Speed Racer - Movie Review

Speed Racer (2008)

Speed Racer is a film adaptation of the 1960s anime of the same name, it was written and directed by The Wachowskis (who are best known for The Matrix Trilogy) and stars Emile Hirsch, Christina Ricci, John Goodman, Susan Surandon and Shaft himself, Richard Roundtree! Released in 2008, the film received negative reviews from critics and bombed at the box office. Despite its commercial failure, it developed a cult following over the years.

Now on to the review!

THE GOOD

Despite its flaws, which I will get into later, there are several things to praise this film for! This film is extremely fast paced and entertaining! The film is visually amazing, it is so colorful and the special effects are nothing short of imaginative. The action sequences are a lot of fun, they are so cartoony and over the top, it definitely captures the spirit of the anime, at least from what I remembered it. The acting is surprisingly fantastic, especially from John Goodman! The film has a surprising amount of emotion to it too, when Speed Racer's brother dies (yeah how dare I spoil a 13 year old movie), it's actually kind of effective when they try to make you care about it, so yeah, props to this movie for making it work! The musical score I also have to praise, as it is done my my favorite musical score composer, Michael Giacchino (who composed the musical score for The Incredibles, Star Trek and Up), the score sounds so epic and really amps up the energy in the action sequences.

THE BAD

Despite how fun the movie is, it definitely isn't a great movie. This movie is incredibly incohesive. The story is so disorganized and all over the place that it makes the movie pretty hard to follow. The movie also has a lot of failed attempts at comedy as well. If you like puns and other consistently cheap kinds of humor, this movie will make you laugh your ass off! I get that this is a kids movie but kids movies can have smart, subtle humor that adults can enjoy too!

CONCLUSION

Speed Racer is a highly flawed but extremely fun film, and definitely one of the better adaptations of anime to come out. It has fun action, great visuals, great acting and it's highly creative, but the story definitely should have been told better and could have done with better comedy.

GRADE:  B

FILM INFO

MPA rating:  PG (for sequences of action, some violence and language)

Run time:  135 min

Release date:  May 9th, 2008

Studio:  Warner Bros. Pictures

Stay tuned for a review on the first season of American Horror Story and a reviews for The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run and Animaniacs: Wakko's Wish!