unclesamsavage

Rewatching Cars last night brought back so much nostalgia, for the characters, the endearing story, and the memes of course. Although that feeling is the primary reason I like this movie so much, I believe Cars stands up on its own merit just fine. The animation is world-class. What else could you expect from Pixar during their Golden Age? There are much more pop culture references and adult jokes than I remember as a kid. The voice acting fits well with the characters and feels fun. The story is sweet and has a good lesson, especially for kids -- don't go so fast that you forget to smell the flowers. The only part of the movie I fail to wrap my head around is why exactly the cars had to be sentient. As SchafrillasProductions on YT points out, there is no justification for their existence over using human drivers that have matching personalities to the cars they drive.

I understand the desire to root for our two self-righteous protagonists and all the shenanigans in which they get involved. The story jumps around from one crazy event to the next. It is exciting, yes; but the acting is awful, the script is absurd, and the whole work inspired an endless supply of movies afterwards that would fill every lonely shelf on Blockbusters across the country. Just because this is the first C-grade movie to do so does not make it worth watching. I recommend everyone else to go watch The Departed instead, a film that is worlds apart from this look into the Irish mob in Boston.

Werner Herzog is a master documentarian. How he came across Dieter Dengler (a fellow German) and his cascading story about escaping captivity in Laos and North Vietnam is beyond me. Yet, the movie will stick with me for likely the rest of my life. The way every scene is reenacted by Dengler and shot by Herzog's crew truly brings the story to life. It was difficult for me to grasp how firm Dengler was in retelling his story despite all the trauma and suffering. I am still curious if the film was tribute or not though. Herzog clearly admires the indomitable traits of Dengler like his fortitude, tenacity, and willpower; but the final scene before the credits makes me wonder if, in that great expanse of planes, Dengler was a boy with a dream who was tragically churned through the insensitive machine of war.