Speed Racer

[cheeba]

Link to the trailers.

Are you going? I am very much conflicted on this one. I was never a fan of the cartoon series, and the movie looks like it's more geared towards kids. The special effects leave me conflicted as well: some of it looks stunning, but I think there'll be many times where it's just too much.

Still, the movie looks to be original, and I firmly believe originality needs to be rewarded in Hollywood. Also, it looks like it's one of those movies which must be seen on the big screen to get the full effect. Right now I'm probably 60% likely to go.

[Kevin Grey]

I want to see it.  Looks like fun to me.  However it's tough for me to get to the theater these days.  The nearest "acceptable" theater is a good 30 minutes or so (I'm very picky about theater quality) and, with a two year old and a seven month pregnant wife, getting out to the movies is just not a priority.  So right now seeing Iron Man is at the top of my list and, in a few weeks, it will be Indy. 

[Xmann]

my son wants to see it, so i'll take him next Monday during the day.

however, still interested in what i can expect for myself.

[coopasonic]

24% at rotten tomatoes on 33 reviews, higher than i thought it would be. No chance in hell I'm going.

[CeeKay]

I'm on the fence myself.  I probably won't see it this weekend as I'll finally have time to go see Iron Man.

[Eduardo X]

24% at rotten tomatoes on 33 reviews, higher than i thought it would be. No chance in hell I'm going.

Higher than I assumed as well.

I hope this movie flops big time and these idiotic remakes stop getting made.

[WinoMcCougarstein]

I always hated the Speed Racer cartoon so there is no way I'm going to this.

[whiteboyskim]

See, I'm dying to see this one if only for the visuals. It looks like a sugar rush given visual form and say what you will about the Wachowkis they are an experimental team. Every one of their films, yes even the Matrix sequels, have wacked out ideas that are worth seeing. They may not always work (the Matrix sequels) but I never regret seeing one of their films. Also, the idea of pairing Speed Racer with Bound for a double-feature is too twisted a thought to skip when Speed is out on DVD.

[leo8877]

Netflix for me.

[Gratch]

Looks completely vomit inducing.  I've been dragged to enough bad movies the last few weeks (Horton Hears a Who and Leatherheads), that I'll be staying far, far away from this one. 

[SzechuanLlama]

Every one of the trailers I've seen has screamed "suck" to me.  Possibly a rental down the line....

*edit fo' grammar

[coopasonic]

...and if anyone goes to see this that hasn't seen iron man... well... I'm not talking to you anymore.

[rickfc]

I like this quote from one of the reviewers found through RT:

Speed Racer has the dubious distinction of being the only movie I've ever sat through while wishing I'd been born colorblind.

[Austin]

I really don't want to see it, but if it's kid friendly I might take my son.  (Unless Kungfu Panda comes out around now too, we'll just do that)


Edit:  Gah! Runtime:2 hr. 15 min.  No way am I going to see this.

[Rumpy]

I think it looks like someone was on LSD when they created the special effects. I know it's supposed to be a cartoon, but the live action doesn't particularly blend well with the CGI from what I've seen so far, and then the CGI itself isn't all that impressive with some of it looking quite bad, like something I would have expected 5 years ago.

[cheeba]

Well it's obviously made to be live-action-meets-anime. So blame the trippy stuff on the Japanese .

[McNutt]

Still, the movie looks to be original, and I firmly believe originality needs to be rewarded in Hollywood.

Original?  Original?????  Are you really saying that Hollywood needs to be rewarded for making another movie about a TV show?  

[Simon]

Our almost six-year old is pretty excited to see this so I'm planning on taking him next week. I thought it looked pretty cool from the trailers but the mostly negative reviews are sending me in with very low expectations. I was suprised to read how long it was.

Here's a quote from /Film that sums up their impression of the film:

Speed Racer is sure to polarize audiences. I saw the film with a group of five people, and the resulting opinions were across the board. One of the guys expected to hate it and ended up loving it. And for another one of my friends, it was the complete opposite. Speaking for myself, I was expecting very little going into the screening, and I had a lot more fun than I ever could have expected. The Wachowski Brothers have created a live action anime that is bright, and sometimes visually assaulting. A nudge over two hours, you will leave the theater extremely exhausted from ADD overload. The Wachowski Brothers have created a film unlike anything that has ever been seen before. You have to respect this film from a pure filmmaking perspective. I would even go as far as saying that Speed Racer is a great movie. But at the end of the day, it’s still just a great movie about Speed Racer. And yes, it could have been 25 minutes shorter.

[cheeba]

Still, the movie looks to be original, and I firmly believe originality needs to be rewarded in Hollywood.

Original?  Original?????  Are you really saying that Hollywood needs to be rewarded for making another movie about a TV show? 

Have you seen the previews? I've not seen any movie that looks like this movie. So yes, they're doing a remake, but in a way not yet seen.

[Rumpy]

How is this even a remake? They didn't make a Speed Racer movie before, did they?

[rittchard]

I used to love the cartoon as a kid but I can't remember why.  When I first heard about it, from the makers of the Matrix, I was pretty excited.  But... the previews just seemed neither here nor there to me, left me feeling a bit hollow. 

I did read an interview with Matthew Fox (who I love) this morning, which made me a little more interested.  So I'm pretty much on the fence, which probably bodes poorly for their box office since I would theoretically be a prime candidate to see this movie (regular moviegoer, watched the cartoon, likes the cast, loved the Matrix...)

[hepcat]

loved this review:

Shapes hurtle toward you, then recede abruptly, each bearing some fragment of narrative information that has now passed you by forever. Nausea and anxiety begin to wash over you in overlapping waves.

[PR_GMR]

I've little to no interest in seeing this. It's a shame, but they made it so cartoony. 'IronMan' was all sorts of awesome last weekend, and its gonna clobber this at the box-office.

[Ironrod]

loved this review:

Shapes hurtle toward you, then recede abruptly, each bearing some fragment of narrative information that has now passed you by forever. Nausea and anxiety begin to wash over you in overlapping waves.

From the Boston Globe's review:

Watching "Speed Racer," the new summer lollapalooza from the Wachowski brothers, is like being force-fed a Costco-size bag of your favorite candy. For half an hour, taste buds you didn't know you had are firing in delirium, stoked by the movie's outrageous visual razzle-dazzle. Then you hit that spot in the bag where you know you should stop, but the movie keeps going. You feel more and more bloated; the movie keeps going. At a certain point, you may wonder if the movie's eating you. It doesn't end so much as vomit the audience out.

I don't like candy. I'll pass.

[The Grue]

I've little to no interest in seeing this. It's a shame, but they made it so cartoony. 'IronMan' was all sorts of awesome last weekend, and its gonna clobber this at the box-office.

They made a film about a cartoon cartoony?  I refuse to believe it.

[Jarrodhk]

Saw it.  It was a LOT of fun for myself and the two friends that went to see it. 

As we were leaving, one of the ushers said that a review he read described it as, 'being inside a kalidescope and shaken around for two hours.'  Not a bad description.

Definitely going to watch it again once it hits DVD, would see it sooner but there is pretty much one new movie of interest coming out for the next several weeks.  I really want to watch the whole movie while adding 'in bed' to every line of dialog.

Not a AAA movie by any stretch, but it was quite fun.

Edit: and now the "Go Speedracer Go" song from the credits is stuck in my head again. 

[Xmann]

definitely taking my little boy to see it Monday

[The Grue]

Just got back from seeing it and loved it.  The visuals on it were so very cool - it was like watching a live action cartoon.  I loved the cartoon when I was a kid and I think they capture much of the essence of the cartoon in the movie.  I guess it isn't going to do well critically and I am sure the Internet will hate it, but I tend to think that most people have forgotten how to have fun at a movie.

[Xmann]

yep, enjoyed it quite alot myself.   took my son to see it today and thought it was fun.   only issue i had was that it was about 30 minutes too long.   my son sets through most movies ok, but he was really ready to go well before it was over.

really fun visuals and animation.   definitely not a stinker like i've read.

[GuidoTKP]

Cool.  My six-year-old daughter has been pretty excited to see this.  I was afraid it would have no redeeming quality.  Happy to hear that people found things to enjoy in it, since it seems pretty likely that it will be in my future.

[Soulchilde]

Went to see it with my sister and it reminded us of watching Speed Racer at 3 pm after we got hom from school.  I really liked the movie and O think they did a fine service bringing Speed the live action

[Hemlock Bones]

I'm see'n it only if the kid and monkey die horrible deaths.

[The Grue]

I'm see'n it only if the kid and monkey die horrible deaths.

The kid and the monkey were classic.

Oh, Spritle and Chim Chim...always getting into the trunk of the Mach 5....will you ever learn?



Actually, the biggest laugh from the movie was given by them right at the end before the Speed/Trixie kiss.

[hepcat]

I'm see'n it only if the kid and monkey die horrible deaths.

Stick around, I'm sure the reality of Carbon Monoxide poisoning will someday make itself known.

[Blackjack]

Speed's going down in flames at the box office. Even with international B.O. and DVD sales, don't know how it's going to even break even.

That doesn't mean it's bad (plenty of lousy movies and movie sequels make $200-$300M at the box office these days), but one of the great things about The Matrix (the original) was that it felt fresh, and had its own mythology. What's the point of the Wachowskis hamstringing themselves (Speed was their idea, no one else to blame) with a weirdo cartoon TV show whose audience is mostly 40 somethings like me? Speed Racer means nothing to the kiddie audience they tried to appeal to, which may be why no one is paying to see it.

I still get the impression all these needless remakes of TV shows from the '60s and '70s (Starsky and Hutch? Dukes of Hazzard? Bewitched? Sgt. Bilko? What the heck was the point of any of those?) that stiff at the box office just demonstrate a bankruptcy in fresh ideas, and maybe at some point the spigot of remaking 30-40 year old TV shows into movies nobody wants to see will end.

If it isn't, then at least bring on the Marine Boy movie. Maybe they can show the mermaid's breasts and get a PG-13 out of it.  While you're at it, throw in Ultra-Man, Johnny Socko and his Flying Robot (a show I remember as "an ode to handguns"), and Captain Scarlet movies so I can relive my childhood even if I'll be the only person in the theater. 

[Kevin Grey]

I still get the impression all these needless remakes of TV shows from the '60s and '70s (Starsky and Hutch? Dukes of Hazzard? Bewitched? Sgt. Bilko? What the heck was the point of any of those?) that stiff at the box office just demonstrate a bankruptcy in fresh ideas, and maybe at some point the spigot of remaking 30-40 year old TV shows into movies nobody wants to see will end.

You're seriously not complaining about bankruptcy of ideas while sporting an Iron Man avatar are you? I loved Iron Man too but it was no more an "original" movie concept than Speed Racer is. 

[Simon]

I took our almost six-year old to see Speed last week. The plot was a little convoluted for being such a light film, and it would have benefited from being about 10-15 minutes shorter. Otherwise I thought it was pretty enjoyable and the racing was amazing. It's not a great film by any means but it's a fun live action cartoon that looks absolutely spectacular. Ethan absolutely loved it and has been talking about it since then.

[biggercup]

Finally got to watch the Speed Racer and once again you can’t really judge the movie unless you have actually watched the movie.

Although the movie was not the best movie ever, it was one of the best popcorn movie this summer.

I think movie would done much more business if it was little shorter and if director’s name wasn’t Wachowski brother & sister. With last Matrix movie, somehow they became worst director ever and all the geeks hate them.

If you watched the old Speed Racer cartoon, you will love the movie.

[CeeKay]

I finally saw Speed Racer tonight on Blu Ray and I was pleasantly surprised.  they did a great job with the visual style, and the action sequences were pretty cool.

[Chaz]

The GF and I watched it a few weeks ago, and we were both shocked at how good it was.  Awesome action/popcorn flick that was also pretty funny and well-acted.  Definitely going to be picking this up sooner or later.