Cars 2

What the hell is going on with Cars? There are no people – yet there are sidewalks. I never saw the first film so maybe I’m missing something but I’ve had a hard time wrapping my brain around the universe portrayed in it. Maybe I’m overanalyzing it, punching a dead horse, and whatever other cliché you can insert here but it’s wrong – on many levels. Finally I’ve concocted a theorem about Cars’ civilization:

A long time ago motor vehicles gained consciousness somehow and overtook humanity. Subdued, in a Matrix-like fashion, humans are now the fuel for the cars (one character mentions “fossil fuels” at some point). Very much like Motel Hell the humans are harvested, possibly living in a computer generated reality, and used as fuel. Why else would there be sidewalks in a civilization entirely populated by cars?

The Book of Eli

I’m uncertain whether it’s a penchant for witnessing humanity’s worst in action or seeing a portrait of our lot at its best but I’ve always had a soft spot for post-apocalyptic films. Watching the society I rely upon for my sustenance crumbled always makes for a good tale and over and over again I keep revisiting old post-apocalyptic films and searching out for new ones. Today I watched The Hughes Brothers film The Book of Eli – a post-apocalyptic film about the Bible. Although I didn’t think The Book of Eli was excellent I did enjoy it and felt the commentary about religion was powerful. After the 2009 release of The Road, adapted from Cormac McCarthy’s Pultizer Prize winning novel, it’s difficult to look at the genre without a sharp dose of criticism for anything that doesn’t compare. Unfortunately, The Book of Eli doesn’t come close to The Road but it’s still a decent piece of film and isn’t without merit.