Shock's Movie Reviews - Speed Racer

OK, let me start this off by saying I remember NOTHING about the 60's cartoon/kid's show that this movie was supposedly based on/modeled after.

So, that said, I have to say that the Wachowski brothers have created a unique look for the movie - too bad they didn't spend as much time as they should have on the script.

Basically, this is the story of a racing family - the Racers: Pops (John Goodman), Mom (Susan Sarandon), Speed (Emile Hirsch), Rex (Scott Porter), Spritle (Paulie Litt), and Speed's girlfriend Trixie (Christina Ricci). Speed was meant to race ever since he was a kid (shown in the first few scenes, as a kid growing up dreaming of racing, not paying attention in school). The scenes of him as a boy are actually somewhat entertaining, as they show why he grew up to love racing so much.

It's when we get into the meat of the story that things begin to drag. Speed's reason for racing is in memory of his brother Rex, who died racing. Speed wants to fulfill his brother's legacy, but Pops is worried that he's only going down his brother's path, and he doesn't want to lose another son. When the
wealthy owner of Royalton Industries tempts Speed with a lucrative offer to race for him, Speed turns him down. Only then does he begin to learn some terrible secrets about the industry.

The scenes with the owner of Royalton Industries, and Speed's subsequent turning down of the offer, are really slow. The whiz-bang look that the Wachowski brothers have put together (live-action and animation combined with exploding color schemes) makes for a fascinating look to the movie. Things FINALLY begin to pick up speed (so to speak) once Speed enters a cross-country rally called the Crucible (the same race which took his brother's life). He teams up with Trixie, former rival Racer-X (Matthew Fox), rival Taejo Togokhan (Ji Hoon Jung) and the rest of the Racer family to beat Royalton at it's own game.

Overall, I'd give the movie a C+. The look of the movie is really interesting, but sometimes the combination of speed (there's that word again!), color and camera angle gets to be rather dizzying. I'd give the visuals an A-, and the story gets a D. The acting all around is pretty good, but there's not much of a story for them to work with.

Rating: 2-1/2 out of 5 horns.

Shock

How did it feel to be the only one in the theater?

Oh, yeah - I went to the 9:15 PM show on a Saturday night - and I was the ONLY ONE in the theater!

Yes because all of the people who went the night before were recovering from a seizure!

Mike

so rent it?

stream'd on the net..


not sure if it's fully worth the cinema experience, i used to luv the cartoon..

DiGiTaL

Thanks Shock.
Again, I love this idea for a thread.


Based on your observations and what I can tell from the trailers, I think I will wait for it to come out on disc.

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The look of the movie is really interesting, but sometimes the combination of speed (there's that word again!), color and camera angle gets to be rather dizzying.

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Sort of like the movie Cloverfield.

"digital420" wrote:

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stream'd on the net..


not sure if it's fully worth the cinema experience, i used to luv the cartoon..

DiGiTaL

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How do you do that?

I went and saw it with my 3 year old who is an extreme racing fanatic. I used to watch the cartoon and recently bought the old stuff on DVD for my kid to watch (he now loves Speed Racer). So with both of us being familiar with the old cartoon, we went and saw it on an IMAX screen here in town (with about 3 other people in the audience on a Monday afternoon) and I have to say, it is very visually pleasing. And yes, the story is a bit weak, but it is Speed Racer after all. I'm just glad we got to see it on an IMAX screen because if anything, this movie is made to be a cinema experience (or HD experience when it comes out on Blu-Ray). My kid loved it (and I thought it was pretty good too).