OK guys, just saw Speed Racer today and all I can say is WOW!! What a feast for the eyes this film was.

For those of you expecting anything other than bubblegum sweetness and the full kaleidoscope of color available, avoid this movie.

For everyone else, GO GO GO, leave your brain at the door and enjoy the visual treat that is Speed Racer, and all the great references to the original TV show that is brings.

P.S. Do not take anything that can alter your vision prior to this film. It may have the same effect on viewers today as 2001 had on LSD users back in '68.

BE WARNED

I LOVED it!! Superbly done. Yes, very sweet, but it has a huge heart. Visually stunning. Homages to The Matrix, Dune, James Bond and several others. Christina Ricci and Susan Sarandon never looked better. Emile Hirsch, John Goodman and Matthew Fox are all great. I cannot think of a more fun time I've ever had at a movie. Oh, yes, according to my wife, "the kid and the monkey made the movie". Total blast.

C'mon... Really? I absolutely hated the cartoon.

K-J, I've never even seen the cartoon.

"Unknown to Speed, Racer X is actualy his older brother, Rex Racer. Who left home years earlier."

After getting the first set on DVD, it was funny to see them repeat this line each time racer X showed up. Even if it was more than once in the same episode.

Like Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, its more about the hardware than the story.

Liked the show when I was five. (as my son does now).
Now its all about the car.

Aw c'mon ClubTepes, I did put NO SPOILERS in the title to this thread. You have to go and ruin part of the movie with that? Some of these guys (like F91) have never seen the cartoon, and don't know certain things going in to the film. Plus they kinda throw you for a loop with that issue during the film.

Saw it yesterday. It's basically The Fast and the Furious meets the WWE on the Las Vegas strip as seen through the eyes of someone on LSD.

Clearly meant to be a "kid's" film, at two hours and fifteen minutes IMO it's overly-long for younger audience members; most of the kids at our screening started getting noticeably bored (i.e., fidgety and talkative) after the first hour. They could have trimmed 30-45 minutes, and it would have been a much tighter film.

Matthew Fox is near-perfect as Racer X--he looks and sounds (almost) like the character from the animated series. The other performances are good, but they don't quite recreate the characters the way Fox does.

I could go on, but I'd have to reveal some things that could be construed as spoilers. I enjoyed the film far more than I thought I was going to, but it could have been better. It works fairly well for what it is but, IMO, except for one particular sequence it doesn't represent the animated series very well.

Granted the original was for kids, but the kids who loved it have grown up now. Wouldn't it have been nice to make the movie for them - a semi-serious film to appeal to a 40-50-year-old's sensibilities?

Granted the original was for kids, but the kids who loved it have grown up now. Wouldn't it have been nice to make the movie for them - a semi-serious film to appeal to a 40-50-year-old's sensibilities?


How? I mean, seriously?;)


By the way, Iron Man, in its second weekend, beat the box-office pants off of Speed Racer.

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jb68x_tOGx8QHjI0Cr6C-Vy79OGgD90JKPUO0

Well, it'd be worth a try, anyway! :lol:

Other than the fact that Johnny Lightning made a neat little die cast Speed Racer car a couple of years ago, I knew nothing of this show. So when I saw it on Saturday with my kid, I had no preconceptions. But I expected it to be much more kid-oriented than Iron Man.

However, for my opinion, read what F91 said. Its just one of those "suspension of disbelief - let's have some good old fun" movies.

And I did exactly that!

Huzz

Huzz- Glad you liked it. Did you notice the music that was playing when Spritle and Chim-chim were watching cartoons? I really did enjoy this movie. Seems like it's going to be a box-office dud though.

Oh, yes, according to my wife, "the kid and the monkey made the movie".

That would be ironic, if it turns out to be the case. :)

Hopefully going to see that and Iron Man today.

I was tentative about the kid, but loving the monkey going in. I mean, who doesn't love a monkey? That said, the kid was really good and the monkey is hilarious.

hows that song go?

bomb bomb ba bomb ba bomb!!

Look - another monkey!!:lol:
Huzz

Looking at the early reviews, I went in expecting to be totally disappointed. Instead, I was pretty entertained. I liked all the characters, John Goodman's Pops Racer especially. I enjoyed all the bright colors and funky transitions. I thought the fight scenes were entertaining and I actually got goosebumps the first time the Mach 5 deployed its auto-jacks (sha sha sha sha!)
I have to say, however, that I was disappointed by the racing sequences. There were no real-world physics and the action seemed confusing and disorienting at times. I think I would've preferred a real-world approach to the racing, which would've seemed more thrilling to me. Other than that, I was pretty throroughly entertained.

- JJ
www.hollywood-diecast.com

I mean, who doesn't love a monkey?

Depends on the recipe.

the Matrix trilogy made no sense
Speed Racer film makes even less

Okay. I gotta tell ya... I haven't seen SPEED RACER and I'm not planning to anytime soon. Frankly, it looks like crap. Even my kids think the tv commercials and movie trailers for it make it look like a waste of time. I can wait for this one to hit the dollar theaters - or even wait 'till it turns up on tv.

We all enjoyed IRON MAN. That movie rocked. SPEED RACER, though... I dunno.

It looks like it's all glitz and no substance. I want to see a movie that's about the characters ( and 'Yeah' in this case the Mach 5 is very much one of the characters ). But all I'm seeing in the previews is a bunch of pop, glitz and eye-candy... none of which looks very convincing in a REAL world kind of way. It makes VAN HELSING look like GONE WITH THE WIND.

As much as I'd like to be more charitable toward SPEED RACER, I'm not willing to spend my hard-earned cash on it to verify what I feel will be certain disappointment.

- GJS

well said Batman! i think you got the same feeling that all the people who DID'NT go and went to Iron Man instead had.
i also understand a lot of tie in products were made that will probably end up sitting on shelves. i went to target recently and saw the Iron Man section cleaned out while the Speed Racer toy self was full. probably will move to clearance by the end of the week.

the cartoon is way more entertaining that the film will ever be.

John & Batman- I gotta say, you really have no clue as to the meat of the movie. You speculate that there is no "substance" in SR, when in fact, the main core of the film is about devotion to family, friends and self. "Looks like"? Uh... it's a trailer. Iron Man looked like non-stop armor action in the trailer, but it wasn't. Thanks god I actually went to see it.Speed Racer: The glitz is in the "glitzy" part of the movie. There are lots of scenes about growing up,going to school, having a dream and fighting hard to keep your identity as an adult. You know, boring stuff... Of course, lots of people say Star Wars was about lots of spaceships zooming around with little substance.
I suppose they could make that case, but to trash a film you've never seen really confuses me.

the Matrix trilogy made no sense
Speed Racer film makes even lessHow can it make less than no sense? Does it reach through the wall into adjacent theaters and rob them of some of their sense (presuming they have any themselves)?

Qapla'

SSB

Sounds like a mathematical query to me ;)

"Looks like"? Uh... it's a trailer.

And trailers are made to sell the audience on the idea of seeing the movie. Iron Man looked classy - and it was. Speed Racer looks like trash. Now, I sincerely hope that I'm wrong about that... but, I'm not parting with my money to find out.

- GJS

you said it Batman.

any trailer that says " from the guys who brought you the Matrix " is not a film i'll ever want to see.

the brothers owe me 9.00 matinee cost plus popcorn $$ for the time wasted for the Matrix

when a film makes less than no sense, it falls into a realm where up, down and sideways not a reality and the popcorn is over buttered

you said it Batman.

any trailer that says " from the guys who brought you the Matrix " is not a film i'll ever want to see.

the brothers owe me 9.00 matinee cost plus popcorn $$ for the time wasted for the Matrix

when a film makes less than no sense, it falls into a realm where up, down and sideways not a reality and the popcorn is over butteredWell, they didn't make the popcorn. The trailer doesn't say, "From the guys who brought you The Matrix and made the popcorn you ate while watching it — and engineered the seat you sat in (no really, and they personally tightened some of the bolts to make sure your chair wouldn't fall apart halfway through) ..."

Qapla'

SSB

...all I'm seeing in the previews is a bunch of pop, glitz and eye-candy... none of which looks very convincing in a REAL world kind of way. It makes VAN HELSING look like GONE WITH THE WIND.



Neither did Warren Beatty's Dick Tracy. That's the opposite aim. DT and SR are living cartoons, this one even more so. My first impression on seeing SR was that the live actors in it were incongruous!

Not that I'm trying to argue that you're wrong, mind. Some aspects of the film work, some are problematic. I've no idea whether you'd like it, and I won't recommend you spend your time and money finding out. But if you're looking for anything but an impressionistic eye-popping, candy-colored cartoon that uses live sets and props for the look of an animated movie, you're guaranteed to be thrown.

Personally, I enjoyed it...after I got into it's rhythm. Not a great movie, but worth seeing as an experriment in visuals.

(And Iron Man took the house apart!)

That's the thing. Have you EVER seen a movie, even though the trailer was less than appealing? Did you end up liking it? Do you always have to be "right"?When I first saw the SR trailer, I thought it would be absolute crap. After seeing the second and third trailers and then deciding to give the Wachowskis a chance, It turned out I loved the movie. Granted, the movie may not be your cup of tea, but to pick it apart based on what you THINK it may contain is , well, silly. Your minds eye ain't that accurate.


Edit- Lastly- None of "us"; people who are creative, model building, artsy types, have actually trashed the movie who have seen it. It can connect on an emotional, technical or artistic level if given the chance. Visceral dislike, like I said, is just hard for me to understand.

One of my pet peeves, and this includes my friends, not just those in these forums, are those who say a movie is "terrible" without having seen it. How can anyone judge a movie they haven't seen?

As for The Matrix (the first one) my mind was blown when I saw that movie. I walked out of the theater questioning my own reality. I think it was an amazing movie. The two sequels, however, were disappointing.

- JJ

My daughter wants to see it. I really, really don't.

You love your daughter, don't you?:)

Don't be such a grumpy old man! :tongue: Take your kid to the movie, buy lots of popcorn and candy and have fun!

Years later you'll wish you could roll the clock back and do this stuff all over again.

Carpet Dustmites!

Or is that Carpe Diem?

Whatever!

Huzz

Oh, I love my daughter. And I take her to plenty of movies. I'm thinking a second viewing of Iron Man myself.;)

Z- It can't ALWAYS be about you!!!

Z- It can't ALWAYS be about you!!!

OKAY! OKAY!:p I mean, its got to be better than The Cat in The Hat, right?

Anything is better than Cat in the Hat!!:wave:

Enjoy!

Huzz

OKAY! OKAY!:p I mean, its got to be better than The Cat in The Hat, right?


Okay Scott,

I'll wait to hear what YOU have to say about it... :wave:

- GJS

That's the thing. Have you EVER seen a movie, even though the trailer was less than appealing? Did you end up liking it?

I think there's a good point here.

When I was a teen in 1977, I was completely unimpressed by the first set of trailers for .....Star Wars ...and there was no way I was going to waste any time on it. The ads shown on TV made it look no better to me than Logan's Run. Incredible as it sounds, I had to be dragged by my parents to see to see Star Wars! I'm pretty sure that Summer I saw it again something like 20 more times.

I learned early not to make the trailer my only guide for whether to spend time and money on a movie.

John O.

On the other hand, the Wachowski's have a known track record. Not one you'd want to rely on.


OKAY! OKAY!:p I mean, its got to be better than The Cat in The Hat, right?

That's the spirit, seize the fish!

On the other hand, the Wachowski's have a known track record. Not one you'd want to rely on.


I dunno, have you ever seen Bound? In some ways I thinks it's their best film, though I really liked the first Matrix film. Gina Gershon and Jennifer Tilly are both surprisingly good and have some serious chemistry between each other. Bonus points for having the best performance from Joe Pantolino since he played Guido the Killer Pimp in Risky Business.

I'm probably gonna take the boy to see Speed Racer this weeked, is there anything that might upset little ones?

I dunno, have you ever seen Bound?

Absolutely! Big thumb up for Bound, a fine movie with a smart script. I wish they'd do something this good again.

Writing has been their biggest problem since. The script for The Matrix was derivative, and didn't involve me enough emotionally, but was serviceable enough for a comic book/sci-fi extravaganza. The sequels were a mess both script-wise and in editing/structure. V for Vendetta started with solid source material in Alan Moore's book, then erased all the wit, meat, and nuance. I'm still wating for them to live up to the potential they showed with their debut film.

I'm probably gonna take the boy to see Speed Racer this weeked, is there anything that might upset little ones?

Nothing that would upset them, no. A couple of fight scenes are cartoonish in the extreme. There are a scant few moments of profanity that parents might prefer weren't there. The writing is geared for the whole family, though I wonder how many kids are going to get that the big evil of the plot centers around...stock manipulation?

I'd warn adults that the visuals in the race sequences are much too frenetic to follow, and the opening ten or fifteen minutes has a poorly constructed non-linear form that blends flashbacks into the story with no warning or explanation - you have to pick it up as you go.

Second viewing of Iron Man. Yep! That's the ticket!

Okay, I have to admit that as a kid I kinda liked the whole Speed Racer thing and was looking forward to the film. My hopes were somewhat lessened when I saw the cartoon-like appearance of the trailers. I really think that they could have made a serious (not sure about the boy and the chimp though) high tech racing film set slightly in the future, but that obviously wasn't what they had in mind. Unfortunate. I saw Iron Man twice in two days. From most of the reaction I'm hearing about Speed Racer, I think I'll catch it on cable where I switch channels between it and Survivorman.

While I agree with the frenetic pace of the races being tough to follow, I feel it is absolutely deliberate and highly effective, culminating in the absolutely overpowering final lap of the last race.
I STRONGLY disagree with the first 15 minutes being "poorly constructed". The back and forth flashbacks were innovative, fresh and well done IMO. I didn't need an explanation, it was fairly simple to follow. YMMV......

Spoiler warning for dads taking the kiddies: A little blood, no onscreen deaths, scary piranhas that do get a snack, finger food, if you will. One instance of flinging monkey poo. 1 "s" bomb that's hard to pick up and 1 instance of Spritle throwing up the middle finger.





I'd warn adults that the visuals in the race sequences are much too frenetic to follow, and the opening ten or fifteen minutes has a poorly constructed non-linear form that blends flashbacks into the story with no warning or explanation - you have to pick it up as you go.

Dang it Scott, THINK of the Children!!!!!!


Second viewing of Iron Man. Yep! That's the ticket!

I STRONGLY disagree with the first 15 minutes being "poorly constructed". The back and forth flashbacks were innovative, fresh and well done IMO. I didn't need an explanation, it was fairly simple to follow. YMMV......

Well...I should fess up that I was dealing with a personal crisis and having a hard time concentrating. The first couple of transitions were problematic, did clue me in to what they were doing...but I still don't think they were as coherent as they could have been. It keeps going for maybe fifteen minutes, but you've got the idea long before that.

I agree about the final lap of the race. At the same time, I have to agree with an earlier poster who said that the one thing missing from the action is the sense of actually watching a race. These cars do absolutely everything else but run a conventional race! :p

Personal gripe, talking heads to facilitate wipes is egregiously overused. Aside from that, the reason for seeing the movie is for it's visual experimentation.

Dreamer- I agree with you, the physics of the race cars were problematic. They did at least attempt to explain it by them all having 4 wheel steering, but it still was exaggerated. The talking head wipe may be overused, but I think it really works in the context of SR. Other visual stuff was pretty innovative, but I'll refrain from talking about them so as not to spoil the film for others.*




* Others, Like Scott and Scott. I predict 1 Scott will really like it and the other one might find it just passable.

This is probably the best clip from the film I have seen:

http://movies.yahoo.com/feature/speedracer.html?showVideo=1

But, even this is pretty obnoxious in a protracted video game kind of way.

- GJS

Edit: Be on your Guard, John Guard!

Took my oldest son to see it this afternoon, and I got to say, we loved it!

I was really impressed by the film's style, the opening sequence was a well-edited technically dazzling sequence that filled in Speed's backstory. John Goodman, Matt Fox, Susan Sarandon, and Christina Ricci(a perfect Trixie) were all great. The film does an excellent job of bringing the goofy world of Speed Racer to life.

I thought this was probably the best attempt to date to set living actors in a all-CGI enviroment, the film's neon-y day-glo style won't please everybody, but I thought it was perfect for the subject. I loved all the little subtle sight and sound salutes and homages to the original. I thought it was ingenius how they figured out how to have spectacular car crashes and keep the body count kid-friendly. The Washowski Brother's seemed to have set out to create a good kid's movie and a literal living cartoon, I thought they succeeded admirably.

It's not perfect, I thought the kid who played Speed was pretty unmemorable and it was about 20 minutes too long. And the guy that played Inspector Detector was just wrong, the Inspector had one of the the most distinctive(and unintentionally funny) speaking styles on the original series and it wasn't a fey French accent. But all and all, it's a pretty cool and original film that's amazingly faithful to the spirit of the original.

I think the other Scott will like it too. Gotta see Ironman next!