• the217
• Movies + TV
• A movie made for the fans

Related Media

Speed Racer

Buzz says:   MPAA Rating: PG
Current Showtimes: No showtimes available

When I got the “OK” to review Speed Racer, I won’t lie and say that a part of me said, “YEAH, I can’t wait!” That part of me was lodged deep inside my subconscious and between the ages of six and nine years old when I actually loved the animated Speed Racer cartoon series and watched it faithfully. I also have a cynical, ugly reviewer side that wanted to tear it to pieces because every trailer looked like it had to be a cheesy, ridiculously mindless pile of crap which had me salivating for two aspects of my personality. So I have decided to split this review in two which will satisfy the general population: People who liked the show, and the other for people who didn’t.

First, people who liked Speed Racer: It is a must see if only because they crammed in every reference in the background they could. Each scene I swear contains at least one nerdy aspect of the show which I can’t officially speak about because you’ll beam when you spot them yourself. If you’re worried about the Wachowski’s changing things like they did in V for Vendetta, again some things have gone away, but the vast majority of nuances have been kept. There’s even a scene where little Spritle (Paulie Litt) has the classic lip-sync misfires which is just cool. This is a glorious devotion of fandom and take great care to watch it over again because this is why movie studios don’t allow filmmakers to essentially replicate a movie for the fans because everyone else will probably hate it.

To everyone else, this is not the Matrix, and it has nothing to do with the Matrix. All you will see is great actors ham it up in the most irritating neon vomit Technicolor you’ll ever see. There is a very, very, very simplistic story about big business crushing the spirit of small doe-eyed heroes and cars that go ZOOM a lot. If you never wished you could see hot wheels jump around, and don’t know anything about Speed Racer and are over the age of ten, you’ll probably be bored and hate this movie. Period. 3 stars for fans, one and a half for everyone else.