Rama’s SCREEN

I have never seen a movie with so much colors. The whole imagery is just begging to say, Taste The Rainbow! You may have to get some special shrooms to enjoy movies like Across the Universe, but you can definitely enjoy SPEED RACER without them. This is… an excellent family movie, I kid you not, it’s clean and if there’s a children’s level of violence, this would be under that category. This is not the 1960s SPEED RACER, clearly The Wachowski have made it their own and the world can rest assured knowing that they’ve done a very fine job.

As a kid, Speed looked up to his brother, he idolized who he thought was the greatest race car driver that ever lived. His family is all about automobile racing but when his brother died in a freak accident, their world was shattered. Years later, Speed is one of the most respected contenders in the competition. He’s approached by a rich evil man who’s determined to sign Speed in to his team and will show the family what would happen if he chose not to. In order to get back at the man who’s bent on hurting his family, Speed will work with his rival, Racer X to go through one hellish race where cheating is an option and the  most coveted Grand Prix.

The racing scenes are spectacular. They may seem overblown and ridiculous at times and it’s inevitable because it’s meant to be that way, seeing cars racing against other cars on roads and courses that are loops going up and down and swindling around like in a cartoon.
When the first trailer hit the web months ago, the first thing that came to people’s minds was that it looked a lot like a video game, well, the assumption is not far from the truth. But in the end, the video-game-like visual effects will leave you saying, Cool Beans!

The whole cast are perfect in their roles. When I was a kid I always thought that even though SPEED RACER was a Japanese creation, you could totally tell that the drawing made the character appear Caucasian instead. So Emile Hirsch, John Goodman, Susan Sarandon, Christina Ricci, and Matthew Fox seem like they just jumpt right out of the 60s cartoon series and right onto the big screen. Perfect casting, that’s all I can say.
For some reason… the bad guy, played by British actor Roger Allen, reminds me of Tim Curry (The Three Musketeers)

Storyline, I think it’s pretty decent. About conglomerate corporation versus independent racing team, cheaters versus honest racers, luxury versus family. The Wachowskis manage to put in some moral values and emotional dilemmas which complicate the characters but make them interesting as well. Some of the twists are a little bit predictable but not after a few surprises here and there.

A while ago, The Wachowski Brothers mentioned that we’re going to be treated with some Car-Fu, meaning cars fighting against each other. They might carry secret weapons that would either slash the opponents’ tires, spill oil all over the road, ya know… the usual silly stuff cheaters would do.
It’s funny how every car that crashes seems to explode in an instant and by that I mean the kind that you won’t survive from it at all.

They pay tribute to Japanese anime and that part of the world’s pop culture.
But some of the costumes like the ones the gangster wear seem like they stole those from the guys in the movie Dick Tracy.
The only objection I have would be the comic relief duo, Spritel and Chim Chim, and I’m probably the only one that has this opinion,.. but.. they are NOT funny. In fact, I think their characters are annoying.
Other than that SPEED RACER is one awesome ride.

* Place the cursor on the image below to check my grade for this film