Speed Racer Reviews
Top CriticAmid the overly earnest tone, (almost) squeaky-clean humor and familiar messages about teamwork and integrity is the rare film family that's as strong at the start as they are by the end.
Flix Capacitor
The propulsive car-fu provides an exhilarating wow-factor.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/5
TheShiznit.co.uk
This is Wacky Races powered by Enzo Ferrari and designed by Andy Warhol - candy-coloured carnage with a turbo-charged engine.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/5
ComingSoon.net
The filmic side effect of eating an entire bowl full of sugar, Speed Racer is designed entirely with one audience in mind, and despite it's best efforts it's not going to appeal to anyone else.
Full Review
| Original Score: 7/10
CinePassion
What grounds the spectacle, pushing it beyond a two-hour ejaculation of sensation, is its yearning for innocence
Orange County and Long Beach Blade
Fellow critics mercilessly denounced this dazzling, visually inventive adaptation; one of the ten best films of 2008
Full Review
| Original Score: A-
Window to the Movies
Cut from car to driver to announcer to audience and over and over again, ad nauseam. Such pretty racing scenes, so little to actually see.
Full Review
| Original Score: 4/10
Guardian [UK]
You have to be 12 to like it, and I have to say there is little or nothing here to remind us why we were all quite so excited about The Matrix.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2/5
Screen International
The brothers swamp the fragile story and characters with such a deluge of CGI tricks and elaborate action sequences that it proves hard to care about the humans on screen.
Twelve-year-old boys should be wowed, but for the rest of us, it will depend on your appetite for eye candy.
JoBlo's Movie Emporium
A flashy, colorful film that packs a ton o' fun into its fast-paced frame.
Full Review
| Original Score: 7/10
Even the target audience of 10-year-olds might get jimmy legs sitting for a punishing 135 minutes as the Wachowski brothers projectile-vomit their cotton-candy dreams all over the big screen.
| Original Score: 2/4
Hollywood.com
You can feel the kids in the audience tapping their feet, waiting for more action. So, let's just give the kids what they want: fast-paced excitement, wrapped up in a colorful package.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/5
NewsBlaze
The arty blockbuster has arrived, and it's as flashy, accessorized and auto-erotic as can be. Which creates a strange sensation indeed, that it's not just the cars that are smoking, but those Wachowski brothers as well, and whatever's in their pipes too.
Movie Metropolis
Maybe it's all flash and little substance, but there's no denying the appeal of that flash....
Full Review
| Original Score: 5/10
rec.arts.movies.reviews
The Wachowskis blur the definition of "children's film" as much as the original cartoon challenged Western perceptions of "children's television".
Cinema Sight
And here we have a prime example of why studios should not be funding the creations of The Wachowski Brothers. While visually dazzling, the film's paper thin plot and the cheesiness of its actors are a huge disservice.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2.5/4
Daily Telegraph (Australia)
The appeal of this frenetically-paced fantasy is probably limited to 10-year-olds, gamers and fanboys.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2.5/5
At the Movies (Australia)
This is fairly simplistic anti-corporate fare, told in a way that occasionally defies comprehension as well as gravity. Impressionistic is the word.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3.5/5
FILMINK (Australia)
An overlong and downright boring story, with its plodding family scenes interspersed between the action sequences, makes Speed Racer a bit of a flooded engine.
