Cars 2

It was 1995 when Pixar films—now owned by Disney—started their amazing feature film run with Toy Story, a run that eventually included 11 movies that were all a different degree of good. With Cars 2, their 12th effort, that run comes to a screeching, tire-shredding halt. This is, without a doubt, not only the worst—and only bad—Pixar feature film to date, but one of the year’s worst movies. Cars 2 is a muddled merchandising mess tooling around on bald tires. Directors John Lasseter (the first two Toy Story films) and Brad Lewis have slopped together too many ideas for one movie, none of them entertaining in the least. Lightning McQueen (Owen Wilson) and Mater (Larry the Cable Guy) go on some world-racing trek, and Mater gets involved with some car spies. Have fun trying to follow anything in this damn thing, and have fun forking over the dough for stupid Mater toy trucks this Christmas. There’s a Toy Story short before the film that’s slightly better than the feature.