by Everett Jensen

Created on: June 13, 2008

Speed Racer
written and directed by Andy and Larry Wachowski
based on the animated series created by Tatsuo Yashida
starring Emile Hirsch, Christina Ricci, Susan Sarandon, John Goodman, Matthew Fox, Benno Frmann, Roger Allam

It's bright, I'll give it that. The color scheme certainly draws one's attention and it practically hurts to look at this thing. This is the kind of movie that could cause seizures in the right patrons. Still, it's not difficult to overlook the story, which leads Speed (Hirsch) to the race of his life (yawn). There is some wonky mystery involving the identity of Racer X (Fox) , some gobbledygook, sexy motorway startup girls, and far too much going round and round the track. It's not like auto racing isn't already the most boring sport imaginablethey've got to devote half their screen time to showing it because apparently that's just what those sugar-saturated kids want to see. Their easily moldable that way and can get hypnotized a lot easier than adults. It's easier to sell them whatever products are being subliminally injected into their subconscious which defeats the whole message of the film.

There is also the issue with the length of this film. Granted, it flies by, 2:15 is not easy for most kids to handle in one setting. They get fidgety and weird and then they lose the whole point of the movie which has something to do with being a really good racer and screwing Christina Ricci or something. Actually the message of this film is the same message as everyone of these little guy versus evil corporation movies of which there seems to be a hundred million. You the lowly peon have the power to fight the fascist evil corporate mongers and bring them to justice if only you were the best in the world at something millions of people are actually going to see.

The actual story here is hackneyed and not of particular interest. The story kicks in with Speed challenging the ghost of his brother Rex (Scott Porter), a champion race car driver, on the track. We meet young Speed (Nicholas Elia) as he ignores school in order to fantasize about being the champ. There is a horrible crash at the track and Rex is presumed dead. The film goes back to Speed as an adult and focuses on various races. There's also a bit about E. P. Arnold Royalton (Allam), the evil corporate schmuck who wants Speed to race for him so he can subsume Pop Racer's (Goodman) company. Speed declines and this starts up a massive grudge match between Royalton and the Racer family. Naturally,

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