Speed Racer Reviews

Man, it's great. You could get shivers just from the fumes coming off this fast and furious thing. It isn't perfect, but then again, it doesn't need to be.

I loved this film. Absolutely loved it. The film plays out like a live action anime with terrific character, an interesting villain, well done special effects, a perfect storyline and amazing car chases. Emile Hirsch excells as Speed, while John Goodman and Susan Sarandon are perfectly cast as his parents, with Christina Ricci also being a good choice for the role of Trixie, Speed's girlfriend. Matthew Fox is also a good casting choice for the role Racer X. Throughout much of the film, primarily with the races, the film as an anime feel, with quick cuts and flashy backgrounds. The Wachowskis have put together another amazing gem of a film. Well done indeed.

Very likely to be the most underrated movie of ALL TIME.

It's sheer craftsmanship.

I own this on DVD and Blu-Ray.

Way too flashy, but highly entertaining. There is too much CGI, and it can be stressful to the eyes with all the flashes and quick pans, but in a way, it feels very much like a Live-action anime. Some scenes were a bit childish, and the jokes are a bit dumb. The characters are decent, with a nice cast. The ultimate highlight of the film is the races, which are all extreme and thrilling, filled with action and dazzle. The last half of the film is worth seeing at least, but overall, it's a fun film if looked at with certain aspects.

One Minute Review:

I've seen Speed Racer up to four times upon writing this review, and yet I have never finished it. I hoped I would so I could provide you with a full review, but this movie is impossible for me to sit through. It is so bad that it forces me to do something else. I'd rather clean my house or take out the garbage than sit through more than a half hour of this film. "Speed Racer" is a mess of a film that insults not only its source material, but your intelligence. Kids wont like this movie because they won't understand whats going on, and adults will give up on following the plot after the twentieth origin flashback or so. The film looks great and that's its saving grace, but you can never admire any visual because every scene moves at a hyper-frenetic, cut- here-then-cut-there pace and doesn't bother to let up for a microsecond. The race cars spend more time in the air than do on the tracks, the objectives of the races themselves don't make any sense, and the action is everywhere and nowhere. Speed himself is just some guy we assume is the best racer because the camera is on him the whole time. He does nothing, and neither does the actor who plays him. This film is dreadful, I would walk on out on it if I saw it in a theater, and I would advise you to never waste two hours and fifteen minutes of your precious life watching a minute of this garbage. Your kid would have more fun with a ball in a cup.

Grade: F

The Wachowski Bros trade in the cleverness and storytelling for fast-paced racing and typical nonsense. Speed Racer is a visually a remarkable adaptation of the television series, but could be improved in many many different ways with its flat story and simplistic performances from its ensemble. 2.5/5

Never have the words "so bad it's good" ever been more fitting.

I loved every frame of this movie. It's a beautiful looking candy dish of speed, determination, family, regret, love, and energy. I thought the SFX were a high water mark of bringing what anime does so well to a live action treat, and it's every bit the color explosion that fills the skies above Disneyland every night. If you're not into fireworks, walk away. I love fireworks and I'm down for the 2 1/2 hour display.

I will be amazed if the Wachowski brothers can take it to the grave that they candy-flipped before filming and conceiving every single scene.

Una buena historia contada de manera demasiado espectacular, exagerando la estética del programa original elevándola con una trama sobre explicada soltando demasiados datos de una vez, cometiendo el mismo error que en las secuelas de Matrix. Quitando todo el betún al espectáculo, la historia y los motivos de los personajes principales son dignos de destacar.

Well developed characters are often overshadowed by too much effects.

I hate saying this, but I find myself liking every bit of this movie! Im still trying to figure out why, but I love the style and the heart that goes itno this very odd Hot Wheels-like motion picture. Taking the classic kids show and making this almost seemed like an unforgettable thing, and that is exactly what happened, but unusually in a good way. I really enjoyed watching "Speed Racer", because it is the most fun I have had with a movie in a long time. It's not a great film in any way, but the story is very good and the action took risks that I have never seen a film take before. This is a very fun film to watch, and I recommend it solely for that.

Special effects were fun ... and bright...

Speed Racer is not a movie. It's an approximation of what Roger Ebert called "an annuity in action." I can believe that, but I can't believe that anyone wanted to make this movie with the hope that audiences would want to see it. It has a brand name; it has bright colors and things move around on the screen. There is wall-to-wall music, special effects loud noises and corporate logos. From the special effects, I was not dazzled. From the music, I wasn't dancing. From the action scenes, I wasn't thrilled. From the corporate logos, I was not inspired to buy anything. The experience here is the same that you might get from sticking your head inside a pinball machine. It's about as much fun.

There is a story attached to this mess that is so thin that it only really serves as a connective tissue between special effects. It involves a kid named Speed (a very dull Emile Hirsh) who, from childhood, has had an addiction to . . . well, speed (not the pill). His brother was a legendary race track driver who was killed on the track. Speed grows up with the need for speed and the need to honor his fallen brother. Now grown up, he struggles with his Pop (John Goodman) while fighting off an evil corporate suit who wants to give him corporate sponsorship. Speed, we learn, has been raised to believe that corporate sponsorship is one step up from selling your soul to the devil (he says this).

The "movie" is based on a popular cult TV series from the late 60's which had a certain square-jawed charm. Here there is no charm; Speed Racer takes place in a strange netherworld that doesn't resemble a coherent landscape. We see real actors who are super-imposed over fake computerized backgrounds that seem to resemble the same six-color world as a board game. What world is this? What are its boundaries? What are the rules? There is never a moment when you get the feeling that the landscape of Speed Racer is inhabited by people.

The characters in this movie are more or less superfluous. They speak in a kind of listless boilerplate:
Father: "You think you can drive a car and change the world? It doesn't work like that!"
Son: "Maybe not, but it's the only thing I know how to do and I gotta do something."

That might not bother me if such dialogue didn't come from such a talented cast. They're all here: John Goodman, Susan Sarandon, Christina Ricci, Matthew Fox from TV's "Lost" Plus, there's the young Emile Hirsch in the title role who was so wonderful in Into the Wild that it is heartbreaking to see him wasting his time on dialogue like: "Okay, no more Mr. Nice Guy!"

At heart, this is a racing picture, but the thrills supposedly generated by the racing scenes are drowned by the fact that the races make no logical sense. There is no sense of gravity so we never have the feeling that drivers are in danger. There is a very lazy style of editing employed here in which we can never comprehend what we are looking at, so we don't know where one driver is in relation to another. There are lots of flashes and noise and shots of cars whizzing by but we never sense that they are in the same space. The tracks have no logic, they are all computer-generated, resembling the corkscrew roller coaster at Six Flags infused with neon lights. When the cars buzz along, they look like plastic toys. They fly up in the air and do flips and spins and turns that no car in the history of the universe would ever be able to pull off.

Speed Racer isn't filmmaking, its commerce. It is the most cynical kind of commercial filmmaking, the kind in which a beloved brand name is bought and paid for and then studio executives convince themselves that their work is already done. The audience will be drawn in by that name, and duped into something that hardly qualifies as a motion picture.

That's a cruel disservice to the legion of fans who have fond memories of that old cartoon show. What will they get here? Nothing. Nothing but a waste of their precious time and money. So too will time and money be stolen from fans of Speed Racer's directors Larry (now Lara) and Andy Wachowski, who turned The Matrix into a pop culture phenomenon. They are so talented as filmmakers with that film series, and their earlier film, the great caper Bound have thrown away their talent and given in to the bassist forms of commercialism. What a poor excuse for a motion picture.

Welcome to the exhilerating world of Speed Racer. Not only does the title define the character, it's actually his name. The Racer family lives in Technicolor splendor in their small town, and they, as their last name suggests, enjoy racing. Especially Speed. Speed doesn't necessarily enjoy racing more than the rest of the family, he's just the fastest and brightest at it. The movie starts out with Speed as a child, making believe he's driving in a race while he's supposed to be taking the school test. At first, it seems like Speed Racer will be an acceptable children's film. It ends up being a moving, exhilerating, out of body, out of this world experience. And I was touched by it too. The Wachowski brothers (V for Vendetta, The Matrix) have proven themselves as psychological go getters. Here, their philosophy is a little more simple. Do what you love to do, go for it, reach for the stars, and don't let anybody get in your way. There is someone who tries to get in Speed's way. His name is Royalton, and he offers Speed to join him. Speed says no, and Royalton makes sure that every race is fixed, bribing other racers to beat him, hurt him, even kill him. There's one line in the film where Speed says something to the affect of: "I always thought that racing was all about the experience, but now I realize that it's all about business." I think the Wachowski's might feel the same way about film making. It's all about the business, and the Wachowski's are much like Speed Racer. They haven't let the producers, and the agents, and the studios, and the executives, or anybody else get in their way. They've made their film, and they made it the way they wanted to. They've reached for the stars. Speed does too. The final scene in this film is so touching and exhilerating that you may just leap from your seat in joy. You'll be a child again. Not since the original Star Wars has such excitement been able to embody me into a truly out of body experience. The visual style of the film is everything I've seen before while being nothing I've seen before. It's filmed in the style of the original campy tv series, but, in live action, the colors and camera movements, and editing style along with the beautiful cropped panning are new, inventive, and outrageous. I love Speed Racer as much as I've ever loved any film, and I hope the box office slum of mother's day weekend doesn't oppose people to seeing the film. Critics haven't been very kind either. But, what they're not seeing is the creativity and the guts to do what the Wachowski's have done, and any way you slice it, they have gloriously finished the race in first place, no matter what the 'Royalton's' of the business may say.

There were many aspects of this film that I did appreciate for its artistic value. Some of the shots were cleverly composed, and the transitions were interesting and... original. Most of the time, however, I was unsure if the film in itself was ingenious for converting a Japanese cartoon into live action, or if its own "ingenuity" was its ultimate downfall. Looking on the bright side, it could've been worse; throw some 3D glasses on, and you've found the recipe for an instant migraine.

I don't know why I expected a Matrix or V for Vendetta in this children's cartoon remake. It is as if the Wachowski brothers tried to recreate the visions of their child-selves, a movie intended for the viewing of little andy and larry (now lana) Wichowski: a small audience very few belong to who can truly appreciate this film.

Even when it has a variety of effects and the secret weaponries on the cars look admirable, not even that is enough to make it a good revival of a classic 60's cartoon series.