Review of Speed Racer (2008) by Josh T — 03 Feb 2015

Sit down, suspend your disbelief, and watch this visually insane and surprisingly affecting film. In the spirit of the classic anime, it's full of fun characters like Snake Oiler and Inspector Detector, cool cars, ridiculous racing, and a warm family core. At the very least, you have to appreciate this as an exercise in fearless film-making. The visual vocabulary of the cuts and pans and wipes, the way the characters move in and out of frame, is incredibly unique and original. And it's, shockingly, mostly successful.

This got lost among a flood of blaring technicolor green-screen films like Shark Girl and Lava Boy and the Spy-Kids films. Also there was, and still is, a social backlash against the Wachowski's because of the Matrix films. In terms of the film-making risks I mentioned above, this was unfairly dismissed. This is for fun, it's a family film, (In the best ways), and it doesn't take itself too seriously. If you're too cool for it, you're only cheating yourself. There will be more fresh, ice-cold milk at the finish line for the rest of us.