Review of Speed Racer (2008) by Rachel H — 20 Jan 2011

I absolutely loathed this movie when I first saw it. In fact, I fell asleep at the end of it (although that's probably not because the movie was boring as much as it was the fact that it was midnight and I was dead tired). However, looking back on it it has kind of grown on me. Don't get me wrong, it's still a horrible movie, but there are many that are much worse. Like the critics consensus says, the Wachowski brothers have packed the movie with headache-inducing special effects and failed to develop a coherent script. The special effects are not that bad, although I did get a major headache after watching it.

The acting was not very memorable, but it really wasn't supposed to be. It's not horrible but its not very good either. I like Emile Hirsch and I think he was okay in the lead role, but everyone else wasn't that great. That sadly includes Christina Ricci, and its a shame because she is a really good actress, even if her work as a child star is better than most of her adult work. There is also John Goodman and Susan Sarandon as Hirsch's parents and they were just mediocre also. I think there may have been a few more actor in there but again, not very memorable.

The only good thing about the movie and the only thing that was even remotely memorable were the special effects. People who read this review, heed this warning: if you are prone to headaches than you shouldn't watch this movie and you should stop watching it if you already have a headache and it gets more severe. My memories of this film are kind of fuzzy, so I'm doing this review from an incredibly vague memory, so forgive me if I get some facts wrong. I suppose the special effects could be admired for their style even if they are somewhat headache inducing. They are incredibly colourful and the movie definitely looks good, but the style can't make up for the lack of substance.

That brings me to our lack of substance. The script is beyond bad and the dialogue is laughable. I am completely unfamiliar with the Speed Racer cartoon, but when I found out that this was being made, I thought there was no need to remake a cartoon with pretty much just a cult following. I'm not exactly sure what the story was about. I think there was something having to do with Speed and his presumed-dead older brother and Speed being told that racing is fixed, I don't know. As you can see, its quite the jumbled mess and the plot was very hard to follow along. Nothing much else to say but that it was aggressively mediocre.

Speed Racer isn't that bad. Don't get me wrong, it's still bad, but its not godawful. The acting, the visuals, the story are nothing special, just average and on the unmemorable side. The whole movie in itself is just generally unmemorable. So I would not recommend Speed Racer to anyone really unless you are looking for a stupid romp. Again, it's not the best movie I have ever seen, far from it in fact, but not the worst. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised it Speed Racer fell completely under the radar by the end of the year. Nothing more than a crappy movie.