Anyone here actually like the movie Speed Racer?

[MIB41]

I just finished watching it tonight and I've got to say I thought the movie was really good. I grew up with the show and perhaps that gave me a perspective that younger audiences wouldn't have, but I entirely "got" the treatment and thought it worked very well. Speed Racer as a grounded concept is so ridiculous I couldn't imagine the idea plastered in reality without coming off as straight camp. This treatment gave you a surreal quality completely fitting for the concept and certainly the Mach 5 was every bit as versatile as the cartoon version. It would have been insane to imagine the Mach 5 as a REAL car performing those stunts. But then again television audiences didn't seem to have any problem believing the General Lee could survive all of those jumps, even though you could see the front end collapsing just before they would edit to a new scene with the General driving off unscathed, so who knows?
Anyway, I thought the characters were cast very well, especially Speed and Racer X. I loved John Goodman as "Pops" although I did keep waiting for him to turn to Speed and say "Shut the (bleep) up..." (as he did in the Big Lebowski). Spridle and the monkey were hilarious and I thought the story made complete sense and was told very well throughout. I guess there's a certain degree of disbelief you have to suspend when you sit down to a film like this. But I was very surprised at how well I liked it after hearing all of the bad press on the film. I don't think it deserved it in the slightest.

[spiderrogue]

hated the show..loved the movie..surprisingly...

[toys2cool]

Naw I stopped watching after only a few minutes

[ZICA]

I was a big fan of the cartoon as a kid myself but have to say I was pretty disappointed with the movie. What killed it for me was the futuristic "Hot Wheel" type tracks. The race that they had on land was great and much more faithful to the cartoon. Also, I wasn't too crazy about the Mach 6. Speed should have been in the Mach 5 each time he raced.

[BlackKnight]

I Watched the Show with my Son,.. a few weeks back . Yeah I dunno.

A Couple of Points of view,...
I felt that whenever the cars were not racing,.. I didn't like nore care about the movie. The Movie had some serious A lister's in it,.. but was just written to the point that I couldn't get into it, unless they were actually racing. I really did enjoy the race scenes.

They tried to hard to make the Movie " Kid Friendly" imo. ... However they constantly contridicted that Idea of Environment,.. with everyone in the Movie almost swearing,.. & then at the end,.. Speed yell's the S word around the final lap of the track.

& Kristina Richi was actually pretty hot in the movie.
I did notice that they wouldn't show any clips of her Boobies in the Film. They always cut her off at the neck, or had her arms over them,.. or showed her in positions in where you couldn't see what she had going on... Me thinks with all the low cut tops the character wears,.. Kristina had some issue keep those bad boys in place.

All in All,.. the movie itself left me not even caring.... not liking the film.

[vulcan2074]

I Loved it. I thought the TV show was cool but the Movie was Just Fantastic. I was so Surprised at how good it was
Sammy

[ctc]

Hmmmm....

It was okay. I thought they did an incredible job of keeping the look of the cartoon, but they spent WAY too much time beating us over the head with the effects. "LOOKIT THIS!!! 'Aint it KEWELLL!!!!!" Yes, everything moves very fast.... there are many lights... howzabout getting to the point?

A lot of movies have this problem for me though. There's no composition. We see all sorts of interesting images, clips and shots but they don't go together to build any sort of emotional effect. Or to establish any real visual coherence.

Transformers was bad for that too: it was tough to tell where everything was during the city fight and the size of the bad guy in the parking garage seemed to fluctuate. (The robot looked about 20 feet high and yet didn't bump it's head on the cieling....) THis seems to happen 'cos the CGI is pretty cut and paste: the programmer has to be pretty sharp to keep ratios and all that in play.

Don C.

[jds1911a1]

i'll put this speed racer along with sky captain I wasted a buck to rent it and 2 hours of my life would have been better spent re-wathcing race against the mamouth car

[MIB41]

I think the reason why I liked the movie so well is because it captured the overall feeling of the cartoon which is really what made Speed Racer fun to watch as a kid. It was just the rush of watching these over the top races where the Mach 5 faced insurmountable odds to win the day. That was essentially your film here. Most episodes didn't apply much thought to a story so much as an excuse to get the Mach 5 on the track. The only ongoing story I could remember from the cartoon was, of course, Racer X and I thought they pegged that very well. I do agree that they should have left the Mach 5 in it's original design for the Grand Prix race. But ultimately I accepted the film on it's own terms since they gave me the iconic Mach 5 using most of it's devices in that extensive race leading up to the finale'. If anything stands out as a glowing mistake for myself, it would be the marketing of this film. The trailers didn't scratch the surface of the film I saw and mostly advertised the Mach 6 which, while prevalent, didn't overshadow the Mach 5 in the overall story.

[JDeRouen]

I actually enjoyed the movie. It wasn't high art, but it was fun, and my seven-year-old son loved it.

[thunderbolt]

Loved the original toon, have yet to rent the movie. Guess I'll add it to my Netflix list.

[fallensaviour]

Naw I stopped watching after only a few minutes

LOL...Same here...LOL.
It was the kids ( aged 7 and 12) that were the ones that said they didn't want to watch it anymore after a few minutes.

[johnmiic]

I liked the film. I took my nephew and he liked it too. Some elements were a bot too fantasy-like but I guess their goal was to make a live action-cartoon. Not a realistic race car movie as some people would've liked. This kind of adaptaion belongs in the same catagory as the live-action Dick Tracy or Popeye.

[Riffster]

I loved , i thought it stayed as close to the actualy cartoon as any movie could, great cast, only thing I'd change is a bit less car flipping, and maybe more of the Mach 5
but a solid B+

[Tyme2tyme]

I went to see it with friends and both our kids. The kids mostly liked it. My best friend loved it. If I had not been there with a lot of other people... I would have walked out half way through. JOHN