Speed Racer

Had to rent SPEED RACER for the kids and ended up watching it myself. That's my excuse.

Actually, it wasn't that bad. Real colorful and futuristic looking. Looked like a colorblind Filipino painter dropped all his bright colors on screen. It looked pretty cool to me, although I am handicapped in that area.

SPEED RACER is the Americanized version of the popular Japanese cartoon series. I remember hating when that show came on, but I guess it was pretty popular back in the day.

Basically, this kid prodigy racer races to fight against the evil, corrupt corporate giants. How and why, you may ask? Go watch the movie. He comes from an average Leave-it-to-Beaver family that came from nothing and races independent of the major corporations. He has skills, however, so like real-life athletes, he is sought out by everyone looking to make a quick buck off of him. Think Jeff Gordon before he became famous.

Anyway, that's the boring stuff. The exciting stuff is the visual effects created by the MATRIX guys. Don't expect that awesome, crazy fighting stuff. It is a cartoon, after all. Well, a mixed cartoon. To me, it looked like 300 or SIN CITY, but in HD super-color. Like a Skittles commercial on steroids.

The racing scenes were cool. A little fake (it's a cartoon, after all), but thrilling nonetheless. The race tracks looked like the tracks from Playstation's Crash Team Racing. I felt like I was watching the animated fantasy version of FAST AND THE FURIOUS. I don't think the movie caught on at the theaters. I can see why. Sensory overload.

Your kids might like the movie. Adults will think that it's Disneyish. I personally thought that it was okay. Susan Sarandon was in it. John Goodman, Matthew Fox (Jack from LOST), and Christina Ricci were in it, too. She's come a long way since her days on the ADDAMS FAMILY. Need even more evidence? Watch BLACK SNAKE MOAN.

"You don't climb into a T-180 to be a driver. You do it because you're driven." Yeah, that was the cheesy quote of the movie. I give this movie two Kikaidas and a Kamen Rider V3...