What has always set the studio's films apart is the ocean of heart and emotion lurking just beneath the surface - visions of empathy that entice audiences to relate to bugs, plastic toys, even speechless robots. Every Pixar film thus far has asked audiences to see through the eyes of a fantastical hero.

But in "Cars 2," this push for lush personalities is superseded by a drive to dazzle and entertain. Once again, helmed by the great John Lasseter, working with co-director Brad Lewis, this second "Cars" has surprisingly little depth beneath the surface adventure, and an overly simplistic message awaiting viewers at the conclusion.

Lightning McQueen (Owen Wilson) is back, a three-time champion of the Piston Cup who now spends his off-seasons with his dim-witted best buddy Mater (Larry the Cable Guy) in the dusty town of Radiator Springs. When a cocky new challenger, Francesco Bernoulli (John Turturro), struts his stuff on national TV, Mater rings the station and challenges Francesco to take on Lightning.

So a new event is born: The World Grand Prix, in which McQueen must go head to head with competitors in three races across three countries. This road trip allows the animators to go wild with eye-popping recreations of Tokyo, Paris, London and a scenic Italian coastal town.

Far more exciting than the locales is the espionage plot that is unfolding around them. Mater has been mistaken as an undercover secret agent by two British spy cars, Finn McMissile (Michael Caine) and Holley Shiftwell (Emily Mortimer), and he is whisked away on a secret mission. An alternative-fuel conspiracy is afoot, and an ironic crew of mobsters (Yugos, Pacers) is out to protect and promote big oil. Mater, of course, feels out of his element, but his bumbling is perceived by the Brits to be understated genius, and sure enough, as all these spy games go sour, Mater suddenly finds himself rushing to save the life of McQueen, who finds himself in the crosshairs.

As an espionage thriller, "Cars 2" offers a run romp, and as a colorful travelogue, it's a dazzler. But there's not much beyond the landscapes and the puns to hook our emotional sides. Even the moral of the story proves a bit trite, as if an echo of past films: Be true to yourself and accept people - or cars - for who they are, even buck-toothed simpletons allergic to car washes.

It's a bit too simple, silly and predictable; if this were a film by any other studio, I would be encouraging it to strive for the heartfelt Pixar standard.

Email: snyderreviews@hotmail.com

'Tree of Life' brilliantly

displays miracle of existence

By Steven Snyder

TimeOut Film Critic

Most astonishing and arresting about the new Terrence Malick film "The Tree of Life" is the pure ambition and scope of the story: Here is a vision of a suburban family as told through the eons of time - chronicling the universe from the Big Bang to the 1950s Texas.

The film begins with a mind-bending journey through the universe, reconstructing the dawn of the galaxy and solar system, and linking the explosive beginnings of life in outer space to the tensions that roil a family in a Texas suburb.

It's this intimate, middle section of the film that is the most affecting. The O'Briens (played with fury and vulnerability by Brad Pitt and Jessica Chastain) have three boys whom they are trying to steer through early life. Their parenting is a bit erratic, balancing religion with an appreciation for art (or, specifically, music) and a Protestant work ethic with a fondness for day-to-day playfulness.

The three kids run free with other neighborhood boys, causing trouble, testing the limits of their own perceived invulnerability. The two parents, meanwhile, pull them in different directions, particularly trying to mold the eldest, Jack (Hunter McCracken), into the man they want him to be. Both want their offspring to end up on the straight and narrow, but in that endeavor, one is strict where the other is soft.

The mystery of Malick is that he doesn't tell his story in any linear, sequential or conventional manner. He prefers relaying information in short puffs of cinematic smoke. Small gestures stand in for greater events, and whispered poetry is preferable to explicitly laying out any greater meaning or intention.

An individual moment as trivial as walking down the street might be shown in three different ways, from three different angles, at three different speeds. In this way, the real story subtly blooms into being almost without notice.

Gradually, family life for the O'Briens goes from idyllic to troublesome. Carefree romps in the woods turn to deadly games and dangerous dares. Malick also teases us with a family tragedy that is to come, one that nestles somewhere in the middle of his timeline. In a few brief scenes, we see Sean Penn playing Jack as an older man, contending with his past. As an adult, he is out of step with his environment, no longer at harmony.

And without divulging the film's greatest secrets, Malick finally brings the viewer to a beach in the movie's closing scenes - creating an inspiring epilogue that suggests our lives are brief, our hearts are fragile, and that the only path to joy is to open ourselves to the wonders of the world around us. More than money or fame, there is true wealth to be found in appreciating the miracle of our lives and surroundings.

Few films have aimed to tell a story this complex, and few stories have succeeded in evoking the awe of a prayer. If most movies are concerned with car chases and superheroes, "The Tree of Life" wants nothing less than to contemplate the mysteries of existence.

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