Speed Racer - Emile Hirsch, Susan Sarandon, John Goodman, Matthew Fox, Christina Ricci (July 12, 2008)
I went into Speed Racer not expecting very much. I ended up enjoying it. Basically, the film tells the story of a boy named Speed. His father designs and makes racing cars, his older brother raced them until his fatal crash a few years earlier, and his younger brother eats a lot of candy and plays around with a chimpanzee. His mother cooks wonderful pancakes. The Racer family is a close knit one, all the more since the oldest son Rex Racer was killed.
Half of the movie is about the Racer family, and it is that half of the movie that I enjoyed tremendously. The Racers seemed like a real family,and there are a couple of scenes where Pops has father to son talks with Speed that seem truly from the heart. This is a man who has learned from his mistakes and doesn't want to make them again.
The half of the movie that is about racing, well I wasn't too impressed. I'm not a car person anyway, and I found it really difficult to keep the different cars straight in my mind. The cars do amazing stunts and are very pretty, but they tended to blend into one another in this film. They were the least interesting part of this film for me.
This film looks beautiful. It's filmed in glowing bright colours, bringing to mind a Dick Tracy world. The situations are quite interesting, the family dynamics are good, but the racing is the big drawback. Still, I think it's worth watching if the story appeals. Just try to ignore the chimpanzee!
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