Tag: Bonnie Hunt

CARS (2006)

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Directed By: John Lasseter and Joe Ranft 

Original Story By: John Lasseter, Joe Ranft and Jorgen Klubien 

Written By: John Lasseter, Joe Ranft, Jorgen Klubien, Dan Fogelman, Kiel Murray and Phil Lorin 

Cinematography: Jean-Claude Kalache 

Editor: Ken Schretzmann 

Cast: (Voices) Owen Wilson, Paul Newman, Bonnie Hunt, Larry The Cable Guy, Tony Shaloub, John Ratzenberger, Cheech Marin, Jenifer Lewis, George Carlin, Michael Keaton, Paul Dooley, Katherine Helmond, Edie McClurg, Bob Costas, Jeremy Piven

While traveling to California for the dispute of the final race of the Piston Cup against The King and Chick Hicks, the famous Lightning McQueen accidentally damages the road of the small town Radiator Springs and is sentenced to repair it. Lightning McQueen has to work hard and finds friendship and love in the simple locals, changing its values during his stay in the small town and becoming a true winner.

I can understand the appeal of this Pixar animated film. At its core, it’s pure Americana: a glossy, well-meaning fable about loyalty, humility, and using your fame and talent for something larger than yourself. Those are solid morals, clearly communicated, and for its intended audience they land without much friction.

That said, the film feels like a throwback, almost as if it were designed in the mold of a 1980s family movie. It’s the kind of project that might have felt more innovative if it had arrived during Pixar’s early years. By the time it actually came out, however, it already felt a bit behind the curve. While undeniably a huge hit, its priorities seem tilted more toward younger kids and families, and unsurprisingly for Disney toward merchandising and franchise potential rather than pushing storytelling or filmmaking forward.

There’s nothing here you haven’t seen before. The story is traditional to a fault, the themes are familiar, and the animation, while sleek and polished, feels more simplified and childlike than truly impressive. It lacks the sense of boundary-pushing that once defined Pixar as essential, must-see cinema. Watching it now, it’s still entertaining, but it also feels basic, pleasant in the moment and oddly disposable afterward, even considering it spawned multiple sequels.

I’ll admit I’m not the biggest animation fan, but this film does reinforce an important idea: any story can be told in countless ways, and it doesn’t always need human characters to resonate. Still, this particular execution feels engineered to appeal across as many audience quadrants as possible, which makes its success and its expansion into sequels, spin-offs, and entire sub-franchises feel inevitable. This was clearly the start of a cash cow, one that meant a great deal to many viewers.

For me, though, it ultimately plays like standard blockbuster entertainment: competently made, intermittently heartfelt, and easy to watch, but also hard to fully trust. It delivers warmth and familiarity, yet offers little that lingers once the credits roll.

One just expects more especially for a film that had six screenwriters. 

Grade: B- 

RETURN TO ME (2000)

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Directed By: Bonnie Hunt
Written By: Bonnie Hunt & Don Lake 
Story By: Bonnie Hunt, Don Lake, Andrew Stern and Samantha Goodman
Cinematography: Laszlo Kovacs 
Editor: Garth Craven

Cast: David Duchovny, Minnie Driver, David Alan Grier, Carroll O’Connor, Robert Loggia, Bonnie Hunt, James Belushi, Eddie Jones, Brian Howe, Marianne Muellerleile, Joely Richardson 

A man who falls in love with the woman who received his wife’s heart must decide which woman it is who holds his heart.

This film is a total surprise. As one wouldn’t think too much of it at first,  it comes across as an all-time classic 

This film is charming. Above all else. Like its co-writer and director Bonnie Hunt’s stand-up comedy it’s inoffensive, chuckle-worthy, classic, and full of character. As well as full of characters. 

As it plays like a romantic comedy from the 1950s and stays wholesome. As even though it is modern it feels like it comes from a bygone era or the type of film They don’t make anymore. As the leads come across as real characters and never stars.

Though the film deals with a dark subject. The film stays lighthearted, cheerful, and energetic.

This for me is the first time that David Duchovny comes across as a full-fledged leading man in a movie. He is quite good and soulful. He even manages to put out a few laughs.

Minnie Driver is wonderful, beautiful, and down to earth in the film. She is practically the girl next door in this film. As well as hilarious. 

The sounding board of her family and the regulars at the restaurant are hilarious and give the film a special touch. Especially seeing the old-school stars given something to do. 

That is the strength of the film. You are so interested in all of the characters. Even the minor ones that no matter what happens you will still be entertained. That is how nourishing this film is as it shows everything and every one was handled with care.

The film could have easily based itself on the story and plot but while it is around it quickly takes a backseat to the characters and situations.

This is a film that is rewatchable each time I watch it. Not only do I fall in love with it all over again. As I suspect most who watch it will, but it holds up and impresses. As it feels like an old-school classic. Which is rare as they don’t make films like this anymore. Yes, it’s more in the movie logic cute romance side. 

The plot gets you in the door, but the characters keep you interested. No matter how formulaic it gets. It introduces something a bit unexpected. The film has a personality bit an extreme one but one more subtle.

GRADE: A

THE ULTIMATE PLAYLIST OF NOISE (2021)

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Directed by: Bennett Lasseter
Written By: Mitchell Winkie
Cinematography: Vincent Patin 
Editor: Robin Gonsalves 

Cast: Keean Johnson, Madeline Brewer, Bonnie Hunt, Ian Gomez, Rya Kihlstedt, Oliver Cooper, Carol Mansell, Emily Skeggs, Ariela Barer, Jake Weary 

Marcus, an audio-obsessed high school senior, learns he must undergo brain surgery that will render him deaf, and decides to seize control of his fate by recording the Ultimate Playlist of Noise.

As it goes down like a nice teen drama. It’s dramatic, funny, and heartwarming by the end. If this wasn’t already a young adult novel, it should have been.

We watch the natural growing pains, trials, and tribulations that most of us go through. Only here the main character is kind of an obsessive nerd. Whose main interests are music and putting together playlists. 

Then his passions come together in a cute young lady who is a musician and sends his heart flutter. Which happens to come into His life when he has learned of a condition that will rob him of his hearing and separating him from his favorite thing music.

While the film plays on romance it also becomes a road trip movie. So we get the eccentric, strange whimsy of the characters and traveling.

What is refreshing about this film is that it’s not a typical love story. As it has romantic moves but cuts them short offering genuine surprises from where you might think some moments are going in a good way. Like him having his first kiss.

It does try to show the beauty in supposedly the mundane. 

The film is more about bonding with a stranger and becoming so close that you can open up to them. The story more or less comes across as one of the connections between two people and inspiring one another to go face their fears and also learn to accept things. Deal with them and learn to live with it.

Even if staying somewhat predictable story-wise. There will be love involved, not romantic and not the kind where even if there was it could save you from yourself or help you outrun your problems. 

The film doesn’t offer a false or empty story. Where we are left to wonder what happens next or after that but should feel rest assured in just the here and now. 

Grade: B-