speed racer was a pretty awesome movie

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i saw this in IMAX when it came out and pretty much loved it. i was really hesitant at first to watch it with rottentomaotes giving it a 35% or something, but man was i glad i saw it on that gigantic screen. i sat lower right and it was an amazing experience.

then i came to gaf and saw all the hate. *sad face*
 
crustikid said:
i saw this in IMAX when it came out and pretty much loved it. i was really hesitant at first to watch it with rottentomaotes giving it a 35% or something, but man was i glad i saw it on that gigantic screen. i sat lower right and it was an amazing experience.

then i came to gaf and saw all the hate. *sad face*
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i am incredibly jealous. this is pretty much my most regretted movie for missing in theaters. was it 3D as well? i cant remember. 3D IMAX of this could be amazing if done right
 
Just saw the movie not too long ago. It was a great movie. The ONLY thing I didn't really like about it was the fact that the racing wasn't really racing and more like drifting :|
 
I love when a Speed Racer thread is bumped by someone saying how much they enjoyed it.

I still love this movie and watch it every so often. <3
 
Ashhong said:
i am incredibly jealous. this is pretty much my most regretted movie for missing in theaters. was it 3D as well? i cant remember. 3D IMAX of this could be amazing if done right
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Nope, no 3D. $18 imax and maybe 10% of the seats actually being watchable w/o neck-strain or shittastic views have turned me off of imax experiences. i always wish they had built the seats like maybe 10 feet further away from the screen.
 
Unfortunately this didn't make IMAX in Australia, so I had to settle for watching it three times in regular cinemas.

A lot of the scenes with the kid are bad, but other than those, it's just about perfect.
It's also not a shallow film at all. It expresses a lot of ideas through visual means rather than dialogue though, and a lot of people don't like this approach or can't read something so cinematic.
 
Just saw it tonight on BRD. GORGEOUS! Really, I don't understand why the reviews were so poor -- I thought it was great. The acting was surprisingly good given the sometimes camp factor and the visuals are just mindblowing. Really, anyone on the fence who can watch this on Blu Ray owes it to themselves to watch it.
 
i have tried to watch this movie more than once but did not get further than the family meeting at that place.

it put me into hardcore sleep every time, wtf is it the graphics???
 
wooo.gif
 
SR is a..odd movie to me. It's like everyone involved purposedly ignored anything about story, acting, plot, and teamed up just to deliver a big shiny new toy. I couldn't relate to any of the characters, to the story, to the tension, because there isn't any. As a videogame it's got nice graphics, as a movie sucks horribly
 
It was kids movie. It had simple story and was amazing to look at. I loved it. If anyone wants to taste their HD tv and blueray player should use this movie.
 
Anasui Kishibe said:
SR is a..odd movie to me. It's like everyone involved purposedly ignored anything about story, acting, plot, and teamed up just to deliver a big shiny new toy. I couldn't relate to any of the characters, to the story, to the tension, because there isn't any. As a videogame it's got nice graphics, as a movie sucks horribly
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I could see not liking the plot and story, but I can't see a single thing wrong about any of the acting in this movie. All of the actors gave really good performances and had great chemistry with one another.
 
crazy monkey said:
It was kids movie. It had simple story and was amazing to look at. I loved it. If anyone wants to taste their HD tv and blueray player should use this movie.
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it did not have a simple story.
 
Anasui Kishibe said:
SR is a..odd movie to me. It's like everyone involved purposedly ignored anything about story, acting, plot, and teamed up just to deliver a big shiny new toy. I couldn't relate to any of the characters, to the story, to the tension, because there isn't any. As a videogame it's got nice graphics, as a movie sucks horribly
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It's about the struggle of artists, and I related to it a huge deal. Yes, on the surface it's pretty shallow, but I felt that what the film accomplished through its visuals and anime inspired editing techniques captured better than nearly anything else the feeling I get when I have a burst of creative inspiration, and how I feel as an artist trying to relate to the world. I find this film really beautiful and inspiring and personally meaningful.

I also think that the whole thing is a hell of a lot of fun. As a popcorn film I think it's by far the best work of the decade. Never fails to leave a grin on my face. It achieves what it sets out to do perfectly.

Speed Racer is too unconventional for a lot of people with limited conceptions of what cinema can be. So the storyline isn't as fleshed out as in some films. So? Were they visually as uniquely beautiful as this?
 
Took me a second to get adjusted to the "world" and I missed the voice over about Racer X serectly being Speed's brother EVERYTIME they showed him in the cartoon.. But I really enjoyed too
 
Best part of the movie was the ending where Speed crosses the finish line it explodes into a swirl of checkers. I would love to see the storyboard for that (or any part of the movie). A lot of people I know hated it because it was way too stylized and render induced. I don't really know what they expected, maybe something like Redline, Thunderbolt, or Days of Thunder (old racing films> new ones)
 
Ashhong said:
it did not have a simple story.
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I know, right? It would've confused the shit out of me if i were a kid. There were literally like 6 plots going on at the same time. The first 20 minutes is scene after scene of plot introduction.:lol
 
SpeedingUptoStop said:
I know, right? It would've confused the shit out of me if i were a kid. There were literally like 6 plots going on at the same time. The first 20 minutes is scene after scene of plot introduction.:lol
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Ya. Too much going on.
 
crustikid said:
i saw this in IMAX when it came out and pretty much loved it. i was really hesitant at first to watch it with rottentomaotes giving it a 35% or something, but man was i glad i saw it on that gigantic screen. i sat lower right and it was an amazing experience.

then i came to gaf and saw all the hate. *sad face*
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Yeah the missus and I saw it at an IMAX theater in Orlando... absolutely LOVED it. Watched it again recently in HD at home... still enjoy the hell out of it.
 
I found the emotional core of the movie to be very real and believable. The double twist involving Racer X's identity /was/ a cunning move for people who know the original series and the scene where speed confronts him at Thunderhead is a damn good scene. Probably the most non-cartoon and adult scene in the film.

The family stuff was totally real though; it might have gone over the head of people who don't think about or want to see family issues but the emotions in the movie were quite authentic and I was frankly surprised that the Wachowski Bros. could write something like that.

Perversely, Speed Racer made me respect the W's as screenwriters /more/.

Also, yes, the movie looks god damn amazing and was ahead of its time. There were only a few times when I felt the experimental visual style didn't gel but for the most part it worked.

It's funny; the W's said up front that they wanted to make a /true/ family movie. I think fans just didn't listen or believe it.
 
Krev said:
It's about the struggle of artists, and I related to it a huge deal. Yes, on the surface it's pretty shallow, but I felt that what the film accomplished through its visuals and anime inspired editing techniques captured better than nearly anything else the feeling I get when I have a burst of creative inspiration, and how I feel as an artist trying to relate to the world. I find this film really beautiful and inspiring and personally meaningful.

I also think that the whole thing is a hell of a lot of fun. As a popcorn film I think it's by far the best work of the decade. Never fails to leave a grin on my face. It achieves what it sets out to do perfectly.

Speed Racer is too unconventional for a lot of people with limited conceptions of what cinema can be. So the storyline isn't as fleshed out as in some films. So? Were they visually as uniquely beautiful as this?
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it's not unconventional, it's poorly written, acted, and even directed. I'll be generous and say the races visually stunning, but I don't really believe it. Because they aren't innovating shit. Jurassic Park was revolutionary, Matrix was, even Titanic. The primary color galore, fast-edited delirious fest becomes highly monotonous after the 87th time you see a car jumping in front of another. The horrid editing didn't help, either. There's no tension during the races, no challenge, no pathos, there's just CGI. I was bored out of my brains.

Can't innovative movies have a decent plot and decent performances? That's asinine. If the movie's geared towards ten years old, which I believe it was marketed as such, it's also wrong because they will not be able to understand this gigantic mess of a story, but they might understand the dreadfully unfunny obligatory HEY IT'S A COMEDY MOMENT! with the annoying fat boy and monkey.
Characters have no depth, Even at the emotional parts you don't care because the characters are so cardboard you haven't developed any emotional ties with them. My girl (whom I talked into going to this movie) turned to me during what was supposed to be a heart-rending part and jokingly said, "Are you crying?" I said "Yes, but not for the reasons you think".
I appreciate you can relate to the movie and all, but you shouldn't call other people's views "limited" just because you think this movie has breached some wall or something. To me, it certainly hasn't. Like I said, if I take SR as a experiment, I could rate it slightly higher than the 3,5 out of ten I'd give it, as a movie..ehh
 
Anasui Kishibe said:
it's not unconventional, it's poorly written, acted, and even directed. I'll be generous and say the races visually stunning, but I don't really believe it. Because they aren't innovating shit. Jurassic Park was revolutionary, Matrix was, even Titanic. The primary color galore, fast-edited delirious fest becomes highly monotonous after the 87th time you see a car jumping in front of another. The horrid editing didn't help, either. There's no tension during the races, no challenge, no pathos, there's just CGI. I was bored out of my brains.

Can't innovative movies have a decent plot and decent performances? That's asinine. If the movie's geared towards ten years old, which I believe it was marketed as such, it's also wrong because they will not be able to understand this gigantic mess of a story, but they might understand the dreadfully unfunny obligatory HEY IT'S A COMEDY MOMENT! with the annoying fat boy and monkey.
Characters have no depth, Even at the emotional parts you don't care because the characters are so cardboard you haven't developed any emotional ties with them. My girl (whom I talked into going to this movie) turned to me during what was supposed to be a heart-rending part and jokingly said, "Are you crying?" I said "Yes, but not for the reasons you think".
I appreciate you can relate to the movie and all, but you shouldn't call other people's views "limited" just because you think this movie has breached some wall or something. To me, it certainly hasn't. Like I said, if I take SR as a experiment, I could rate it slightly higher than the 3,5 out of ten I'd give it, as a movie..ehh
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I seriously cannot see how somebody could think that this movie is poorly acted. I don't agree with ANY of your criticisms, mind, but the acting is superbly strong in this film and the one thing that I can't see anybody wanting/needing to criticize.
 
Kaijima said:
The family stuff was totally real though; it might have gone over the head of people who don't think about or want to see family issues but the emotions in the movie were quite authentic and I was frankly surprised that the Wachowski Bros. could write something like that.
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I thought the family stuff was by far one of the most realistic and relatable family dynamics I've seen in a movie. It was refreshing seeing a family that actually loved and supported each other despite occasional disagreements and arguments, as opposed to the completely dysfunctional families seen in 95% of everything else ever, or the absolutely perfect families seen in the other 5%.
 
Snowman Prophet of Doom said:
I seriously cannot see how somebody could think that this movie is poorly acted. I don't agree with ANY of your criticisms, mind, but the acting is superbly strong in this film and the one thing that I can't see anybody wanting/needing to criticize.
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Dude, Anasui has a long history of terrible, nonsensical opinions. Don't give him a second thought.
 
OK, to say something more bold: the Wachowski's mastery of their craft in Speed Racer was a lot more impressive than what Nolan did in The Dark Knight, which relied on a strong screenplay.
 
Anasui Kishibe said:
it's not unconventional, it's poorly written, acted, and even directed. I'll be generous and say the races visually stunning, but I don't really believe it. Because they aren't innovating shit. Jurassic Park was revolutionary, Matrix was, even Titanic. The primary color galore, fast-edited delirious fest becomes highly monotonous after the 87th time you see a car jumping in front of another. The horrid editing didn't help, either. There's no tension during the races, no challenge, no pathos, there's just CGI. I was bored out of my brains.
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Titanic and Jurassic Park are not 'innovative' in the way I'm saying this film is. Those are very traditional films that use new effects technologies effectively. Speed Racer actually tries a lot of new things with the language of film. It is unconventional. The Mt. Fuji section has editing that practically ties a balloon out of the timeline, and the opening sequence comes close too. The layering of scenes on top of each other along a scrolling horizontal plane that ties different moments together, which really comes to the fore in the final sequence, IS a new technique used very effectively. When you combine the way that the film is constructed and the super artificial production design it adds up to a very strange and unique vision.

I understand the problem of the film starting to feel like a CGI overload. That's how I felt watching 300. I didn't feel that watching this at all though, since every race added some new visual elements to the mix that kept it interesting (e.g. the camera zooming around the bends in the road at Casa Cristo).

Can't innovative movies have a decent plot and decent performances? That's asinine. If the movie's geared towards ten years old, which I believe it was marketed as such, it's also wrong because they will not be able to understand this gigantic mess of a story, but they might understand the dreadfully unfunny obligatory HEY IT'S A COMEDY MOMENT! with the annoying fat boy and monkey.
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I'll give you that the moments with the monkey and the kid sucked. I said that earlier in the thread, actually.
I didn't say that a film can't be unconventional if it has a decent plot and decent performances, but I think that it doesn't need to have that either, which is where the 'limited viewpoint' thing comes in. There are lots of great purely visual films out there with no plot whatsoever. For the record I don't think that the performances or plot sucked. I think it's a cartoon brought to life.
Everything is based on archetypes and drawn with broad strokes, and a lot of elements are only as 'deep' as is needed to carry out the cartoon-deep plot, but I fell in love with the world and its innocence enough that the film became emotionally resonant to me. Just because it's a cartoon doesn't mean that it can't be getting at something real, though. I echo the sentiments in this thread that the family stuff is totally authentic.

Like Snowman Prophet, I don't agree with any of your criticisms.
 
Solo said:
OK, to say something more bold: the Wachowski's mastery of their craft in Speed Racer was a lot more impressive than what Nolan did in The Dark Knight, which relied on a strong screenplay.
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Yes.

Okay, more bold: Speed Racer is much better than The Dark Knight.
 
I'm thinking about renting this tonight. I'm afraid, however, that this is a movie that would be great on a movie theatre screen, and mediocre to bad on a big screen SD projection screen in my living room.

I guess this is the case with every movie, but those who enjoyed the film: is this the case even more so for this film? Does the fact that you saw it on the big screen and enjoyed it considerably have a huge affect on how you feel about it at home?

I'll probably watch it anyway. I thought the trailer looked grand, and I was disappointed by the reviews, so I skipped it.
 
See now I think they are just two movies that shouldn't be compared and wouldn't warrant comparison had they not both come out in the same year.

The Wachowski's job, whilst masterful indeed, was concerned with a style of filmmaking that was entirely their own and new. Nobody could say 'its like [insert movie], only better, or [insert movie] on crack!' It was literally the only movie like it and that is a great feat.

TDK however, was a movie that was directed in such a way that it manged to distinguish itself from all those crime epics with obligatory sweeping cityscapes. It honestly felt like a crime epic that stood head and shoulders above the rest. And obviously I mean a crime/city epic in the vein of Heat (which I think is highly overrated) and not something which spans decades like certain mafia flicks. Yes, a lot came from TDK's plotting, but the sense of atmosphere and tone was something just as potent and palpable as anything in Speed Racer. Yes, it has its drawbacks, but then for every stiff action (nightclub scene) or cheesy kids in the backseat scene in TDK, you have the Chim Chim and little kid scenes in Speed Racer - which are infinitely more intrusive (I will not stop cringing at their interruption of the kiss at the end).

Both great movies, don't think either are ripe for comparison against one another.
 
Solo said:
OK, to say something more bold: the Wachowski's mastery of their craft in Speed Racer was a lot more impressive than what Nolan did in The Dark Knight, which relied on a strong screenplay.
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I don't particularly care for The Dark Knight or Christopher Nolan, so I don't mind that comparison all that much.
But using Speed Racer as an example as to how The Wachowskis are masters of their craft?
If anything, this movie reinforced the notion that they are completely out of ideas when it comes to anything which is not an overblown action set-piece.
Not that I particularly like their ideas for those set pieces, but at least they seem to know what they are doing.
Anything else just scream amateurism, basic stuff like how to film a fucking dialog is botched in Speed Racer.
 
Chichikov said:
I don't particularly care for The Dark Knight or Christopher Nolan, so I don't mind that comparison all that much.
But using Speed Racer as an example as to how The Wachowskis are masters of their craft?
If anything, this movie reinforced the notion that they are completely out of ideas when it comes to anything which is not an overblown action set-piece.
Not that I particularly like their ideas for those set pieces, but at least they seem to know what they are doing.
Anything else just scream amateurism, basic stuff like how to film a fucking dialog is botched in Speed Racer.
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I will not argue that writing is indeed their achilles heel. But in terms of direction, handling multiple narratives, and cross cutting between everything (time and and space) effortlessly, I couldnt help but be impressed with the job they did, even if it is bogged down by ham-fisted dialogue. Much the same as the Matric movies. Heavy handed and not anywheres in the realm of subtle from the writing end, but impressive as hell in other respects.

They just need to stop writing their own stuff.
 
I actually think they're great screenwriters. I thought the job they did on the first Matrix was great and despite loving the GN, I loved loved the screenplay for V for Vendetta. They did an absolutely brilliant job on that. If you can get a hold of their unproduced script for 'Carnivore', its a pretty great read as well.
 
Don't lie. I was going through the initial V for Vendetta thread and you said something like it was the only movie to affect you emotionally that year. I have a good memory for these things.
 
Perhaps I did enjoy it the first time, who knows? All I know is that on subseqent rewatches a lot of shit sticks out. Portman, who I like, turns in a really bad performance, the movie is really heavy handed, and it feels like its missing a lot.

EDIT: found the thread. I was definitely drinking the kool aid after my first viewing :lol
 
Kaijima said:
I found the emotional core of the movie to be very real and believable. The double twist involving Racer X's identity /was/ a cunning move for people who know the original series and the scene where speed confronts him at Thunderhead is a damn good scene. Probably the most non-cartoon and adult scene in the film.

The family stuff was totally real though; it might have gone over the head of people who don't think about or want to see family issues but the emotions in the movie were quite authentic and I was frankly surprised that the Wachowski Bros. could write something like that.

Perversely, Speed Racer made me respect the W's as screenwriters /more/.

Also, yes, the movie looks god damn amazing and was ahead of its time. There were only a few times when I felt the experimental visual style didn't gel but for the most part it worked.

It's funny; the W's said up front that they wanted to make a /true/ family movie. I think fans just didn't listen or believe it.
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Yes, yes, yes, I completely agree with all of this.

The dialogue and narrative of Speed Racer were not botched.

Solo said:
I will not argue that writing is indeed their achilles heel. But in terms of direction, handling multiple narratives, and cross cutting between everything (time and and space) effortlessly, I couldnt help but be impressed with the job they did, even if it is bogged down by ham-fisted dialogue. Much the same as the Matric movies. Heavy handed and not anywheres in the realm of subtle from the writing end, but impressive as hell in other respects.

They just need to stop writing their own stuff.
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And really, do people think that parts with ham fisted dialogue weren't intentional in a film called Speed Racer? Really?

I loved all the cheesy cartoony stuff.
 
I rewatched V recently with almost a year gap between the last time I watched it, so it was pretty fresh again. I don't get the hate on Portman's performance, I think it's one of her best - especially once she's been 'processed' by V. I thought all the narrative threads were introduced superbly, each given a decent amount of breathing room before being linked together.

I really, really love the script for V and didn't mind the changes at all. I also thought McTiegue did a wonderful job and the score for the film was fantastic. Which is why I was expecting big things for Ninja Assasin, which now looks pretty disappointing to me. Will still watch though.
 
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