Review: Cars 2

Cars 2 is fun, funny, fast paced, and an exciting spy movie that improves upon the original Cars and has fun with the genre its playing in; while turning in some quality set pieces that a lot of action movies wish they had.

Check out my review of the Toy Story Toons short in front of Cars 2; Hawaiian Vacation.

The original Cars has grown on me every time I’ve seen it and while it’s still my least favorite Pixar film I still think it is quite a good little movie.  One thing I realized recently about Cars, don’t know why it took so long, is that it is almost without a plot.  Sure there is the race but it is just a character piece more or less and that realization even furthered my enjoyment of the original film.  And it wasn’t till we got to Radiator Springs in Cars 2 that I realized how much I liked and missed these characters and their stories.  I honestly think I would have enjoyed Cars 2 had it just been another nice and easy character piece in Radiator Springs and this sequel made me retroactively appreciate Cars even more for its great character work.

People that were affected, consciously or not, by Cars lack of plot will have no issues here as Cars 2 is full of it.  [Read more...]

Review: Machete

I found Jan Brewer’s beheaded bodies, they are in…Machete!

The Grindhouse faux trailer turned feature length grind house film fits in perfectly with its predecessors, Planet Terror and Death Proof.  The film is just as over the top, gory, and ludicrous as those that aforementioned double feature and is filled with same game talent beyond that.

[Read more...]

Now Playing Review – Machete

Usually a man’s best friend is a dog, but you’ve got two guesses as to what Machete likes to keep at his side.  Evildoers beware; you are about to be introduced to his BFF.

Back in Mexico Machete was the one man on the police force that would make grown man weep if they heard he was coming for them.  He is tough, no nonsense, not squeamish when it comes to blood, and can get the job done.  But one day things go horribly wrong and everything is taking away from him, leading him on a path of bloody revenge against those who have crossed him.  Now mix in a whole bunch of racism and we’ve got ourselves quite the exploitation film.

Let’s face it, this type of film that pays homage to the qualities of a exploitative B-movie is not for everyone, and could easily create a love it or hate it divide in the audience.  But before you write it off as something to pass on consider the possibility that you might not end up on the side of the line you would expect.  Just take it from me, going in I wasn’t really expecting anything from this since any spooftastic film tends to rub me the wrong way.  They tread a fine line because they can so easily take things a step too far if they haven’t just completely run across the line on the over-the-top side of things (there are too many lines in this paragraph), something that is hard to come back from. [Read more...]