Written by El Puerquito Magnifico
With the live-action adaptation of the classic anime Speed Racer, the Wachowskis hoped to reach a larger audience by presenting a family-friendly film. When the film was released this summer, it didn’t exactly have the box-office impact that the studios were hoping for and didn’t set the critical world on fire either. The Matrix it wasn’t. Despite the poor performance and generally negative reviews, I still wanted to see the film. It just looked really cool. Thanks to the magic of DVD, I was able to watch it earlier today, and yes, it does look really cool.
Unfortunately, Speed Racer is a movie that doesn’t seem to know who it’s appealing to, and clocking in at two hours and 15 minutes, it misses the mark for both of its major demographics. One cannot expect a young child to sit still for that long, nor can one expect any reasonably affordable strain of marijuana to produce a high that will last throughout the duration of the movie. The plot is just a bit too complicated for a kid to really get into, but the characters are a bit too simple to really appeal to anyone looking for a compelling film. It’s not that Speed Racer is a bad movie; it’s just not that good.
The story centers around the improbably named Speed Racer and his family of racing addicts. Speed is renowned for his artistic ability on the track and is wooed by an evil corporation. Deciding his integrity and love for the sport is more important than a big paycheck, Speed ends up finding out that all is not as it seems in the world of racing. A lot of the major races are fixed in order to manipulate the stock market and further the success of corporate fat cats. Working together with the mysterious Racer X, Speed enters the Casa Cristo, a race known for foul play and danger. There’s a lot more to the story, including a love interest and a little kid and a chimp who stow away in the back of the car, but I won’t bother getting into all that right now.
For a film with the word “speed” in the title, it moves at an alarmingly slow pace. Just when it seems that the plot is really about to get rolling, it slows back down as new characters and new elements are added. It seems very disjointed at times, almost as though the chimp that was hiding in the trunk of the car was also in the editing room. As I said before, it’s also just too long. I’m not a filmmaker and I shouldn’t be telling anyone how to make a movie, but my god: it’s nearly two and a half hours long! This movie should’ve been an hour and a half tops. The frustrating thing is that it’s not hard to see where it could be improved. Take out a few minutes here, a few minutes there and the whole thing would flow a lot better. It’s almost a good movie, but not quite.
Article comments
1 - Derek Fleek
I see where you're coming from. It is too long. But I happen to own a gravity bong, so it worked out pretty well for me. ;)
2 - Brad Laidman
A fair review. The movie doesn't run as smoothly as it should, but there is a lot of great stuff and style in there as well as a lot of love for the original.
The movie deserved better than the trashings that it got. Better an ambitious falure than a cynical success is how I feel.