From the warped minds of the Wachowski Brothers comes Speed Racer a dizzy mind bending experience based on the popular cartoon series. Hollywood’s “It Boy” of the moment Emile Hirsch is the title character Speed, while Christina Ricci plays his girlfriend Trixie. Matthew Fox, John Goodman, and Susan Sarandon round out the rest of the cast.
Sadly this movie was just not made for me. In fact I don’t think it really was for anyone above the age of 8 years old. Maybe fans of the cartoon series will like it, I really don’t know cause I’ve never seen an episode myself. For the Wachowski Brothers this was a weak attempt at an adaptation of a cartoon series. With all their success in the whole Matrix trilogy you think they would have decided on a much better movie. To be honest I didn’t even care for the last two Matrix movies, the original is the best of the three. But again this movie is clearly for kids and nobody else. It’s flashy and colorful with a simple but not that great storyline, which is all the makings of a kids movie.
If there is one thing that is positive about the movie it would have to be the visual effects. It seriously is like one big giant acid trip. Ok, so maybe only young kids and those who like to drop acid will be the ones to really enjoy this movie. But the effects were something to look at and I’m sure it probably would have been an interesting time in the theater for some who saw it in IMAX. It could be just me but it was a bit overloaded with visual effects. I understand all the crazy car racing sequences, but do you really have to have every scene seem like it’s shot in front of a green screen?
Again the movie really isn’t my cup of tea but I’m sure that my 9 year old cousin would just love it. Your probably wondering, well if it wasn’t that great why give it a 2 1/2 out of 5 rating? Cause kids will like it and it clearly was made for them. And for a kids movie it’s not horrible and will keep there attention from start to finish with all the flashy visuals. And its probably a better experience to watch it on the big screen, then wait till you have to watch it on dvd on a regular tv screen. The movie was clearly over hyped and not what everyone was hoping it would be, unless your young at heart or like to drop acid.

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