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The story begins with Speed Racer who is a young man with natural racing instincts whose goal is to win The Crucible, a cross-country car racing rally that took the life of his older brother, Rex Racer. Speed is loyal to the family business, run by his parents Pops and Mom. Pops designed Speed's car, the Mach 5. The owner of Royalton Industries makes Speed a lucrative offer, Speed rejects the offer, angering the owner. Speed also uncovers a secret that top corporate interests, including Royalton, are fixing races and cheating to gain profit. With the offer to Speed denied, Royalton wants to ensure that Speed will not win races. Speed finds support from his parents and his girlfriend Trixie and enters The Crucible in a partnership with his one-time rival, Racer X, seeking to rescue his family's business and the racing sport itself.
Genre(s): Action, Family, Sport
Runtime: 135 minutes
Rating: 6.4/10 (28,748 votes)
Release Date: 28 April 2008
Country: USA, Australia, Germany
Languages: English
Company: Warner Bros. Pictures
Sound: SDDS, Dolby Digital, DTS
MPAA: Rated PG for sequences of action, some violence and language.
Director(s): Andy Wachowski, Larry Wachowski
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Producer(s):
Jessica Alan - co-producer
Bruce Berman - executive producer
Grant Hill - producer
Michael Lambert - executive producer
Roberto Malerba - co-producer
Henning Molfenter - co-producer
David Lane Seltzer - executive producer
Joel Silver - producer
Andy Wachowski - producer
Larry Wachowski - producer
Charlie Woebcken - co-producer
Writer(s):
Andy Wachowski - (written by) (as The Wachowski Brothers) &
Larry Wachowski - (written by) (as The Wachowski Brothers)
Tatsuo Yoshida - (animated series "Speed Racer")
Cast:
Emile Hirsch - Speed Racer
Nicholas Elia - Young Speed
Susan Sarandon - Mom Racer
Melissa Holroyd - Speed's Teacher
Ariel Winter - Young Trixie
Scott Porter - Rex
Gian Ganziano - Everyman Announcer
Peter Fernandez - Local Announcer
Harvey Friedman - Harold Ledermann Announcer
Sadao Ueda - Japanese Announcer
Music: Michael Giacchino
Jessica Alan - co-producer
Bruce Berman - executive producer
Grant Hill - producer
Michael Lambert - executive producer
Roberto Malerba - co-producer
Henning Molfenter - co-producer
David Lane Seltzer - executive producer
Joel Silver - producer
Andy Wachowski - producer
Larry Wachowski - producer
Charlie Woebcken - co-producer
Writer(s):
Andy Wachowski - (written by) (as The Wachowski Brothers) &
Larry Wachowski - (written by) (as The Wachowski Brothers)
Tatsuo Yoshida - (animated series "Speed Racer")
Cast:
Emile Hirsch - Speed Racer
Nicholas Elia - Young Speed
Susan Sarandon - Mom Racer
Melissa Holroyd - Speed's Teacher
Ariel Winter - Young Trixie
Scott Porter - Rex
Gian Ganziano - Everyman Announcer
Peter Fernandez - Local Announcer
Harvey Friedman - Harold Ledermann Announcer
Sadao Ueda - Japanese Announcer
Music: Michael Giacchino
Posted on: May 1, 2008
May 5th, 2009
I First Seen Speed Racer On DVD When I Was At Aunt Linda's House. ItWas The Best. The CGI Effects On The Mach 5 And The Rest Of The CarsWere Awesome. I Like The Cartoon Series From The 60's. The OriginalCartoon Series Became A Success Thanks To Speed Who Won In His FinalRace In The Final Episode Of 1967's Speed Racer. I Can't Believe ThatThe Actors John Goodman And Susan Sarandon Starred In That Movie. Wow.It's So Cool. The Song Played In The Ending Credits Was The Best. SpeedRacer Is The Best Live Action Film And It Will Have The Whole WorldWanting To Watch Both The Series And The Film. Still, It's The BestFilm Ever.
June 1st, 2009
The movie Speed Racer is not even worth the time to see. I saw aboutfifteen minutes of it and I shut the movie off. I wasn't about to wastethe next two hours of my life watching this movie that should neverhave been made. The special effects look corny and aren't nearly asimpressive as the ones in Transformers or most recently TerminatorSalvation. The talented cast including Emile Hirsch, Christina Ricci,John Goodman, Susand Surandon, and Matthew Fox are entirely wasted in amovie that just isn't good at least not to me and I didn't even see thewhole thing. The Wachowski brothers who made the The Matrix and it'stwo disappoint sequels continue a trend that M Night Shymalan seems tobe going on lately that their newest movies are turning into majordisappointments compared to their previous ones. No offense to eitherof them but this movie doesn't show their potential as directors if youwant to see a good Wachowski brothers film see Bound or The Matrix. SoI say skip Speed Racer because you'll be saving yourself the time andmoney. Save your time and money for a movie that will actually be worthseeing more than once.
June 8th, 2009
I tried watching this movie yesterday and when there was more than amerciless hour left I had to stop the madness. Although there was someinitial interest in it because of the absurdly strong visual aspect,this is one of those movies in which at some point I had to loudlyannounce, "ENOUGH. I HAVE WASTED ENOUGH TIME IN MY LIFE ON THIS PIECEOF ****."
I haven't had many reactions like that to a movie, but this is a rareexception. I mean often films are so bad that they are good in a wackykinda way.
This movie is just bad. Awful bad. Life tearing out my eyeballs,filling the sockets with salt and vinegar, then putting my eyeballsback in bad.
FIRST of all, it takes itself Way way Way too seriously.
I mean come on! It's a frig-gin' SPEED RACER movie, not a BIBLICAL EPICminus Charlton Heston! When "Speed" says something to the big corporatemogul guy about how racing is a religion in his family- THAT is wherethe film utterly gets the entire concept of Speed Racer WRONG.
It's not that serious folks! Lighten up! There are numerous, painfulmoments of complete seriousness that, at least this movie tries toachieve, but completely fail because the source material is somethingentirely different from what this movie is. They shouldn't have evencalled it Speed Racer, maybe something like Overstuffed Racer orsomething. I know the Whatchamacallem Brothers love to infusespirituality in their movies(Matrix), but the seriousness in which thismovie takes the Speed Racer cartoon is absurd. And it's simply not funas result.
Now let's move on to the visuals, because lord(and Speed) knows thatthis movie is the visual equivalent of EVERYTHING AND THE KITCHEN SINK.
How many bright colors and moving objects can they place in a singleframe? Not enough apparently!
It's the visual equivalent of HR Puffinstuf throwing up and filming it.It's completely overblown and overdone, and not in a fun way but in anannoying, bizarre, drugged out LSD-on-heroin-on-mushrooms-on-pot way.It'll give you a hangover about 30 minutes in!
It's as if Tim Burton, Laz Lurhhman and Satan spawned a child that madethis movie. I kept expecting to see Barbie and Ken driving the cars.Remember that "Barbie Girl" music video from a group called Aqua? Wellthis is the epic expanded version.
But enough with the visuals(even though I'll be haunted by them foryears to come). Let's talk about the acting(OK I talk you listen). It'spretty bad because again, EVERYONE TAKES THIS **** WAY TOO SERIOUSLY.
Besides that, how many frig-gin' huge closeups can I watch of thebloated and dyed John Goodman? Not enough according to the WhateverBrothers apparently. Oh and the bloated corporate English pig? Again,not enough. We need to see these big, fat bloated faces on screen alot- because that's what Speed Racer was all about. Susan Sarandon- hadenough of her big old bot-ox face too. Besides that grotesque visualaspect- they all seem terribly bored with their roles, because you knowwhat? THEY PROBABLY WERE. This is one of those 'cash the paycheckmovies' for these guys. Just do it, get the check and shut up.
Those transitions with big actors heads got really old fast too. Beendone too many times in other movies, nothing new here except to dragthe idea and beat it with a dead horse.
Actually, everything got really old and really fast in this movie. Thatwas the only time the filmmakers were able to convey some sense ofspeed, because otherwise it was all one big unrealistic video game.
I could go on, and I dare say that film courses in colleges shoulddissect this movie for educational purposes pertaining to how NOT tomake an adaptation.
I'm sure three year-old might like the whiz-bang of it all, but anyoneover that age should avoid this- no scratch that, actually go out ofyour way to watch Speed Racer to see what utter crap Hollywood turnsout these days.
Just don't blame me if you want to commit suicide because you can't getthe time or money you spent on this movie back.
Thanks, Whatchamacallem Brothers! Now go back to flipping burgers orsomething else constructive besides polluting movie screens with thisgarbage.
June 29th, 2009
It's particularly astonishing when so many talented people can gettogether and make something that is so unexceptional, evenastonishingly despicable, as Speed Racer. Not particularly faithful tothe original animation, it nonetheless does a fantastic job in thevisual department, communicating an amazing and compelling comic-bookimpact.
Unfortunately, that is where it stops.
With the immense talent and well-known ability found in this film, onewould go into it expecting something miraculous. However, what onecomes away from it with is a miserable, dismal film wherein the CGIsequences are the only ones worth seeing. It is especiallydisappointing, given the sheer talent assembled for the film. It was afilm that appeals for the earnest performances and yet inspires deepcontempt for the lacking script and contemptuously bad writing. Everyactor, minus Matthew Fox and Emile Hirsch, make the best of theirroles. Paulie Litt and John Goodman are especially noteworthy asamusing, in an otherwise dour cast.
The film itself is depressing and downbeat, and as someone who hassuffered the loss of those dear to me more than once, I find largeparts of the script absolutely deplorable for their elements ofsadistic cruelty. Racer X is completely unsympathetic and disgusting,especially after the resolution made his masquerade irrelevant. Atvirtually every turn, the film's plot makes one imagine that the worldof racing is unhappy indeed, which is not really something that shouldbe conveyed by a film so bright and visually compelling. Sadly it seemsthat the directors wished to contrast the inspiring visual impact withscriptual depression.
The unhappiness of the entire production makes the funner sequenceswith Spritle and Chim Chim less amusing, although Spritle is the onlyone who adequately conveys the audience's emotion. Everyone else ispushed through the script's demands, and not with the energy that thevisuals would seem to require. Speed and Trixie have no chemistrywhatsoever, and nobody is actually anticipating their much-avoidedkiss. Similarly, Racer X is neither compelling nor sympathetic, and bythe end not a single viewer could possibly be moved by any revelation– which was predictable anyway — regarding his identity. Overall noemotional response makes any difference or any impact whatsoever, andthat is the greatest tragedy of all in such a film, which attempts sofervently to be emotional: it is not moving in the slightest.
What one has, without the racing sequences, is a depressing,disappointing, sickening family drama that attempts to be more of afeel-good film than it ever achieves. A film this colorful should notbe nearly as depressing or as downcast, but it is. This is onecinematic work that should be avoided at all costs, unless the viewermutes it and simply drinks in the undeniably excellent visuals. That isthe only even remotely decent part of it: the visual impact is amazing,and that cannot be denied. The rest of it may be discarded withoutworry of losing anything of value.