The notion of automotive gender and discrimination issues is not something the series ever tackled before likewise the implication of a car caste system, where you're born into a particular automotive body and that defines the rest of your life, however long that is.
And the notion of a gendered car universe that grapples with sexism is discombobulating because the film mostly dances around the issue without mustering the nerve or the chops to properly deal with it. (When Lightning repeatedly diminishes Cruz as “a trainer” rather than “a racer,” it sounds like he’s trying to put a female car in her place, and when Storm taunts Cruz, his insults evoke a male nerd taunting a female one for not being a "true" fan of the thing they both love.) The film hedges its bets here, though, as if it’s trying to avoid a boycott led by the sorts of men who buy tickets to women-only screenings of “ Wonder Woman” and think they’re striking a blow for civil rights. The Doc-Lightning and Lightning-Cruz relationships suggest a passing of the torch, and “Cars 3” finds a decent way to give us that, along with a sub-theme of female empowerment and a sincere belief in the idea that privileges have to be given up or amended if society, even a car-centric one, is going to keep evolving. It’s not a spoiler to say that this film has a happy ending, but to its credit, for all its clichés, it doesn’t give us the ending we expect. And it’s here that "Rocky IV" rears its meaty head, with a montage that contrasts Lightning and Cruz driving through woods and around dirt tracks against shots of Storm training in an indoor facility that looks like a place where a Bond villain might throw a Christmas party. This leads the former champ to return to his roots in the rural holler where his late mentor Doc Hudson ( Paul Newman, playing “himself” via outtakes and a celebrity impersonator) learned skills and tricks that he passed down to Lightning. Following a disastrous defeat by Storm, Lightning lets his sponsor Sterling ( Nathan Fillion) talk him into training in an elaborate racing simulation facility under a younger trainer, Cruz Ramirez ( Cristela Alonzo), who excitedly but thoughtlessly describes him as “my senior project.” When Lighting wipes out there, too, Sterling informs him that he’s mainly interested in using a retired Lightning as a pitchman for Rust-eze mud flaps. without breaking a-well, cars don’t sweat, but you get the idea. He’s challenged by a snotty, bullying wannabe-champ, Jackson Storm ( Armie Hammer), a super-high tech car that can go 200 m.p.h. Despite its lack of originality, as well as its lackadaisical storytelling and world building, it satisfies in that amiably weird way that only a "Cars" film can.Ĭhampion race car Lightning McQueen ( Owen Wilson) has been on top for so long that he has failed to notice that he’s not getting any younger.
#DEATH RACE 2000 MEGASHARE MOVIE#
There is, at the level of plot and characterization, not a single major element in this movie that you haven’t seen elsewhere, possibly in a “Cars” or “Planes” film. The screenplay rips off the main plot of the Tom Cruise racing picture “Days of Thunder” (knowingly, though a supporting race car character is cleverly named “Cruz”) and merges it with bits of “Rocky III,” the one where the champ went soft and had to find his edge again “Rocky IV,” where the champ had to train in snowy Siberian woods to fend off a challenger who relied on steroids and fancy machines, and “ Creed,” where the champ realized that passing wisdom on to the next generation can be as satisfying as acquiring it when you’re young. Lo and behold: here’s “Cars 3,” a smiley-faced Frankenstein’s monster comprised of bits and pieces lifted from every other sports film in existence.
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