Review of Speed Racer (2008) by Jonathan D — 16 Jan 2017

For such an silly, fluffy movie, Speed Racer needed more self-aware campy humor to be enjoyable. As it is, it bores in stretches and can't decide whether to take itself too seriously or not seriously at all.

Had it fully embraced the latter, it could have been a lot of fun. As it is, the visuals are inventive and impressive, Lost's Matthew Fox is awesome (he alone, as the deep-voiced and impossibly macho "Racer X", seems to understand the type of cheesy fun this movie should be), and Christina Ricci is lovely, so it's not a total loss.

It's just not a movie that I'd watch again. **1/2 (out of five).