This movie came out last week. If you've not seen it, here's a brief description:
Speed Racer is the son of Mom and Pops and part of Racer Motors, a small independent racing team. Following in the footsteps of his brother Rex Racer (later killed in the Casa Cristo race), Speed becomes one of the top racers in the country in his car, the Mach 5. Courted by Royalton motors, Speed goes on to discover the corruption endemic in the World Racing League. Aided by the mysterious Racer X, Speed goes on to challenge in the greatest race of them all, the Grand Prix...
Some will say this is a kid's movie. They're right. Some will say this movie is colorful and they're right, too. This movie is also goddamned excellent and a visual feast unlike anything else released this year. This is a movie that revels in schlock and fun and joy.
This movie also features John Goodman and the word "Nonja." What are you doing reading this post? Go see Speed Racer.
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http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20199172,00.html?iid=top25-20080511-%27%27Speed+Racer%27%27+crashes+at+the+box+office
Speed Racer Crashes at the Box Office
I mean, he hasn't even been on TV since what, reruns in the early 90s?
This is the best insult for a movie I have ever seen.
I'm 22, and I only very vaguely remember it being on.
Yeah.
But this remake has been in pre-production hell since even before that.
My opinion is they missed their opportunity with Generation X and the Speed Racer nostalgia wave of the 90s.
Also, it feels like most of these critics have never seen Speed Racer to begin with, as it sounds like their expectations were pretty high.
Kevin Smith and that whole wave of ironic, witty hipster-isms taking on pop culture would've pushed it that much further.
Not saying that stuff's not still around, as it never really went away, it just toned itself down and moved on to later trends.
How can anyone not want to see that
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"More like non-jas."
Remember 21? I got exited for when Amon Tobin played, but I wanted the main character to go to jail and get raped to death. Instead he got away with everything and got into Harvard.
I sunk down into the floor and shall be lifted nevermore.
1. For a kid's movie, its long and complicated.
2. Had some very slow scenes.
3. Speed Racer is a very old cartoon from the 1960s. The movie should have been made during its nostalgic hype back in the 90s when it was replayed on Mtv.
I have a question about the first trailer though. Is the music used on the soundtrack or another CD that I can buy?
http://www.apple.com/trailers/wb/speedracer/trailer1a/large.html
Or maybe not at all. Jesus Christ.
I have a theory that the movie is actually an elaborate way for the Wachowski brothers to make fun of the studio executives who floated the idea of a Speed Racer movie.
Edit: by the way, you've all literally ruined the best and possibly the only redeeming part of this movie.
Don't trust critics. I'm of the opinion, particularly in regard to Speed Racer, that the Wachowski's previous work made critics expect something like the Matrix and not something like Speed Racer. For my part, I think that the Wachowskis reveled in the fact that they got to make a bright, colorful movie and this was a total 180 from previous expectations (Matrix and sequels were dark/green, and V was just dark).
The dialog is, for the most part, actually pretty solid, particularly John Goodman's and Susan Sarandon's interactions, as well as her interactions with Emile Hirsch. Sure, the little kid is annoying but dammit, that little fucker was annoying in the show too so I'll chalk that up to the Wachowskis staying true to the source material.
What sells it are the special effects, I think. It's been some time since a movie this bright and colorful was made, and given that every other big movie this summer will be grim, dark, and largely colorless you should see Speed Racer for a change of pace.
Also, because it can't be emphasized enough: John Goodman fights ninjas.
That is my take on it as well. I have only seen the trailer, but once they got to the ninjas I just assumed it was a parody on popular culture action movies. Just for my sanity's sake.
In all intents and purposes yes. The racers rocket around the tracks which feature loops, spikes, jumps, and every number of crazy stuff. And while going at 100+ miles per hour they're continually attempting to check and wreck one another in a glorious explosion of colors.
Really this movie is just plain fun if it wasn't as colorful and silly as it was it just wouldn't be true to the show and not as great. I know lots of people have described it as a live action cartoon which is very correct.
Also both John Goodman and Mathew Fox kick some serious ass in this movie.
If you say otherwise it means your inner child is dead.
I like that the movie is 90% greenscreen cos the Wachowski's took advantage of all of that CGI to it's fullest--unlike the Star Wars prequels that were also about 90% CGI but tried to be as photorealistic with it's interpretation as possible, Speed Racer celebrates its use of CGI by delivering a vibrant palette and inspiring visuals that takes full advantage of the medium.
I kind of view it the same as getting a tattoo--you either don't get one or you go all out and get a motherfucking work of art. That's what the Wachowski's did. Instead of trying to create as realistic a looking world/film as possible, they took advantage of being able to push a kaleidoscopic world.
Hell, even down to some of the simple set and costume choices, they kept in full mind what color combinations were being pushed and complimented.
I can see why this type of presentation wouldn't be for everyone, especially if what people were expecting was a remake in the typical fashion of movies like The Brady Bunch or Starsky and Hutch. However I think it's a little premature to call this movie a failure simply because it didn't make X better than Y.
I really felt like the movie was made with a loving care and respect for the source material while still interjecting the Wachowski's own flavor.
Nostalgia is a wonderful tool. It's what made people think the Transformer movie was good.
Also, It's terrible what passes for a ninja these days.
"That movie was fascist, mannn."
Are sporting events fascist now?
But holy fuck is it awesome. The racing sequences were some of the best I've ever seen.
And the ending....
So so awesome.
That's what I thought, until people who have never seen the cartoon have stated it was awesome.
Then I realized I wasn't crazy.
Transformers is awful by the way.
See, I actually always hated the Speed Racer cartoon, but I want to see this, because it looks like it's absolutely obnoxious in the best ways possible.
The New Yorker will condemn every blockbuster that comes out this summer, and every summer thereafter.
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Exactly.
And that New Yorker piece is pretty idiotic.
You know how I talked about reviewers just not getting it earlier? This. A thousand times this.
Speed Racer, unlike The Matrix and V, is not about depth. It is not about large philosophical questions and the resolutions of them. It is a story about a boy, his family, and his car, and about how goddamned motherfucking awesome movies can be.
The movie as a whole never took itself seriously and fully understood that the entire premise was downright silly. The fact that it embraced that made a lot of scenes downright hilarious, and honestly they managed to really get you into it a few times. The movie did a great job of combining "fuck yes" action moments with hilarious bits of cheesy dialogue and monkey shenanigans. Then when you pile on the jaw-dropping candy-coated CGI effects, the whole package just becomes that much more amazing. The whole time I was pinballing between laughing like a crazy person, yelling out "FUCK YEAH!" (it was just me and a few friends in the theater, which was otherwise closed), and being in total awe of the crazy special effects. When I walked out of the theater I had a gigantic shit-eating grin on my face that didn't go away for about an hour.
As far as I'm concerned, this movie is right up there with Adam West's Batman: The Movie as the perfect film to make you smile. It really makes you feel like you're a six-year-old on a sugar-high again.
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This is probably one of my favorite films of all time. It didn't feel the need to modernize itself and decentralize the main sell the way Transformers did. It found humor and heart in its original premise, and it told the hero's journey in an entertaining fashion, and that's what I love most about movies.
Transformers just had no soul, and the humor was so low-brow and removed from the context that it will probably consistently stay the worst-written movie I've ever seen.