Bread and Puppet Theater founder Peter Schumann is a national treasure. Maybe that’s why George W. Bush wants to bury him.

LUKEWARM
Trey McIntyre at the Pillow

THE SHORES OF COOL
Interview: Liz Phair paddles back to Guyville

T.J. SCALLYWAGGLE'S
Tasty, scruffy, and cruelty-free

PHOTOS: NEIL DIAMOND AT FENWAY PARK
August 23, 2008 at Fenway Park, Boston, MA

THE SHORES OF COOL
Interview: Liz Phair paddles back to Guyville

THE GADFLY
Bread and Puppet Theater founder Peter Schumann is a national treasure. Maybe that’s why George W. Bush wants to bury him.

PAPER CHASE
The counterintuitive, durable case for journalism education

POT EDWARD ISLAND
Canada's most picturesque province is surprisingly also the fertile center of an underground marijuana explosion

TRAITOR
Never as exciting as an episode of 24

HOT TOPICS

Daniel Day-Lewis , Jack Black , Michael Clayton , Michael Haneke , Osama bin Laden , Tom McCarthy , Paul Thomas Anderson , Michael Jackson , Paris Hilton , Tommy Lee Jones

Reviews

Cars

Stealing America

The play's the thing

Star Wars: The Clone Wars

What We Do Is Secret

Elegy