Stop, Speed Racer!
I’ve got a review of Speed Racer up at NRO this weekend. I remain, in theory, a great defender of the Wachowskis — they earned an awful lot of goodwill from me for the first two Matrix films. But after the progressively worse triplex of Revolutions, V for Vendetta, and now Speed Racer, well, I’m going to have a hard time pulling for them much longer.
And since I’m already taking up blog space with shameless self promotion, I should also mention that I’m on today’s episode of Inside Washington Weekly with Megan McArdle and Michael Brendan Dougherty, talking about Clinton, Obama, Clinton, Obama, and… you get the idea.
I seem to recall you really liked the trailer. True?
— Noah Millman · May 9, 05:36 PM · #
I live in Chicago and I’m looking forward to stopping by their new dungeo…I mean studio to watch the masters at work (see this article: http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/893197,CST-NWS-studio14.article). Larry is looking really scary. I just wanted to make the case you forget about their masterpiece “Bound”, which is just perfect from beginning to end and has one of Joey “Pants” best performances on film.
Now I have to get back to the close…I mean Court House to watch the R. Kelly trial. I love Chicago!
— Jeff Singer · May 9, 05:48 PM · #
Noah. I did! The trailer seemed to indicate that the Wachowskis were going to make The Matrix: With Cars. I would’ve loved to see that. Instead, they gave us a spastic, b-rate Willy Wonka meets Hot Wheels knock off. It’s really sad; the W’s can direct an action sequence like nobody’s business — I’m totally convinced that the stair-fight/freeway chase combo in Reloaded is the best 20 minutes of action ever. And although there were a couple of nifty ideas here and there in SR, they were so mangled by shoddy, erratic editing that it just didn’t matter. What a waste.
— Peter Suderman · May 9, 08:09 PM · #
despite the awful reviews of the movie, you can’t deny the classic love for the cartoon! check it out online for free at hulu:
http://www.hulu.com/speed-racer?cmpid=emc&trackid=9
— erica · May 9, 10:16 PM · #
I saw the first seven minutes of the film on yahoo. What most disappointed me was that the lip sync was accurate.
That’s not the Speed Racer I grew up with.
— Keljeck · May 9, 11:06 PM · #
From the review by Christopher Orr at TNR.
“The film’s aesthetic might be described indelicately, though not inaccurately, as resembling the upchuck of a child who has just eaten a boxful of crayons.”
You should check out the review. I enjoyed it more than any of the movies I’ve seen lately
— David T · May 10, 10:25 PM · #