This column has now hit a trifecta with its third consecutive review of a family film. You can’t get more kid friendly than a G-rated Pixar animation film.

The good news is that “Cars 2” has moved the car racing franchise into a whole new international territory that is all the better for its global cast.

“Cars 2” opens by playing homage to the James Bond franchise that easily recalls several key elements in the best of the Sean Connery works. For one, the coolest car is the Aston Martin that belongs to a suave British secret agent.

Naturally, Michael Caine has the perfect quality to his voice that embodies the ultimate cool and suave British spy. His sporty British car is loaded with James Bond-type gadgets.

Caine’s Finn McMissile is teamed with the fetching Holley Shiftwell (voice of Emily Mortimer), a rookie field agent. Together, they launch an assault on a deep sea oil rig run by a nefarious gang.

Back in the States, noted race car Lightning McQueen (Owen Wilson) returns to Radiator Springs for rest and relaxation with his best buddy, the tow truck Mater (Larry the Cable Guy).

Meanwhile, billionaire Miles Axlerod (Eddie Izzard), eager to promote his alternative fuel called Allinol, is staging a series of World Grand Prix races in Europe and Asia.

After being taunted by arrogant Formula champion Francesco Bernoulli (John Turturro), McQueen and Mater, along with their hometown pit crew, head off to Tokyo for the inaugural Grand Prix race.

In a series of contests to occur as well in Italy, France and England, McQueen is eager to prove that he is worthy to compete with the cocky, flamboyant and self-absorbed Francesco.

As the racing gets under way, Mater, who sounds like a backwoods hillbilly from Arkansas, is mistaken by McMissile for an undercover American agent on a similar mission to take down a villainous East German scientist.

To make matters worse, the attractive Holley Shiftwell chats up Mater for his supposed prowess in international espionage, while the clueless tow truck imagines that they might actually go out on a dinner date.

Easily distracted, Mater finds himself torn between assisting his good pal McQueen in the high-profile race and falling in with the top-secret mission orchestrated by the smooth, debonair Finn McMissile.

Mater’s charm, which does wear a little thin after too many cornpone witticisms, anchors much of the action around his unwitting ability to chug along on his hapless path to ultimate vindication.

Much of the fast-paced action is filled with a global conspiracy to sabotage the race, which has as much to do with political intrigue as garnering market share in a new fuel source.

The ongoing intrigue plays well for the adult audience, while taking nothing away from the enjoyment of “Cars 2” at a level appealing to grade school kids.

The colorful settings of the Tokyo streets, the coastal beauty of the Italian Riviera, the cosmopolitan charm of Paris and the elegance of London make for very great visuals.

“Cars 2” proves to be a worthy addition to the pantheon of Pixar animated films, enjoyable for its deft combination of comedy and international intrigue.

DVD RELEASE UPDATE

“Elektra Luxx” arrived in theaters to little fanfare, but the thought of Carla Gugino playing a pregnant ex-porn star sounded intriguing.

Gugino’s adult film star Elektra Luxx has decided to quit the industry and become a “sexology” instructor at a community college.

“Elektra Luxx” has been released on DVD, a copy of which arrived unsolicited in the mail.

I thought it might be interesting, given a cast of characters that include Timothy Olyphant, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Malin Akerman and Emmanuelle Chriqui.

The right comedic elements seemed to be in place, what with Elektra coping with a clothing-challenged neighbor, a criminal twin sister and other assorted oddballs.

Unfortunately, “Elektra Luxx” just didn’t deliver the comedic goods, so spare yourself any trouble or expense.

Tim Riley writes film and television reviews for Lake County News.

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – The Lake County Arts Council invites Lake County photographers to participate in the next of its summer series of juried shows, “Lake County Landscape in Photography.”

The judging is open to all original, unenhanced digital photographs, image size not to exceed 8 by 10 inches.

Entries for jury will be received on Friday, July 22, at the Main Street Gallery in Lakeport.

Curator Ray Farrow welcomes Jan Hambrick back to judge work submitted for jury into this show. Many will remember the great show that Hambrick selected for the last Main Street Gallery photographers show.

Hambrick is founder of many successful art-related businesses and has four decades in the commercial and fine art industry. She has received numerous awards and accolades for her published work. Since 2006 she has been teaching the next generation of aspiring artists and photographers at Clearlake High School.

Entry information and guidelines are available at the Main Street Gallery, 325 N. Main St., Lakeport, during regular business hours, Tuesday through Saturday, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

The evening of art and music will take place from 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. at the gallery, 325 N. Main Street, Lakeport.

New works from the following local artists will be introduced: Colleen La Plante – artistic, colorful fused glass table settings and more; George Waterstraat – one-of-a kind burl wood (maple, redwood, walnut, bay laurel), redwood, ash vases and bowls; Lois Feron – acrylic on canvas and boards; and Judy Cardinale – abstracts watercolor.

Currently showing at the gallery are Konocti Pleine Air Plus – landscapes of Lake County painted on location by the Pleine Air Artists Group; Amy Heppen – figurative; Diane Constable – acrylic; Linda Richmond – acrylic/collage; Bruce Vandraiss – colored pencil; Terry Durnil – pastels; Wanda Quitiquit – turn-of-the-century Pomo design, hand-painted gourds; Bill Rose – stained glass, fused glass, carved eggs of the ostrich, emu, duck and rhea.

The gallery also is putting on an abstract show, including 23 painted entries and two sculptures. Two

wall spaces in the main saloon and the Linda Carpenter Student gallery are full of these marvelous abstract paintings and sculptures

There will be finger food, a chance to meet the artists, music by Shady Tree (Michael Barrish, Janet Berrian, Tom Nixon and Scott Somers) and wine poured by Beaver Creek Winery.

For more information contact the Main Street Gallery at 707-263-6658.

Ted Kooser, US Poet Laureate from 2004 to 2006. Photo by UNL Publications and Photography.

I am especially fond of what we might call landscape poems, describing places, scenes. Here April Lindner, who lives in Philadelphia, paints a scene we might come upon on the back side of any great American city.

Our Lady of Perpetual Help

The burnt church up the street yawns to the sky,

its empty windows edged in soot, its portals

boarded up and slathered with graffiti,

oily layers, urgent but illegible.

All that can be plundered has been, all

but the carapace—the hollow bell tower,

the fieldstone box that once served as a nave.

The tidy row of homes that line this block

have tended lawns and scalloped bathtub shrines.

Each front porch holds a chair where no one sits.

Those who live here triple lock their doors

day and night. Some mornings they step out

to find a smoking car stripped to its skeleton

abandoned at the curb. Most afternoons

the street is still but for a mourning dove

and gangs of pigeons picking through the grass.

Our Lady of Perpetual Help is gray,

a dead incisor in a wary smile.

A crevice in her wall allows a glimpse

into the chancel, where a sodden mattress

and dirty blanket indicate that someone

finds this place a sanctuary still,

takes his rest here, held and held apart

from passers by, their cruelties and their kindnesses,

watched over by the night’s blind congregation,

by the blank eyes of a concrete saint.

American Life in Poetry is made possible by The Poetry Foundation, publisher of Poetry magazine. It is also supported by the Department of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Poem copyright ©2010 by Able Muse Review and April Lindner, whose most recent novel is Jane, Poppy, 2010. Poem reprinted from Able Muse Anthology, Able Muse Press, 2010, by permission of the publisher. Introduction copyright ©2011 by The Poetry Foundation. The introduction's author, Ted Kooser, served as United States Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 2004-2006. They do not accept unsolicited manuscripts.

MR. POPPER’S PENGUINS (Rated PG)

Just last week, while reviewing “Judy Moody,” I was lamenting, albeit in an oblique fashion, the relative lack of family films released for the start of the summer season.

Now along comes the elastic-faced comedian Jim Carrey to save the day in his almost trademark role of a workaholic father (think “Liar, Liar”), needing redemption for his lack of attention to parental duties.

“Mr. Popper’s Penguins” finds Jim Carrey’s Mr. Popper as a sleek, shark-like real estate developer in a constant hunt to acquire landmark Manhattan properties to satisfy a trio of demanding partners.

Mr. Popper is grappling with daddy issues, his own and those imposed on his estranged children, teenager Janie (Madeline Carroll) and grade-schooler Billy (Maxwell Perry Colton).

Having all of the perks of a highly paid executive, Mr. Popper lives in an expansive Park Avenue apartment, though it is sterile and cold, which makes it a perfect abode for penguins (more on that later).

Except for the occasional weekend visit with his kids, Mr. Popper’s only reliable companion appears to be his assistant Pippi (Ophelia Lovibond), who has an alliterative propensity for saying words that start with the letter “p.”

Apparently, Mr. Popper yearns for the company of his ex-wife Amanda (an underused Carla Gugino), who has a new boyfriend, but just might be open to rekindling a relationship with Mr. Popper, just because this is, after all, a family film.

As for Popper’s own paternal issues, they concern the absence during his childhood of his peripatetic explorer father who constantly wandered the globe in search of adventure and discovery.

In an odd parting gesture, Popper’s late dad arranged for the delivery of six Gentoo penguins to Popper’s high-rise abode. Conveniently, they arrive during winter.

The birds quickly acquire their own nicknames. Captain is the obvious leader of the pack. Nimrod, Stinky, Loudy, Bitey and Lovey are appropriately named for their personality traits and/or character flaws.

Inexplicably, Popper resists the pleadings of a persistent zookeeper (Clark Gregg) to move the birds to a proper sanctuary.

Instead, Mr. Popper turns his swank apartment into a makeshift residence for penguins, letting in all the cold winter air, setting up an ice rink and allowing his avian friends to watch a constant loop of Charlie Chaplin movies.

Suddenly, Popper attains the cachet of being a really cool dad in the eyes of his own children. After all, the penguins are adorable, even if they poop at the most inopportune moments.

Loosely based on the classic 1938 children’s book, “Mr. Popper’s Penguins,” as directed by Mark Waters, allows the lovable, elegant birds to upstage the veteran comedian.

Regardless of whether the screen time is used by real penguins or CGI counterparts, the birds steal every scene, from sliding down the circular ramp of the Guggenheim Museum to stopping New York traffic as they march in formation.

Owing to this film’s old-fashioned sensibilities, there are no real surprises in store. Anyone older than a fifth grader knows the story is predictable, but that is all to the good.

All that matters, in the end, is that Jim Carrey delivers the comic goods with a wonderful assist from adorable furry creatures that are irresistibly charming.

“Mr. Popper’s Penguins,” delightfully funny and heartwarming, is easily enjoyed by all members of the family, young and old.

DVD RELEASE UPDATE

The story of a naïve, small-town Wisconsin native sent by his company to attend a regional insurance convention in the “big city” of Cedar Rapids, Iowa remains the funniest movie of the year.

“Cedar Rapids” follows Ed Helms, of “The Hangover” fame, as the unsuspecting, inexperienced salesman who gets caught up in the most unexpected shenanigans.

Helms’ mild-mannered Tim Lippe falls in with the wrong crowd as they cause mayhem at the most unconventional business convention.

“Cedar Rapids: Super Awesome Edition” arrives in Blu-ray and DVD. The DVD extras include many deleted scenes, a gag reel, and documentary-style features on certain key elements.

The Blu-ray disc contains additional highlights on the film’s assortment of various oddball characters, from the lovable to the truly frightening.

“Cedar Rapids” is a wildly funny and undeniably infectious comedy that makes it absolutely essential that one should acquire the “Super Awesome Edition.”

Tim Riley writes film and television reviews for Lake County News.

Ted Kooser, US Poet Laureate from 2004 to 2006. Photo by UNL Publications and Photography.

Many of us have attempted to console friends who have recently been divorced, and though it can be a pretty hard sell, we have assured them that things will indeed be better with the passage of time. Here’s a fine poem of consolation by Patricia Jabbeh Wesley, who teaches at Penn State.

One Day

One day, you will awake from your covering

and that heart of yours will be totally mended,

and there will be no more burning within.

The owl, calling in the setting of the sun

and the deer path, all erased.

And there will be no more need for love

or lovers or fears of losing lovers

and there will be no more burning timbers

with which to light a new fire,

and there will be no more husbands or people

related to husbands, and there will be no more

tears or reason to shed your tears.

You will be as mended as the bridge

the working crew has just reopened.

The thick air will be vanquished with the tide

and the river that was corrupted by lies

will be cleansed and totally free.

And the rooster will call in the setting sun

and the sun will beckon homeward,

hiding behind your one tree that was not felled.

American Life in Poetry is made possible by The Poetry Foundation, publisher of Poetry magazine. It is also supported by the Department of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Poem copyright ©2010 by Patricia Jabbeh Wesley from her fourth book of poetry, Where the Road Turns, Autumn House Press, 2010. Poem reprinted by permission of Patricia Jabbeh Wesley and the publisher. Introduction copyright 2011 by The Poetry Foundation. The introduction's author, Ted Kooser, served as United States Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 2004-2006. They do not accept unsolicited manuscripts.