{"id":9669,"date":"2008-05-10T02:52:06","date_gmt":"2008-05-10T06:52:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/?p=9669"},"modified":"2017-07-15T18:54:52","modified_gmt":"2017-07-15T22:54:52","slug":"speed-racer-2008","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/2008\/05\/10\/speed-racer-2008\/","title":{"rendered":"Speed Racer (2008)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>The Wachowskis aspire for something unusual and awfully contradictory with \u201cSpeed Racer.\u201d They want an intentionally animated live action film, but a film that also looks as realistic as possible. They want a family film, but this is a film that may not be appealing to all children, and they want a story that simple but also quite complicated. Just when you think you\u2019ve seen all of Spritle and his monkey, there\u2019s an unusual tale about corporate corruption. Maybe it\u2019s because of all the contradictions and hapless surrealism that I responded to \u201cSpeed Racer\u201d with such enthusiasm. I know it won\u2019t be for everyone, and it definitely has its own flaws present, but speaking as someone willing to meet the Wachowskis halfway, everything involving Speed and Racer X made for some interesting drama.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The first few minutes of \u201cSpeed Racer\u201d are pretty much an indicator of what\u2019s to come and who this is aimed toward. Speed sits on a bench preparing for a race and is bobbing his leg rapidly, which then immediately cuts to a young Speed (we need to see him as a kid, apparently), who is also bobbing his leg very quickly. ADD addled children, this movie is for you, says the subtle imagery. And boy howdy, is that ever correct. For many the imagery here will prove to be quite mind boggling and the Wachowski\u2019s aim to flash the moving character\/still imagery element to their film, and do it until it\u2019s absolutely jarring. As for the narrative, it\u2019s simply everywhere with incessant flashback after flashback, sub-plots that meander back and forth from our villain, to Racer X, to Speed, to Pops, and so on and so forth, to the point where not even the Wachowski\u2019s are sure who the main character in this action tale is.<\/p>\n

That said, not only do Matthew Fox and Emile Hirsch ace the chemistry as brothers, but the casting is competent. You have to appreciate the Wachowskis taking an awful franchise with a wholly uninteresting character turning it into a cheesy but fun pulp flick. Even if its sole intent is to appeal to children, the smell of pulp was so thick I found their effort quite endearing, and this is speaking as someone who never liked Speed Racer. I\u2019ve suffered through many versions, given it many chances, and I\u2019ve never been able to enjoy this series. But \u201cSpeed Racer\u201d works on a level that wobbles back and forth from family entertainment to exclusive pulp cult classic. I may be proven wrong years from now, but I\u2019m willing to watch this again and give it a fair shot. Some of the racing scenes are so chaotic and wonky that my head was spinning, but at the same time I sat on edge rooting for Speed and wondering if Racer X would admit he was Rex.<\/p>\n

One of the staples of the franchise is the obvious twist in Racer X, and the Wachowskis accomplish that tension with the help of Fox\u2019s strong performance. There\u2019s also the great performance from Goodman who is perfect as Pops, and Ricci adds her own brand of charisma to Trixie. Hirsch adds a sense of humility and Skywalker-esque courage that makes him a great choice for Speed. As for Paulie Litt, I\u2019m sure he tried his hardest in this role, but Spritle and Chim Chim are without a doubt two of the most obnoxious film characters I\u2019ve seen since Jar Jar Binks. Not only do the Wachowskis spend too much time on them, assuming this would qualify as an appeal to a young audience, but most of their riffs are inane and blank white noise without a single purpose to add to the story. Had the film been cut by twenty minutes, including the material with the Spritle and his chimp, \u201cSpeed Racer\u201d would have excelled.<\/p>\n

The characters are often grating, and I often wondered if we were really supposed to see a movie about Spritle. I thought Speed was the main character here, but what do I know? I didn\u2019t figure in spending two hours watching a kid and a monkey get into hijinks while the directors piss on \u201cFreedbird\u201d in one instance. You just don\u2019t mess with \u201cFreedbird.\u201d The Wachowskis want to strive for a movie beyond simple family fare, and they succeed. Some of the scenes are bafflingly weird, but at the same time, quite exciting. It\u2019s not perfect, but it\u2019s entertaining enough to warrant a pleased smile from moi. The Wachowskis attempt an adult\u2019s kids movie, and don\u2019t always succeed. With a mixture of kitschy surrealism, over the top visuals, and an obscene running time, I don\u2019t know who this movie is for, but it\u2019s not for adults, and it certainly won\u2019t appeal too much to kids. All I know is that I didn\u2019t hate it, and that was enough for me.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Wachowskis aspire for something unusual and awfully contradictory with \u201cSpeed Racer.\u201d They want an intentionally animated live action film, but a film that also looks as realistic as possible. They want a family film, but this is a film that may not be appealing to all children, and they want a story that simple […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[58,64,71,219,340,554,580,631,814,885,974,1078,1087],"class_list":["post-9669","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-movie-reviews","tag-action","tag-adaptation","tag-adventure","tag-comedy","tag-family","tag-john-goodman","tag-kids","tag-martial-arts","tag-racing","tag-s","tag-sports","tag-the-wachowskis","tag-thriller"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9669","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9669"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9669\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25713,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9669\/revisions\/25713"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9669"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9669"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9669"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}