You can also check out our audio review right here.
Despite the negative buzz surrounding Speed Racer I was still interested in seeing what the Wachowski brothers had up their sleeves with their PG-rated kid flick. I mean, these are the guys that brought us bullet-time and had an obvious effect on V for Vendetta despite the fact that they didn’t direct it. Of course I wanted to see what the Matrix-boys were going to release and I expected something special.
Well, I didn’t get special. What I got was a bunch of boring scenes slapped in-between a couple of great race sequences. To be honest, Speed Racer bored me for 110 minutes of its 129 minute runtime. The Wachowskis were able to accomplish all the emotion and tension needed for an entire film inside their final race scene, it’s a wonder they weren’t able to do anything better than the monotony they presented prior.
Speed Racer focuses on Speed Racer (that’s his name not a typo) and he loves to race. His dad builds race cars and his brother drives them. Unfortunately, his bro went rogue and died in an ice cave. Now, Speed is the family hot shot until he finally finds out the seedy side of racing. The corporations begin to move in on his game and Speed must team up with Racer X to put an end to corruption in racing.
It’s all fine and dandy, and some may say this is a good kid flick. Great, let the kids enjoy the pretty colors and flashing lights while their parents are miserable for two hours only to perk up for the few rather inventive race sequences.
To comment on the acting would be a waste of time. These guys aren’t acting, they are simply walking around in a CGI built world that takes the stage front and center. Even when we have a close up of one of our actors they are most often heading from left-to-right as the world lives on in Technicolor behind them.
Speed Racer is Looney Tunes on acid, and not in a good way. It’s almost like the after effects of an overdose. Yeah, while you are on that trip you are having a good time only to have to suffer on the way down until your next fix. Speed Racer needed a slow IV drip instead of those quick shots of heroin because the track marks start to show quickly and never fade away.
