He’s a Demon on Wheels! Reviewed: Speed Racer (2008)

Forget what you’ve heard. Speed Racer is probably the most satisfying movie-going experience I’ll get to savor this year [last year: Grindhouse ]. The Watchowski brothers have tapped into everything that was great about the late-60s Japanese-made, American-dubbed series. I’ve not seen a comic book/cartoon-inspired movie that understood its source material this well since Robert Altman’s (almost universally and unfairly hated) Popeye. What’s more: i’ve never seen CG-effects employed to such fulfilling ends. (George Lucas? — I’m looking at YOU!) Live action and computer animation blend seamlessly, making action sequences exciting and intense — even while submerging us in a world that doesn’t even remotely resemble real life. Laws of gravity and the rules of racing don’t apply in this world. Speed Racer is hypnotic in its visuals — it abandons the idea of a color scheme by throwing every color in a Crayola 64-box at the screen. The art direction and general style of Speed Racer is nearly 50% of the punch. The other half is made up of low-key, but respectful, performances by an able cast and dizzying car-fu race sequences that are about way more than making it to the finish line. Emil Hersch is an ideal Speed. He’s got all the gee-whiz charm and steel-jawed competitive edge needed to sell the character. Susan Sarandon, as Mom Racer, offers supportive maternal wisdom (and pancakes), and achieves sincerity despite some very cartoony dialogue. Ditto that John Goodman, who fares far better as Pops than he did as Fred Flinstone in THAT abomination of a live-action cartoon. But it’s Matthew Fox and Christina Ricci that stand out most. Fox not only looks like Racer X — he SOUNDS like him and brings gravity to a role that might have been a parody in less capable hands. And when Ricci arches her eyebrow and says things like “Hubba-hubba” or “Cool beans!” — you just want to wrap her up and take her home(…and confess your undying love…maybe take up stalking…ask her to bear your firstborn… Or is that just me?). It’s a credit to the once-Wednesday Adams’ versatility that this is the same Ricci who played a white-trash harlot in last year’s Black Snake Moan. Even little bro, Spridle and pet chimp, Chim Chim, aren’t nearly as annoying as you’d expect. With a running time of two hours and some change, it could test the bladders, if not attention span, of some young’uns but I’d guess most kids would be legitimately transfixed — if they don’t suffer seizures first. Fans like me will bounce and squeal over the inclusion of villains like Crusher Block and Snake Oiler, not to mention a cameo by the Mammoth Car(!). You get about five solid races during the film, including a stellar cross-country rally like the ones common to the cartoon — AND one of the best comic fight scenes to ever feature ninjas, John Goodman and a chimp. The story is simple and the ending predictable but no less satisfying than you’d want from a Speed Racer movie. I think history will judge Speed Racer more kindly than it’s opening-week critics and I’ll go on record as having called it “revolutionary” — that rare live-action cartoon adaption that gets EVERYthing right. Can we put the Wachowski’s on Jonny Quest next?
***1/2

~ by GillMan on May 13, 2008.