Leave it to the Wachowski brothers, masterminds behind the Matrix and V for Vendetta, to take something of a cult item like Speed Racer and try and turn it to a summer blockbuster. It wasn't so bad trying to make it into a movie, but the "summer" and "blockbuster" parts are trickier, particularly when up against the heavyweight competition (which, as with Indiana Jones and especially Iron Man are, to be fair, better movies). In their attempt to make a movie suitable for kids they did a job better than expected, but it's also a nutty piece, a film brimming with a cavalcade of colors and CGI gimmickry that's akin to Nascar on LSD. Like the show, it works best for a cult audience- either fans of the show or those who are little kids (under 10) or can tap into that side of themselves now and again- and it's not surprising it didn't do well at the box-office. In another part of the year, maybe, it would've done better.
I would like to report that it's the most underrated flick of the season, but I'd be lying. It is a flawed movie, where the story- of Speed Racer (Emile Hirsch) and his battles with the corrupt owner of Royalton motors (Roger Allam) with the help of Trixie, his girlfriend (Christina Ricci) and the mysterious masked Racer X (Matthew Fox), not to mention winning the big Grand Prix race- is told at times in such a jumbled way that one starts to loose the momentum built up in the race scenes. Even in the climax of the picture there's spouts of flashbacks that almost start to kill the adrenaline in the sequence. And, as is often to happen in kids movies, only here to the max, there's a detailing of the plot, twists that occur (I won't reveal which though they should be obvious), and some themes touched upon (redemption, revenge) that can barely be given enough weight given everything else that's going on.
But this being said, there is enough to recommend in the picture overall for a rental; preferably widescreen for the full effect of the close-up visual scheme used constantly. When sticking to what probably made the series enjoyable, Speed Racer is good, not-quite old fashioned guilty pleasure. Actors like Allam (reprising a role somewhat from V For Vendetta) and Fox chew up their scenes especially well, and Hirsch is a solid choice for Speed. There's actually fun comic relief between Speed's younger brother and a chimp (including one impossibly laugh out loud moment where they fight monsters inside a bad anime TV show). And the races themselves are delirious imaginations, somewhere between the range of kung-fu and the pod race from Phantom Menace with a chase of amphetamines. They truly are some crazy works of pop-art, and for all the money (too much money) that went into the visual effects, they synthesize strangely for these races, either on the wintry slopes or in the wacky Grand Prix itself.
What the brothers and the VFX crew were on when they created much of these scenes I can't say, and depending on the viewer they'll either delight one to hell or make on totally dizzy. For me, it's somewhere in the middle.
I would like to report that it's the most underrated flick of the season, but I'd be lying. It is a flawed movie, where the story- of Speed Racer (Emile Hirsch) and his battles with the corrupt owner of Royalton motors (Roger Allam) with the help of Trixie, his girlfriend (Christina Ricci) and the mysterious masked Racer X (Matthew Fox), not to mention winning the big Grand Prix race- is told at times in such a jumbled way that one starts to loose the momentum built up in the race scenes. Even in the climax of the picture there's spouts of flashbacks that almost start to kill the adrenaline in the sequence. And, as is often to happen in kids movies, only here to the max, there's a detailing of the plot, twists that occur (I won't reveal which though they should be obvious), and some themes touched upon (redemption, revenge) that can barely be given enough weight given everything else that's going on.
But this being said, there is enough to recommend in the picture overall for a rental; preferably widescreen for the full effect of the close-up visual scheme used constantly. When sticking to what probably made the series enjoyable, Speed Racer is good, not-quite old fashioned guilty pleasure. Actors like Allam (reprising a role somewhat from V For Vendetta) and Fox chew up their scenes especially well, and Hirsch is a solid choice for Speed. There's actually fun comic relief between Speed's younger brother and a chimp (including one impossibly laugh out loud moment where they fight monsters inside a bad anime TV show). And the races themselves are delirious imaginations, somewhere between the range of kung-fu and the pod race from Phantom Menace with a chase of amphetamines. They truly are some crazy works of pop-art, and for all the money (too much money) that went into the visual effects, they synthesize strangely for these races, either on the wintry slopes or in the wacky Grand Prix itself.
What the brothers and the VFX crew were on when they created much of these scenes I can't say, and depending on the viewer they'll either delight one to hell or make on totally dizzy. For me, it's somewhere in the middle.