Speed Racer

The only reason I'm reviewing this flick may very well be because I'm so in the bag for all things Wachowski that I feel the need to shed some positive light on this very good film.


I'll get to that in a moment however and briefly discuss what I think may be the biggest obstacle a movie like this has and most likely will always be faced with. Preconceived fanboy notions. Or, as I like to call them: People that already know it all... I like to think I am one of the fanboys and yet I also really enjoy most of these types of films. I suppose that makes me some kind of Super Hero or something. I actually read a review recently that said the Speed Racer cartoon from the 60's was beloved. Seriously? Did you love it? How many of you have even actually seen it? This wasn't even an American cartoon after all, it was a Japanese cartoon that we took and converted to English as is our right here by God.

Another issue that some film makers like The Wachoski brothers have to face is the curse of the "great movie" shadow. They could very well go on and make ten more movies that are better than The Matrix and yet they will always be compared to it and most likely unfavorably, again that is our way, especially here in America.

All right enough ranting... this was actually more fun to watch than I anticipated. The things that were done with the CGI were just absolutely eye popping. They did in effect make this appear to be a live action animated/CGI movie. Which is, in this humble viewers mind a next to impossible feat to accomplish. But they pulled it off and then some. It was gloriously colorful and and I saw several things I had never seen before. To soak something like this in the screen really needs to be huge. To me this is an example of why movie theaters still exist. I will agree with some of the things I have read though, the story was a little weak and did run off the rails a few times. But I'm not giving this flick 5 stars so I'm not trying to tell anyone its perfect.


Perhaps the biggest trouble with the film is the PG rating, maybe there are just too many desensitized people out there that only want their violence served up with the most amount of blood allowed. I actually found it somewhat charming that the movie actually departed from the canon and in reality had only a fraction of the violence in it that the cartoon had. That's not to imply there isn't any, there is plenty involving the cars and a few fights but no decapitations or broken limbs. If they would have completely removed the swearing and the boy flipping the bird then perhaps this may have gotten a G, probably not though, the car racing scenes were pretty intense, but I digress.

All throughout the movie I felt like I was inside a cartoon and that was really cool. I thought the cast was fine and honestly I didn't expect much from them. I didn't need an Oscar worthy performance to enjoy all the effects. So, yeah, I liked it. Go ahead and take your shots, I'm a big boy I can take it.

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I actually did love the cartoon series, still do, and I loved the movie! Too much fun. I also kind of want a Speed Racer video game now. All the wacky racetracks would be awesome to play.

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the visuals are nice, but i still think it would have been better if it was animated with a style similar to the tv show

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I'm pretty sure I read somewhere that Warner Brothers put out a game based on the movie. I believe it came out earlier in the week before the film opened on the 9th.

Interesting article in today's (May 12) edition of the Wall Street Journal about Speed Racer, not as a review (the WSJ movie critic gave it a big thumbs down earlier) but as a straight Hollywood finance story that said: "Speed Racer sold an estimated $20.2 million of tickets since its opening Friday--a disappointing total that will mark it as the summer movie season's first bomb." It goes on to say that Warner Bros., which co-financed the film's $120 million cost ("not counting tens of millions of dollars in marketing costs") reported: "We realized that we were in for a disappointing weekend, but we weren't sure on what level. This is certainly not what we were anticipating. The exit polls were very strong on the movie. . . .But we had a core audience that was primarily very young and we were not able to break through to a more mainstream and broader audience." So apparently it would have suffered an even worse box-office had it been rated above its "very young core audience."

I was in my late teens-early 20s when Speed Racer debuted as the first TV cartoon from Japan. I thought it was really stupid at the time because the only part of the characters that moved were their little bitty lips when talking. I thought at the time it was a cheap foreign knock-off response to better made US cartoons.

I went to see Iron Man on Friday and saw this instead. Maybe I'll keep avoiding Iron Man because so far I've had awesome luck seeing very entertaining movies instead of it: first Forbidden Kingdom and now Speed Racer, which is totally fun by the way. I don't feel any shame for liking it either. The story is Saturday morning-quality cheese but the story-telling is amazing. Even the talking heads are exciting and fun to watch, to say nothing of the races and all the flash-back/flash-forward mix-ups and that superb ending-montage. The whole time I was constantly fluctuating between thinking "wow, that was a really bad gag, this is so cheesy" and not even thinking at all, just totally getting into the Wachowski bros. rhythm and the epic fireworks display. The movie's just so damn cheery and bright, it's impossible not to like. At least for this cat.

So um, yeah, shame this fine movie is underperforming at the box office and in the papes, it's my favorite of the year so far (okay, only competition for that slot yet is Be Kind Rewind and Leatherheads, but still, this is an awesome movie and a must on the big screen).

I was a fan of the old cartoon, go speed racerrrr goooooo. But this movie didn't seem to do it justice, overall i think it stuck too much to it's kid audience and turned off the people who would now be interested in the movie. Kids now don't have any idea who speed racer was, so they would have been better off throwing in a little more adult humor/action.

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Not a big fan of the original cartoon, I've only caught bits and pieces of a few episodes on Cartoon Network or whatever. But I was fully willing to give this flick a chance. Mostly because I can dig what the Wachowskis were trying to do and I thought the trailer looked kinda cool.

It was alright for about the first third of its running time, but after a while, it just got flat-out boring. I don't mind the cheesy bits, that sort of stuff is more than appropriate here. But for a film with this much glowing action and whatnot, it's surprisingly dull. It could have been a lot of fun, but just wound up feeling lifeless. After the first half hour or so, I lost interest in a big way. Too bad.

For those not familiar with the story, Speed Racer is not what this film is about, but who it is about. Yes, Speed Racer is the main characters name and that is exactly what he does. After the death of his brother, Speed follows in his footsteps to become the worlds fastest racer. His speed and talent catches the eye of a big rich racing company who offers Speed more wins and more money. When Speed declines, he learns the truth that the grand prix is fixed and they knew the winner of each race all along. Now it's up to Speed to win the big race and show the corrupt business side of everything.

Whether or not this makes sense is of no importance. I don't really think people are going to see this movie for it's deep plot, character development or even creative twists in the storyline. Instead Speed Racer expects to see it's audience that want to be gasping at the insane races, vivid colours and tongue in cheek comedy. Speed Racer has all this, maybe a bit too much, and none of the former. I've never seen a single episode of the cartoon, but in the style the bros have presented this film you can tell immediately that they stuck pretty close to the source material. Knowing the Japanese animation style, Speed Racer has captured it pretty accurately. My only concern is, was a story like this meant to be made into a live action film? I can appreciate the film for what is tries to achieve and respect it for that. The racing scenes are indeed spectacular, but the is what is expected. We all knew that the film would have crazy racing scenes that bend the norm of our world and it did just that. The race scenes make the viewer more interested in wanting to play them in a video game. They make the viewer want to be involved, instead we have to sit there and watch other people on the screen have all the fun and excitement. It kind of gets a little bit upsetting.

There are vibrant colours all throughout the film, like a lucid dream. Most likely exactly what the filmmakers wanted, it plays out like a dream from Hunter S. Thompson. It is exciting for kids, headache for adults. The use of colour and the detailed eye to the surroundings make the film seem more like an experiment in the digital era, rather then an attempt to make an actual film. The one thing that kept going through my mind was how this film would look on Blue-Ray, not what was actually happening on the screen.

The film has many missteps, the main one would be the editing. The entire opening sequence the details the reason for Speed's reason for driving is horribly done. It plays out exactly like a racing video game and jumps back and forth between time lines. Let me explain. Rex, Speed's older brother, who holds racing records all over the world leaves the house to race in a dangerous tournament, this is inter cut with Speed racing trying to break his brother's current record, his brother is also racing the same track, but it is Speed's memory of it. If you've ever played a racing game, it's exactly like you trying to beat the your previous time on the track and you are racing you're ghost car from before. All of this is confusing at first, and once you get a grasp of what is going on, the horrible pacing settles in. They use a lot of super imposed images of people crossing the screen to move to the next scene. It's when the camera paces across a character's face and an entire different scene is behind them. They over use so much that in one particular scene there are more then a dozen characters on the screen all inter cutting each other.

Yes the entire film is based on a cartoon and that is exactly the way it plays out. Everything is over the top and corny. A little too much if you ask me. The violence isn't harsh, people blow up in their cars, but it won't scare kids. Although, the random appearance of ninjas might. Yes, John Goodman fights a ninja in this movie....then says this exact line. "Ninja? Ha, more like a Nonja". That is the kind of dialogue this film has and it hurts to listen to it.

The actors aren't really given anything to do. Goodman and Hirsh are the highlights as expected. I wanted to like Fox and Racer X, but his monotone delivery and the story behind his character is just too bland. The conclusion at the end of the film with Racer X seemed tacked on and out of left field. As if they needed to beat us over the head with answers that they audience already knew, even though they were told something else. Christine Ricci and Susan Surandon are given absolutely nothing to do in this film. They are filler, eye candy at most. The young boy and his ape sidekick are there for comic relief, but it tends to be the same joke over and over again with them. It gets tiresome very fast.

In the end, the film is more for pleasing the eye. The poor editing and over the top cartoon style is just too much of a distraction. The story itself isn't very engaging and the people involved don't even seem to know what's going on either. The film has many problems and too few entertaining points. If a racing scene couldn't save The Pantom Menace, it can't save Speed Racer.

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Suspect's Reviews

My review: (Originally posted HERE)



Speed Racer (3/5 Stars)

Short Review: Mario Kart meets Death Race 2000.

Speed Racer, directed by the Wachowski brothers, is a visually stunning adaptation of the cartoon of the same name. The story follows the career of Speed Racer (Emile Hirsch), a young man who lives for the thrill of the race. He’s a natural at what he does and quickly attracts the attention a major corporation that wants to bank on his increasing talent.

The Wachowski’s don’t hesitate with the special effects in this film; they go all out, and I think this was a wise decision. I haven’t seen the original Speed Racer, but from what I hear it was an anime. With that in mind, the adaptation is the closest I’ve ever seen to a live-action anime. If they had tried to make it look realistic, I don’t think it would have worked at all; it would have come out looking horribly fake, rather than vibrant and in it’s own world.

I loved the visual transitions that were used throughout the film as well. They were very unique and didn’t cramp the pacing at all for me. You have to see it to believe it.

The story was pretty straightforward, which was expected, and had some great parallels between similar character arcs. The scenes with Spritle and the chimp seemed out of place at times and tossed in for a few quick laughs before jumping back to the story again. I thought those could have been either cut in places or trimmed down.

All in all, Speed Racer was a lot of fun. It’s definitely style over substance, but man is the style good.

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My thoughts...

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Well said mark... well said. Everyone go read his review and then go buy the flick its actually pretty damn good.

I didn't like it much at all. I'm not a fan of the cartoon. By which, I mean I never watched it. I found the movie quite strange, as if drugs were consumed during the planning, filming and editing.

All the plot points were obvious and telegraphed long before the reveals of them.

I'm so glad it cost me nothing to see it.

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Bleacheddecay

This movie was awful.

My rating:

Speed Racer

I havent seen it just doest look like id enjoy it, I know my son (3) has spotted it afew times on tv and we will get it for him at some stage but untill I see it I wont be able to say if I enjoy it. But im not really interested in it, but it was a nice review dude! Its made e think about watching it.

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The thing about it is, is that the trailer looked awful. When I saw it, I thought the trailer was better than the movie.

I missed this movie in theatre. I watched it on DVD. Before watching, when I checked the reviews, I was not hoping for much fun. But I was not disappointed at all. I don’t understand what the hell critics want. Good Job :-)

Didnt like this film at all, maybe cause I didnt like the cartoons either

Is there any upcoming part of this movie

Why yes... yes there is. Wait. Um, what?