Speed Racer, Don’t be an Automatic Jack
Well it’s finally here. Quickly press the ‘A’ Button and jump over the theater that is playing this P.O.S. movie. While the cast was interesting and good, and good CG work, it just blew. The story goes like this, I took my young son to a showing at the IMax at Universal City Walk. It should have rocked with a 12,000 watt sound system and a screen bigger then a football field, but read on…
The special showing was a charity event for children and it was shown a day before the official opening, so I figured it was for a worthy cause and at the IMax and special showing, I was actually making the ‘Automatic Jack’ sound in my head for hours before. As I’m a huge ‘Vintage’ Speed Racer and Racer-X fan. Speed, Racer-X and Burt Reynolds (As the Bandit) are the folks (some cartoon character mixed in) that got me hooked on cars.
Well the event was nice, kids and daddy got a bag of Speed Racer goodies, cars, T-Shirt, etc. Looking good, got my son a 12 Dollar popcorn and soda, and daddy got an ICEE. What could be better, Cars, crappy movie food, son excited about toys and the movie. All going good until the movie starts…
Let’s get this out of the way early, the movie pretty sucked on most all levels (read disappointment into this) except for that casting and CG work. It was way too long, pretty inappropriate for kids with Spritle flipping off the villain (the target audience kids and older folks like me), and if I wanted to watch some bad chaotic Wachowski flick I’ll revisit the Matrix Revolution (you know that Neo dude and Mr. Smith). Ultra-violent car scenes, odd band of character, magical carbon fiber, and where the heck was the Car Acrobatic Team?
As a car person it was annoying on many levels but mostly things moved way to fast and were just too chaotic to really enjoy the fine CG work which was good but wasted. My son lost interest after about 30 minutes.
Nice job Wachowski Bros for F’n up a classic Icon with a worthless movie, I would say you owe me the entrance fee but it was luckily for charity so it we are square (Oliver Stone Still owes me some bucks for Natural Born Killers…) If your a fan of the original and these Icons mean something to you, quickly hit the ‘A’ Button it will be quick to video.
Sandy on 17 May 2008 at 5:37 am #
After poking around on the web for some good Speed Racer stuff, came across the official Speed Racer Site. Guess you might have been able to figure out the address of it -
www.speedracer.com
Go Figure, good stuff, you can play the theme song, learn about the characters, and cars. Has some episode information as well. A nice site. One other note is that they do have a Speed Racer Store. Some cool stuff if you must have some memorabilia.
Last note about the movie review, and seems Warner Brothers knows they have a stink bomb, likely knew it before the release too.
And I of course quote
Directed by the Wachowski brothers, best known for the Matrix franchise, Speed Racer was panned by many film critics. Dan Fellman, president of Warner Bros theatrical distribution of market surveys, added the movie would have difficulty recouping its $120 million budget.
End Quote.
What that reads to me is that you will have the DVD really soon…
Sandy on 17 May 2008 at 5:47 am #
OK, I’ll post them, The buttons on the steering wheel (horn) do this (They are described all over the web lazy bones)
Button A - The Automatic Jacks.
Button B - Belted Tires
Button C - Front Mounted Circular Saws
Button D - Cockpit Cover, Bullet Proof and Water Tight of course
Button E - Seems could be Special Lighting System or in the western version Wings (Don’t remember this one too often, will have to re-watch the collection)Button F - Underwater Mode, Cockpit cover and oxygen tank activated
Button G - Homing Bird
Button H - Sends Homing Bird back to Mom and Pops Racers pad
hadley on 03 Jun 2008 at 1:03 am #
The studio is still reeling from the effects of this PR disaster. they are now trying to figure out how to ‘make good’ on all promotional promises for co-branded efforts (where McD’s and other gave lots of push, and aren’t seeing any rewards).
poor emile hirsch. love that kid, and he’s a strong actor. guess he was hoping the movie would be fun AND edgy, and instead it was just a total miss.
i think i’ll just go watch “cars” again. at least it makes me laugh and not cringe.
Sandy on 04 Jun 2008 at 3:37 pm #
Yes, a fiasco for the studios from what it sounds like. Actors were good, just the movie was a wash. Cars or Talladega nights for me, and thanks for the comments.