Arts & Entertainment

This Week at the Movies

'Cars 2' is an enjoyable - if not classic - Pixar film, while 'Bad Teacher' is good for a few laughs

Pixar Animation Studios has been one of Hollywood’s leading creative and financial forces for the past decade-and-a-half.

In recent years, critics have noted that the studio has been continuously setting the bar higher for animation with instant classics such as “Ratatouille,” “Wall-E” (my personal favorite) and “Up.”

Could Pixar do wrong? According to a majority of the reviews for its 12th feature, the animation studio has finally misfired.

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Compared to the studio’s recent output, “Cars 2” is certainly more cartoonish and lighter on content. But the film is still worth a look and is significantly better than a majority of the dozen or so animated films dumped into theaters each year.

In this sequel, racecar Lightning McQueen (voiced by Owen Wilson) has returned to the quaint town of Radiator Springs to catch up with pals Mater (Larry the Cable Guy) and Sally (Bonnie Hunt).

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But McQueen is lured into an international racing competition by an Italian racecar named Francesco Bernoulli (John Turturro) and decides to drag the hapless, but well-meaning, bumpkin Mater along for the ride.

While McQueen was the lead character in John Lasseter’s first “Cars” film, Mater takes center stage this time around. The tow truck accidentally gets mixed up with a diabolical plot involving a group clunker cars who want to sabotage the Grand Prix. Two British spies (voiced by Michael Caine and Emily Mortimer) are the franchise’s new additions.

With “Wall-E” and “Up,” two of Pixar’s best, the studio showed that it was moving forward thematically, narratively and visually. “Cars 2” is more of a lark, but it’s a charming one.

The picture moves along swiftly and includes a nice story strand involving friendship. The film does not find Pixar at its most ambitious, but it’s an enjoyable breezy ride that will tide me over until the studio unleashes its next masterpiece.

Jake Kasdan’s “Bad Teacher” also suffered from some middling critical word of mouth over the weekend. And while the film does not reach the comedic heights of “Bridesmaids,” the summer’s first potty mouthed pictured aimed at a female audience, it’s a vast improvement over “The Hangover Pt. II.”

Cameron Diaz plays the titular character as a boozy, pot smoking, foul mouthed grade school teacher who gets dumped by her boyfriend.

A new substitute (Justin Timberlake) with a family fortune catches her eye, but she must battle the obnoxiously chipper Amy Squirrel (a solid Lucy Punch), a fellow educator, for his affections.

There is some comic gold in the film – especially Diaz’s choice to show films, including “Stand and Deliver” and “Lean On Me,” during the first weeks of school. The picture’s most riotous moment involves a goon hired by Diaz to torment a state test administrator.

“Bad Teacher,” despite its outrageousness, follows a fairly routine formula for a Hollywood comedy – flawed character learns lessons, a new romantic interest blossoms, etc. It just has more of an edge and is a lot funnier than your standard studio yuk fest. 

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