box, your persistence is flattering, but more than a little weird.

You know, the idea of a Speed Racer feature is just awful. There's never been anything even remotely watchable about the series.

This is quite literally the best possible product that could be produced from such source material. This is not a back-handed slap on my part, but rather credit for the Wachowski Brothers for really going above and beyond the call of duty. So way to go, Brothers Wachowski; I forgive you for the wretched Matrix sequels and slightly less wretched but still wretched V For Vendetta.

Funny, that. And you call someone else weird in this thread, with your deranged comments available for everyone else to read.

Crackhead

Dude, I'm the first person to dismiss shitty movies unseen, but Speed Racer really got an unfair shake. Whatever. It's not like you're in this thread to talk about the movie anyway.

I'll give it that.

The show was horrendous.

Now is the time to see it!

Invest your movie in big screen viewings - - 3 movie tickets = 1 DVD purchase - - this is not a movie that will be at it's best on DVD...

Fixed it for you

Emm.. this is hard to decide, but this is what happened;

The first half was kind of 'meh'. It started out 'OK' (I must admit, and don't get anything nasty out of this, the cuteness of that kid helped . I was like 'ok, here's something to watch').

The opening racing sequence was 'OK'. Actually, it was a great racing scene, thrilling, fun.. and all. But I found myself wasn't connected, like the film forgot to 'plug me in'. Everything from the 'wiping-scene-transition', the flashback editing to the candy-color was too much for me at that time. My fault?, I don't know. But all it did to me is nothing but keeping me distracted from being engaged with the story, followed by the headache. After figuring out of the reason, I must say, what hurt my interest toward the film the most (-IN THIS OPENING SEQUENCE-) was the flashback editing. I have nothing against the flashback editing. Many of movies I loved have been told with this style of storytelling (like my currently no.1 film of this year; Paranoid Park). It's my belief that any 'style' in any movie, must be purposely used. But in 'Speed Racer', it was seemingly pointless (yes, might be that I didn't get the point). At least, I don't think it did add anything to the film. All the background of each character, would it be worse with the properly storytelling? We'd never know, but I guess not.

Although, I started to notice, that when it touched the storyline about 'the Racer family', it kind of worked (really well) for me. And Susan Sarandon, oh boy, how wonderful this actress is. The movie was much alive whenever she appeared on screen. And to my surprise, I wasn't a bit annoyed with Speed's bother and his chimp. Hirsch was solid and cute as always.

But boy, the worst was yet to show up. When comes that 'company-tour' sequence, that's where I was totally dreadfully bored. Roger Allam was unbearable here. And with 'the Russian gang' and stuffs, it was getting worse and worse.

.. then there was the intermission (is there any in US?)..

When the film is back in the second half. It felt like the whole different movie. The superbly visual style was still there. But the Russian gang (ok, I don't know exactly if they are Russian) has gone (though it did come back later). The Royalton company took the smaller role in the story. It all focused at Speed Racer, his family, and his 'racing'. The plot-line of taking down and getting even was well-handled. The racing sequences were all superb. And was the 'Ninja' scene featured in the second half? Whatever, one of many great scenes in this movie too.

The whole felt like the 'A' material while the first half was kind of 'C'. Especially, its last 10 minute (or so), I'd like to find 100 other words to describe it, more than 'breath-taking', 'incredible', 'joyousness', 'cheerfulness', 'touching', 'unbelievable'. It was every feeling of happiness and joy combined in this one single scene. I almost jump of my seat and scream 'Go, Speed Racer, Go!'. That sequence was incredibly done. Best moment I've had in movie of this year, so far.

I'm gonna see it again soon. Let's see if the first half gets better or not. But as for now,

B+

Dear JURiNG:

There has clearly been a malfunction in your most recent disinformation procedure. At your earliest convenience, please report to your local reprogramming centre and we'll have you hating this movie like a patriotic citizen in no time! Thank-you for your obedience,

Love,

The System



(P.S.: Please avoid any further nonsensical outbursts such as your so-called review above, before you come down to visit us.)

So, it's you! you damn system!

And no, thank you! I've done with all this reprogramming thing!

I'M FREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

.
.

3/10 -> D-

Truth be told I barely remember the cartoon. I remember the chimp and I remember the car. Surprisingly not a single part of the movie reminded me of more things from cartoon. I definitely don't remember the races to be that futuristic. But that's not the point.

I thought the opening was good. Until young Speed come out of the school. I almost laughed my ass off how pathetic the outside world looked like. That's all the visual extravaganza hoopla everyone has been talking about? Then as characters were introduced they gave (although somewhat interesting) flashbacks for each and every possible character. Those montages and flashbacks dragged the movie a lot. And it isn't a very good thing when a movie drags from the start.

The editing is great, but the idea how to edit makes me puke. I think I saw more faces going from one side of the screen to the other in this movie than in all of the movies I saw before this one.

The visuals are good. But I found them to be very inconsistent and varying in quality a lot. There was some first class CGI and there were some CGI shots that looked awful and seemed like they didn't even finish rendering.

The story is laughable and boring for the most part. I had no interest whatsoever in the Racer family or anything that happened on screen. But once they came to Casa Cristo race things started to get good - they jump started from the fifth gear. I finally felt like I'm feeling the story with all the races are fixed stuff and that was the first race that genuinely felt exciting.

But then when Taejo double crossed them I thought - WOW a movie aimed at kids that won't end with a happy end. Then there was boring family moments and stuff, Speed was going like Rex. I kinda liked how it was going to end. And then Taejo's sister came with the invitation . I almost had a heart attack when I realized there will be at least 20 more minutes of the movie. But they turned out to be decent - somewhere in line with Casa Cristo scenes. The Grand Prix itself wasn't that interesting and the final twist about Rex was like Dynasty bad, but still way better than anything the first hour and a half has to offer.

Spritle probably has to be the most annoying kid in a movie ever. EVER! I wanted to kill myself everytime he took a breath. Other than that I liked everyone else, but no one ever did anything special. Emile Hirsh as Speed was spot on casting.

Tonight I took the GF and her neice and two nephews to supposedly watch Get Smart. Turns out theyve all seen it. Kung Fu Panda? Nah they have seen a pirated DVD. They wanted to see Zohan but seeing that they are all under 8, didnt think it would be appropriate. Hancock? Maybe but the girl didnt want to see it. Hulk? Yes - but weve seen it and didnt feel like seeing it again. So that left Speed Racer.

I reluctantly bought the tickets (even though earlier in the year i would have jumped at the chance to see it).

And damn - we all loved it. One of the most enjoyables films to watch in a theatre for some time. As a motorsport fan I thought the racing was well done. The visuals stunning and the editing was great. Loved the various quirky charaters and all the actors looked like they were having fun. A big shame it wasnt viewed by more people. I hope it finds an audience on dvd...

My only problem with it is that it is a little slow to begin with and some of the issues raised (although interesting to me) would go right over the heads over the target audience.

Grade: A-

So I finally saw this on DVD, as by the time I got home from my trip it had left the theatres.

I kinda, sorta loved it. There's definitely a pure sensual appeal in all the colours and visuals and floating heads, but it's also so much goddamed fun. And not really in the "so bad it's hilarious" way. More like the "we know exactly what we are and we're gonna emphasize that" kinda way.

I mean, it's got ninjas! And a monkey! And Matthew Fox as a dominatrix! What's not to like?

The races are exhilarating and kinda clichéd, and the story in between is basically incomprehensible (what was their original plan once they won the rally race? I missed that) but it really makes no difference to your enjoyment of the film. And it's got style up the ying-yang. It's like the bizarre love-child of Seijun Suzuki and Walt Disney.

The only part I really hated was that goddamned kid. Fuck him.

Thank you, trixster. Spread the word!

I'm just glad you were willing to give it a chance. I think that's where most of the movie's troubles lie.

B+

omg

I really thought I was going to hate this movie, and shockingly I didn't. It was still somewhat bad though.


C-

"Oh my god, was that a ninja?!"

So much fun. Visually delicious. Speed, Rex, and Racer (Re)X = sexy. Racing scenes are a pure joy, especially Casa Cristo and the finale at the Grand Prix.

Summation: fun, fun, FUN!!

(Except the kid was terribly annoying)


B+

Note: This should not have been rated PG. Would've received a PG-13 in my day.

Well, I hated it with a passion. I almost wanted to shut it off after the first five minutes but I actually made it through the ENTIRE movie. Never again. F

You fail.

I watched it again, and I'm upgrading it.

A-

I love this movie.

Its a shame WB dropped the ball on this one. Such an enjoyable film - more people should have seen it.

Bow down to one of the greatest cinematic experiences of all time!!!