Speed Racer

Brilliant! It’s a pity that the visionary visuals and direction of the Wachowskis is ruined by excessive childishness. I would throw the characters of the little brother and the chimp out of a skyscraper window, then I would scrape them from the street, bring them back up and throw them out again. But whatever, Speed Racer is an extraordinary and unique film and I can accept a couple of defects for all that beauty. (30/06/2011)

A visual trip into the dimension of spilled colors and an absence of plot that perhaps only looks at family values and "sports" clichés. I’m not familiar with Japanese pop culture sources for manga comics, so after an hour and a half I was looking at the clock an unusual amount of times. Sure, it's new and unique and maybe someone will want to reference it now and then, but I don't think the Wachowskis are the kind of filmmakers suitable for family entertainment in which the children get lost and parents don't understand. While film theorists are feeling blissful, I find myself wondering how many balls the Wachowski brothers actually lost. The people at Warner were obviously on speed when they went into this, and they must have cried a lot over the 120 million. (12/09/2008)

Beautifully kinetic, not only via movement on the screen, but also the movement around the story. Had I seen it as a child, my brain would have blown out of my nose. Anyway, it is elegant, funny, confidently told and poetically boyish with its pastel-manga-coloring book-family-chimpy style. Even the clichés that sometimes irritate me are completely smooth and high-octane in this cheeky injection. WW may be ahead of their time, or maybe they missed it completely, but to hell with the times, I watch movies and this one works better than any 3D prefabricated product. The added dimension of Speed Racer is probably the art of listening to a complex but completely effective machine for a simple story. Family movies have always bored me. Now I know why. None of them look like Speed Racer. (21/11/2012)

The first twenty minutes I joyfully wallowed in its ingenuity, stylization and precision that the Wachowskis shower at you both horizontally and vertically. But then the same happens over and over for the rest of the movie. Here and there a wonderful moment occurs, but mostly you just get a chimp gawping out at you from the screen. And I don’t mean the excellent as always Hirsch. In my eyes it gradually devolves into the level of a far too long tripped out paint by numbers book that isn’t shaken out of its over-combined lethargy until the very end. Personally, I was expecting something different and more bizarre. This was, Speedy’s adventures make a traditional infantile family movie about the right values, with a pinch of insight into basic capitalism for the very young. So, certainly baloney, but not much fun. Still I would like to recommend this epileptic’s paradise because you really don’t get the chance to see something like this every day. And, last but not least, for that feeling of speed that the Wachowski siblings (can’t call them brothers, can I?) are so skilled at instilling. P.S.: That monkey in the pajamas has an unpleasantly penetrating gaze. I still have the feeling that somebody’s looking at me. Brr. (08/05/2008)

Races: Perfect spectacle, eyes are amazed, adrenaline rises and I grip the steering wheel subconsciously and step on the pedal. Dialogues, funny scenes, and the rest: Disappointment and often unexpected suffering. Parents try, my brother rolls his eyes, and Trixie, as a lovely sexy figure, winks her eyes and helps the main hero. And meanwhile, I pray for someone to step on that pedal again. It is truly a very uneven mixture, you climb into Speed's cockpit and you still don't get under his skin even for a bit throughout the two hours. And at that moment, any possible enthusiasm for the film as a whole ends for me. Visual orgy on a zero background. This is supposedly how films should look in the future. I think (and I strongly hope) not. P.S.: Big plus for the mysterious Matthew Fox, who can create a deep character out of anything. (31/05/2008)

So colorful... Oh yeah, this movie just blew me away. It raised the bar. I just loved it ;-) I waited, I went through it, and it paid off. I put it on at the exact moment I needed it the most. At the moment when it could consume me. Maybe if I'd let it in just a moment later or earlier, it wouldn't have gotten full marks. Clever as can be. :-D It's got juice. (18/10/2008)

The audiovisual side of the movie is simply unbelievable. Painstaking racing scenes interspersed with a conflict between a family firm and a megalomaniac corporation represented by the slippery Roger Allam. Emile Hirsch gave a great performance in the role of Speed and I was equally surprised by Matthew Fox as the mysterious Racer X. Playful, sweet and funny (unfortunately sometimes too much so). Great for kids, remarkably digestible for adults. (23/05/2008)

The Wachowskis show once again their technical skills and impress with an incredible range of perfectly tuned colors, visuals, a captivating concept of car races, and typical camera positions and shooting systems of some scenes. On the other hand, they have quite traditionally forgotten about the script, which oscillates between a “sketch” from a silly sitcom and entertainment for the whole family, especially for the younger ones. The plot is very dysfunctional, but technically breathtaking. The classic that we are used to, but this time we won't forgive it. (02/01/2009)

Despite my aversion to Japanese animated series, despite the silly humor that abounds, despite the heaps of clichés and despite the silly characters of the little brother and his tame chimpanzee... I actually had fun with this. Not groundbreaking or memorable, but thanks to the stunning visuals, imaginative racing scenes and Giacchino's music, it's pretty much sound from start to finish. Three and a bit. (31/12/2012)

I hereby accuse the Wachowskis of illicit visual exhibitionism and wasting their enormous storytelling talents on a subject so predictable and bound by the conventions of the cheapest family pathos. On the other hand, it is very rare (if not impossible) to see a film that captivates and engrosses the viewer with its original visuals and absolutely ingenious spatio-temporal construction, so much that you want to remain a part of the "cheap and stupid" and, above all, incredibly rich fictional world that is presented at a tremendous pace and on a voluminous plot. The first 15 minutes represent one of the most beautiful narrative stretches in the history of cinema, while the rest of the film never ceases to surprise with an avalanche of revolutionary filmmaking ideas and bold decisions that, as we can see, have no chance of bridging the model habits of a significant part of the viewing public. But that's okay, great films have always stirred controversy and greatness is relative, and Speed Racer – a bold experiment with its own stylistic elements, an infinitely energetic tide with fade in effects at the level of shots, genres, narrative approaches and the cinematic underworld of the Wachowskis as such – is undoubtedly a tremendous film, deserving of detailed analysis to defend its rejected systemic modes and rules. Maybe some day, further screenings are unavoidable. (01/11/2016)

I really enjoy this kind of gamer and I don't mind Crank at all, but here I started getting a headache after ten minutes. I thanked God that the screen on which I was projecting the film only handles about 16 million colors and therefore about half of what the film imho is trying to offer. Anyway, it's an intention that doesn't sit well with me personally and there's no need to bury the film because of it. The races are fine, often too much so, and the vehement attempt to make it as uncluttered as possible at least gave a sense of elitism when I knew what was actually going on. BUT the film relies on it terribly. In fact, the races themselves are pretty much all the same except for a few minute details (weapons, hooking business in front of the cameras), and they mask it with changes of scenery, which is disappointing as hell. Otherwise, everything about the racing is absolutely AWFUL. Or I don't know, but you gotta figure that little shit with the monkey... it was completely unwatchable and I squirmed with embarrassment whenever they were in the frame. Unfortunately, someone got the bright idea to make them almost the main characters, and as a result, the dramatic scenes are interspersed with ho-hum scenes of the two misfits going to steal candy or riding a cart around the central oppressive evil capitalist. I'm not saying the Wachowskis haven't transcended the era, but if this is what the future of film is supposed to look like, then kiss my ass. (29/08/2011)

This movie is simply amazing. The storyline is good, but if you have a bit of a connection to Japanese manga and anime, then it will be great for you. It's a visual extravaganza that is incredibly action-packed, yet still suitable for the whole family. The excellent characters are to blame for this, as they are clearly serial-based, but also work well in a standalone film. The Wachowski siblings gave themselves plenty of space and used it to the fullest. (08/04/2015)