Title: Cars 2 Reviewed by: JM Willis Directed by: Brad Lewis Starring: Owen Wilson, Larry the Cable Guy and Michael Caine Running time: 106 minutes, Rated G, Available on standard DVD Lightning McQueen and his best bud Mader are back in the sequel to the Pixar blockbuster Cars. McQueen takes his friends from Radiator Springs with him to the World Grand Prix to determine the world’s fastest car and try out a new earth friendly fuel called Allinol. Mader however gets mistaken for a spy, and unwittingly becomes involved in international espionage. Personally, I didn’t see the need to make a sequel to Cars, since I didn’t think the original…

Disney/Pixar’s John Lasseter received a coveted star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame Tuesday, which coincided with the release of “Cars 2″ on DVD and Blu-ray. Present at the event were Owen Wilson, Emily Mortimer, Brad Paisley, Bonnie Hunt, Cheech Marin, John Ratzenberger, Patton Oswalt, Randy Newman and Don Rickles, all of whom are associated with Pixar either by contributing their voices (Wilson, Mortimer, Hunt, Marin, Ratzenberger, Oswalt and Rickles) or their musical talents (Paisley, Newman). Lasseter is a two-time Oscar-winning director and creatively oversees all Disney and Pixar films and associated projects. Lasseter’s directorial debut was in 1995 with Pixar’s first feature film, “Toy Story.” He also directed “A…

Title: The Big Year Director: David Frankel Starring: Owen Wilson, Jack Black, Steve Martin, Rosamund Pike, Joel McHale, Kevin Pollak, Brian Dennehy, Dianne Wiest You could age an average of five years depending on what your expectations are when walking into The Big Year. Having a core cast of comedic stars would suggest multiple jovial outbursts. Or at least a smile. Instead, this is simply a nice story about following one’s passion and what sacrifices come with that choice. The Big Year is all about who can spot the most species of bird in a calendar year. Kenny Bostick (Owen Wilson) is the all-time record holder and wants to make…

Title: The Big Year Directed By: David Frankel Written By: Howard Franklin, book by Mark Obmascik “The Big Year: A Tale of Man, Nature and Fowl Obsession” Cast: Owen Wilson, Jack Black, Steve Martin, Rashida Jones, Anjelica Huston, Jim Parsons Screened at: Lincoln Square, NYC, 10/11/11 Opens: October 14, 2011 The next time you get a phone call from a person who says that he’s giving you the bird and wants to tell you where to go, thank him. He is presuming that you’re an Audubon enthusiast, happy to tell you where to find members of a winged species. “The Big Year” shows that multiculturalists are right: there is happiness…

Directed by “Ice Age”‘s Carlos Saldanha, animated family film “Rio” centers on a rare, domesticated macaw, Blu (voiced by Jesse Eisenberg, who must have beaten out a crestfallen Simon LeBon), who lives an easy life in Minnesota. Believing he’s the last of his kind, Blu has never spread his wings and learned to fly — both figuratively and literally. When he learns of a female counterpart in Rio de Janeiro, Jewel (voiced by Anne Hathaway), however, Blu sets off a wild adventure and makes some new friends along the way. The supporting vocal performance (from George Lopez, Tracy Morgan and Jamie Foxx, among others) are energetic and peppy, but not always…

Owen Wilson and his girlfriend Jane Duell have reportedly split, five months after the birth of their son Robert, the UK Daily Mail is reporting. The 42-year-old ‘Midnight in Paris’ star is said to have ended the relationship because he wasn’t ready to commit to the former air marshal. Wilson wanted the freedom to go out with his male and female friends while keeping the family dynamic with Duell and Robert. However, Duell wasn’t happy with the arrangement, so the actor decided to end the relationship, instead of sneaking behind her back. The report comes as Duell moved with Robert back to New York to be with her family. Wilson…

Title: Cars 2 Director: John Lasseter & Brad Lewis Starring the Voices of: Owen Wilson, Larry the Cable Guy, Michael Caine, Emily Mortimer, Eddie Izzard, John Turturro, Joe Mantegna, Thomas Kretschmann The setting: -It’s late February 2012, wait, scratch that…it’s January 2012, and the Oscar nominees are being rattled off; some A-list celebrity is about to read the candidates for Best Animated Film, and wouldn’t you know it, a Pixar film is noticeably missing… That’s because “Cars 2″ sputtered at just about every turn. If you’re looking for what makes Pixar the perennial dominating product in this genre, this 113 minute flick is a very average sample size. And don’t…

Title: Midnight in Paris Writer-director: Woody Allen Starring: Owen Wilson, Rachel McAdams, Marion Cotillard, Michael Sheen, Kathy Bates, Corey Stoll, Carla Bruni, Adrien Brody, Tom Hiddleston, Alison Pill, Kurt Fuller, Mimi Kennedy Throughout the 1970s and ’80s, and into the 1990s, few filmmakers captured New York City as lovingly as Woody Allen. The writer-director’s move across the pond to Europe, however, which began with 2005′s “Match Point”, has served him well, seemingly rejuvenating his creative spirits and resulting in a string of mostly engaging films. A charming, whimsical and beautifully shot romantic comedy, and a big rebound from last year’s disappointing “You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger”, “Midnight in…

Coming on the heels of 2009′s underperforming The Princess and the Frog, Disney rolled the dice yet again on a fairly low-fi tale of storybook royalty, in the form of Tangled, based on the fairytale of Rapunzel. A huge $575 million worldwide hit, the movie is a well-rendered throwback that underscores the still existent pleasures of traditional storytelling, amidst all the glitz and glam of more forcibly lively animated fare. Nicely balancing a sense of classic sentimentality with contemporary, gender-equal romance and adventure, Tangled features engaging vocal turns by Mandy Moore and Zachary Levi — as the locked-away Rapunzel and rakish bandit Flynn Rider, respectively — and has enough going on…

Thanks to Break.com, moviegoers interested in previewing some of the film “Hall Pass” can see an exclusive clip called “Stephen Merchant Explains”. At the site, you have to type in your birthdate because this clip is a restricted clip. Directed by the the Farrelly brothers, the plot of the film involves two sets of married friends (Owen Wilson, Jason Sudeikis, Jenna Fischer, Christina Applegate). The wife of one husband allows him to have an extramarital affair, and once his friend gets wind of the situation, he and the other two wives start involving themselves in extramarital affairs as well. This causes the initial experiment to go out of control, which,…