bettycjung 5/14/18. An enjoyable anime-based movie about a driver who succeeds with his family's help. Great special effects. Kids will love it.

fredlondi The animated "Speed Racer" is one of the most notoriously silly and corny cartoons ever conceived. The characters are two-dimensional, the plots are little more than "win the race, defeat the villain," and the English dubs are so notoriously hilarious that they've been mocked in everything from "Family Guy" to "Dexter's Laboratory."It was surprising, then, that the live action "Speed Racer" was so needlessly complicated. First, the audience is expected to understand the difference between an "off-road race," for which the Mach 5 can be used, and some fantastical loop-de-loop superspeedways, where the Mach 5 is apparently too out-of-date, replaced by a "Mach 6." What's strange is that the Mach 6 isn't introduced as a replacement to the Mach 5 - in fact, the Mach 6 is destroyed early in the film, then completely rebuilt. I don't understand why this couldn't have been done with the Mach 5 instead. The Mach 5 stands as the most important character in the original cartoon. All of the aforementioned characters are merely a means of showing off its awesomeness. The film should've done the same, not brush it off as a relic compared to the Mach 6.Second, the villain's plot is entirely too dense - even by modern Anime standards. Something about stocks, and corporations fielding drivers with the specific intent of making their companies more money, yet somehow not caring about racing. Something about helping another guy get money for his company. I couldn't honestly tell you what the story should've been about. Why not just do the same thing the cartoon did: bad guy wants to win a race, Speed needs to beat him. The complexity would've been restricted to the characters themselves, which would've been fine. They're basically blank slates from the cartoon - just make them more interesting.The underlying hilarity behind the film's complexity as that the film itself yearns for simplicity. One of the film's best scenes is where Pops Racer recalls a night where he and a young Speed start cheering at a race they're watching on TV. On top of this, the effects are just dreadful. Like "Phantom Menace"-tier. One of the first shots is Rex Racer standing in front of the Mach 5, and you can tell he's just some guy in an empty room leaning against a green-painted rectangle. The action sequences feel like Hot Wheels commercials - certainly not a coincidence given the company marketed the film. There's also no grit, no teeth, no consequence to the action. The spectacular crashes and explosions from the cartoon are dulled by a ridiculous safety feature where drivers are launched to safety in foam cocoons. At least that's what seemed to happen - the CGI battles are so fast and overwhelming that it's hard to tell what's happening.On top of this, the character designs are awful. Why was Snake Oiler turned from some mysterious guy in a black suit with ridiculous glasses into some drunk leather-clad cowboy?What almost singlehandedly saves the film is Matthew Fox, who plays Racer X. My goodness, he absolutely owned that part. While Emile Hirsch was brought on just because he looked like Speed Racer, Fox took on the role of Racer X and quite literally became him. He carries himself with such tortured seriousness that every moment he's on screen is just golden. Watch a supercut of his scenes and you'll enjoy it.As for the rest of the film? Meh. Couldn't help but be disappointed, and this is from someone who watches actual racing. Make no mistake, there's real passion behind the making of this film, and it's clear a lot of work was put into it. I'll take that over some rubber-stamped superhero film any day. I just wish more of that effort was used in the script, character design, and effects. It's just frustrating because one more revision of the script before shooting could've saved it.

Mr-Fusion It may have died a commercial death, but "Speed Racer" is a thoroughly entertaining movie, and it was a highlight in a very rocky Summer movie season. This movie does a bang-up job with the racing scenes, which are invigorating, but it also keeps things moving during the quieter scenes (thanks mostly to its inventive visual style and family-centric story). I don't normally get into the rapid-fire insert shots of clutch-and-shift (I'm looking at you Fast and Furious movies), but it fits in with the rhythm of the scenes. Or it may be because this is a live-action cartoon. But either way, the action in this movie works.This is a great family movie with a winning cast (damn can Christina Ricci pull off that anime wig), candy-colored palette and supercharged driving. The races are nail-biting and have you cheering in all the right places. The good guys win, the bad guys get theirs and it's a lot of fun.8/10

FreakNumberOne Sit down, suspend your disbelief, and watch this visually insane and surprisingly affecting film. In the spirit of the classic anime, it's full of fun characters like Snake Oiler and Inspector Detector, cool cars, ridiculous racing, and a warm family core. At the very least, you have to appreciate this as an exercise in fearless film-making. The visual vocabulary of the cuts and pans and wipes, the way the characters move in and out of frame, is incredibly unique and original. And it's, shockingly, mostly successful. This got lost among a flood of blaring Technicolor green-screen films like Shark Girl and Lava Boy and the Spy-Kids films. Also there was, and still is, a social backlash against the Wachowski's because of the Matrix films. In terms of the film-making risks I mentioned above, this was unfairly dismissed. This is for fun, it's a family film, (In the best ways), and it doesn't take itself too seriously. If you're too cool for it, you're only cheating yourself. There will be more fresh, ice-cold milk at the finish line for the rest of us.