Thirty Seconds Or Less. Cars 2, Larry Crowne, and Transformers 3

You know, starting TSL during the summer wasn’t one of my most brilliant ideas because the summer does not provide many good movies. I’m sure most people understand why this is, but for those who don’t, allow me to explain. The movie studios don’t need to release the great films that you and I most likely would really want to see, they will primarily stick to the cheaper to make and highly watched thrills to make a buck. During the summer, so many little kids and teens are off of school and will go see pretty much anything that looks remotely interesting. Of course, some gems will be found in the haze of crap that may be hitting your screens, but much wading will be done before that happens. Well, let’s get to the nitty gritty.

Cars 2

Not Pixar’s best work, let me tell you why.

Cinematography 5/5

Well it’s a Pixar movie, so you really can’t go wrong with it. The CGI in the film is on par and incredible to look at, as is all Pixar films. The colors were something thatn really stood out to me, due to the brightness of them all. Really couldn’t find anything really wrong with this aspect of the film.

Acting 3/5

Voice acting in this case. One actor that stood out more than most was Owen Wilson in the role of Lightning McQueen. I found that his voice never got over a certain level. It wasn’t as though he was monotone, it was as though he was reading with zero emotion. The best voice actor was obviously Michael Caine, of course this is just my opinion. A few of the voice actors seemed recycled, and I don’t mean the reoccurring characters, I mean the henchmen, or the cars throughout the movie.

Writing 2/5

This entire movie seemed like a big set up just for Mater to say some cheesy one liner, again and again. It almost became exhausting on how many stupid lines they could get mater to say in one scene. I did laugh at some of them, yes, but overall it became irritating. I know that I said Owen Wilson’s voice work could have been better, but perhaps he was sad that 60% of the script was Mater saying stupid crap and he only had about 15 lines throughout the film. This is one of the worst written films to come from Pixar.

Editing 3/5

Well, this aspect wasn’t too bad, but the film seemed rushed. The story was really trying to squeeze in as much as possible in such a short amount of time. Read the following part really fast... Radiator Springs, plane, montage, Japan, racetrack, England, racetrack, train, Radiator Springs... that is sort of how it felt.

Story 4/5

This is where the movie makes up for many of it’s faults. It was a very entertaining story. Sure, it wasn’t at Toy Story 3 caliber, but I thought that the addition of a few new characters and villains made for a very entertaining story. I also enjoyed the short film at the beginning of the movie, but I’m not reviewing that...

Sound/ Music 5/5

This is always something that is well done in all Pixar films. The score is great and really helps to characterize certain parts of the movie. The sound effects are always on par and not too overbearing.

Closing Thoughts 22/30

Well, this is easily the worst Pixar movie that the studio has ever released, but that really isn’t saying a lot considering their track record and how flawless it has been since the beginning. The film, in comparison to the first one, just doesn’t even come close, but in light of it being a summer blockbuster kid oriented film, it isn’t too bad. I would recommend to parent’s with their kids, but for the die hard Pixar fans, you might come out disappointed, or you might love it.

Larry Crowne

This film, which was directed by Tom Hanks himself, is about as shallow as the kiddie pool at a water park. Here’s why.

Cinematography 3/5

The cinematography wasn’t bad, but it really wasn’t that good either. It was just mediocre. Nothing fancy was done and nothing really stupid was done. It was as though they didn’t feel like taking any real risks with the shooting style, just made sure it was well lit and went with it.

Acting 4/5

Well, Tom Hanks has always been one of the best actors in Hollywood, but Julia Roberts has never really stuck my fancy. She has always seemed as though she only has one or two styles of acting and plays many reoccurring roles in a many films. It’s not to say she isn’t a good actress, it’s to say I’ve never really found her acting to be anything really special. To be honest, one of the younger actresses in the film showed her up a bit, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, who plays Talia pulls off this feat. Also, I was going to give this movie a 3/5, but changed my mind when I remembered George Takei character. He almost made the movie for me. His presence is sensational and hysterical.

Writing 2/5

The film was written to include little to NO back story about each and every character. It almost as though the writers said, “here are your characters, happy now?” Even the main character is given no back story aside from a little of his past jobs. Even then, his back story is boring and bland. Okay, Larry was a cook in the Navy and knows how to cook. Okay, what else? He is divorced. Okay, what else? That’s it. That was easy. The same goes for the other characters.

Editing 3/5

Rushed rushed rushed. I think writers assume that people don’t want to sit through a movie for more than an hour and a half, so they try to crush it all into that short little time span. If it takes a little longer to make the story better than please let it be longer. I think it’s ridiculous that a person can have a life altering experience and be done with it with the first 10 minutes of a movie, it really pushes it.

Story 3/5

Well, this part of the movie wasn’t bad at all, but it just seemed like the story has been recycled before. I won’t put spoilers of course, but it seemed like it was a story I’ve seen before. It wasn’t bad, but wasn’t anything really special.

Sound/Music 3/5

Well, once again, something that was just completely average. Nothing about it really stood out to me, but nothing about it was bad. The audio was really good and the voices sounded great. I’ve always paid close attention to how voices sound in certain rooms, such as a classroom, and it really captured how the sounds in there were.

Closing Thoughts 18/30

This movie wasn’t anything special, nor was it horrible, it was about as average as it comes. It felt rushed, and didn’t do anything to really show me a different movie. Feel free to see it, but I suggest for you to wait for the DVD release.

Transformers 3

I will not be biased to this film, as I happen to like the Transformers series. The main thing that I, and you, need to keep in mind is that this is a Micheal Bay film. So we know what to expect, as far as the mix between action and storyline go. With that being said, if you have never seen a Micheal Bay film, here is a synopsis... action action action storyline action action love scene action... done. There you go.

Cinematography 4/5

This is one of the highlights of this film. The CGI is pretty spot on and I really like that this movie didn’t suffer from SCS(shaky camera syndrome) too much. It was a good time as far as the action scenes go. Something that I noticed that didn’t really make much sense to me was the location. It took place in Chicago... Was New York rented out or something? Also, I noticed that Hollywood has seen a increase in the “lens flare” trend lately, hint hint, JJ Abrams. Bay did a good job in not over doing it.

Acting 2/5

If you see this movie because you love the actors in it, you are a bit mental. I’d like to link you to a video if I may. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8IXCK1EyP4s) That’s about as close as I can get to the acting skills of Shia Lebeouf. The only redeeming factors in this film were the voice actors of the Autobots and Decepticons.

Writing 1/5

This 1 is deserved. I say it because it felt as though a team of school children wrote the film. Half of the lines in the movie are screaming or cheesy one liners that I barely chuckled at. It’s not because the writing wasn’t there, it just seemed as though it was written by someone who wasn’t completely there. Keep in mind, this has nothing to do with the story, just the writing style.

Editing 3/5

It didn’t feel rushed. It was 2 and a half hours, which really did the film justice considering there was enough time for a story to develop, instead of crashing one scene into the next to beat some ridiculous time barrier that some movie executive at the studio required. It took it’s time, and that was a good thing, most of the time. The downside to this is that the actions scenes are endless. The entire movie is one really long action scene. It is draining to watch at times because the tense feelings you get from watching the “edge-of-your-seat” action is relentless.

Story 4/5

This is one of the really redeeming factors of the film. I thought the story was appropriate considering the first two films and how they set it up. The first movie is about the Autobots coming to Earth and the war that follows. The second movie is about Witwicky and the humans primarily. Leaving the third to be about them banding together, and taking on evil together. They did well in writing a good story. Some questions were unanswered, but overall, still a good storyline.

Sound/Music 2/5
I’m giving this film a 2 for sound strictly because of the musical score. The score was good, but the sound effects physically hurt me. It was like Micheal Bay got bored and started hurling sound at you are though he was in some type of contest. So much was going on that it made it hard to enjoy the action because the sound effects were just so distracting.

Closing Thoughts 16/30

I can honestly say that I enjoyed it, but only for particular reasons. This is a good movie in theaters, but be prepared to have your head blown off by the sound and actions of the film. Overall, I liked it, but it was flawed in the many ways that it was good. Summer blockbuster, and that’s about it.