Start your engines and fasten your seatbelts for the high-octane adventure Speed Racer, combining heartfelt family humor and groundbreaking visual effects. Speed Racer (Emile Hirsch) is a natural behind the wheel of his thunderous Mach 5. With support from Pops and Mom Racer (John Goodman and Susan Sarandon), girlfriend Trixie (Christina Ricci), younger brother Spritle (Paulie Litt) and the myster
Start your engines and fasten your seatbelts for the high-octane adventure Speed Racer, combining heartfelt family humor and groundbreaking visual effects. Speed Racer (Emile Hirsch) is a natural behind the wheel of his thunderous Mach 5. With support from Pops and Mom Racer (John Goodman and Susan Sarandon), girlfriend Trixie (Christina Ricci), younger brother Spritle (Paulie Litt) and the mysterious Racer X (Matthew Fox), Speed takes on fierce competitors to save his family's business and protect the sport he loves. When Speed steps onto the track, it's not just a race. It's an adrenaline-fueled, high-speed charge to the finish. Go, Speed Racer, go!!
An over-the-top, sensory overload experience determined to replicate its frantic, television-anime origins, Speed Racer is wild enough to induce a headache or wow a viewer with one dazzling effect after another. Adapted for the big screen as a live-action feature, Speed Racer is written and directed by Larry and Andy Wachowski, the sibling team behind the intensely satisfying The Matrix and its busier, less interesting sequels. Where the rich mythmaking of The Matrix was entirely accessible, however, Speed Racer's overwhelming and gratuitously complicated story exposition is an enormous challenge to follow, let alone embrace. After a while, one simply surrenders to the unbroken din of dialogue concerning corporate chicanery, corruption in the sport of racing, and a value conflict between racing as a family business versus multinational cash cow. At the same time, the film's hyper-real equivalent of the old Speed Racer cartoon's great whoosh of color, motion, and edgy production design--such as inventive uses of scene-changing wipes, bold framing, shifting perspectives--are more overbearing than fun.
Emile Hirsch plays Speed Racer, younger brother of a deceased racing legend, Rex, and son of car designer Pops (John Goodman). The latter invented Speed's Mach 5, and is singularly unimpressed by an offer from a giant conglomerate that would lock Speed into exclusive racing services. Speed opts instead for family loyalty, incurring the wrath of the conglomerate's unctuous head (Roger Allam). With family honor on the line and the affections of girlfriend Trixie (Christina Ricci) behind him, Speed hits the track in hopes of fulfilling his destiny as a master racer. The cast is largely enjoyable, including Susan Sarandon as Speed's mom, Matthew Fox as mysterious Racer X, and a pair of chimps as the irrepressible Chim-Chim. All well and good, but in a movie that lives or dies by the excitement level of races that look like computer-animated Hot Wheels action, Speed Racer is a dreary adventure. --Tom Keogh
Customer Reviews:
Avg. Customer Rating: 4.0 / 5.0
Solid:
Nothing to say but this is a solid movie, visually as well as the story line. Characters are well developed. I personally love the way this film was shot. Another homerun by the Wachowski Brothers!
Almost a Great Movie, But Disappointing:
I wanted to like Speed Racer a lot. I grew up with it. The cartoon is the first thing I remember watching on our new color TV. The movie was cast perfectly, with everyone's looks and mannerisms similar to what I recall. The plot was a more sophisticated version of the cartoons, complex enough to survive 90 minutes. Where did the movie go astray? It tried too hard to be modern. Rather than create a new product based on the old, like the Spiderman and Superman franchises, it tried to blow us away with a... more info
Awesome movie, BEWARE THE BROKEN CASE:
Keep in mind this is a 3 disk set and not a 2 disk set. The 3rd disk in this set is an expired digital copy. Also keep in mind that these blu-ray cases with the central hinge have a tendency to break. The first copy of this blu-ray I got from Amazon was broken. I returned it and got my money back, and then got it from Costco. That too was broken, so I took it back. There was one more blu-ray at the store, which I shook to see if it was broken. It was (the current score is 3) so I decided not to get it. I... more info
some action too fast to follow in the races:
This movies crosses live action with animation
and not always very successfully.
I liked the original animated series.
I thought the acting was pretty good
in the futuristic racing (at 700 Km/hour or 440 miles/ hour said by one of the actors).
At that speed the action needs to be slowed down
for you to see it.
I enjoyed the film, I just thought it could have been done better
in the animation blends.
![Doom [Blu-ray]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/519Vt7mzAUL._SL75_.jpg)
