A few days ago we posted photos on the News pages at www.eurotuner.com of the Mach 5 car from the Speed Racer movie and promised a review after we watched the movie.

Yesterday we saw Speed Racer and it’s, well… ok.

The problem with Speed Racer is we’re not sure who it’s aimed at. If you’re a car guy, then forget it. All the car stuff is poorly animated and with no hold on reality, which is ok since it’s based on an anime cartoon. But we’re just letting you know so you don’t get you’re hopes up.

Probably our biggest disappointment was the actual racing scenes in Speed Racer. The special effects have made the cars look like small plastic slot racers. We’re not sure if this was intentional, because we don’t know why anybody would wish to do that. Either way, the racing scenes are pretty lame, although probably true to the original 1950s anime cartoon.

The movie is carried by a fat kid and a chimp. No, seriously, it is!
Spritle Racer is the chubby brother of the leading character Speed Racer. Played by Paulie Litt, he got all the laughs, although the chimp often overshadowed him…
We’re not making this up.
So with a child actor playing a leading role, Speed Racer is perhaps aimed at a younger audience. But we doubt whether most 12 year-olds will comfortably sit through this drawn out 129min performance.
The story line is painfully cheesy and almost always overplayed by the cast. If only the action scenes could rescue it…
With almost entirely animated backdrops, the movie is very engaging to watch, at least. The vibrant colors are truly eye-catching, especially on the 72ft high IMAX screen we experienced.
The Wachowski brothers who wrote and directed the movie described it as a live-action version of the original cartoon series for all ages, but they aimed too low to appeal to an adult audience. It’s hard to believe these are the same pair responsible for the Matrix trilogy.
With a rumored budget exceeding $100 million we like to recommend the movie to fans of the original Speed Racer series. It certainly brings anime to life. On the negative side, the acting is weak, the plot poor, the action fake, it’s too long and we can’t decide who it’s aimed at. After more than two hours we really didn’t care whether Speed Racer won or lost the race (we won’t spoil the ending…) because the characters were never engaging.
We’d love to say something more positive about this movie but are struggling. It will make an excellent demo disc for people wishing to show off their new LCD TVs, when it’s soon released on DVD, if that helps…