First Speed Racer Review Hits! Edit: RT at 35% now!

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"An eye-popping, day-glo videogame that's as emotionally empty as it is visually exhilarating, Speed Racer is style, style, style without substance, but then it moves so fast that many may not care."

This is gonna ba Transformers all over again? It's visualy so overwhelming that nobody notices that everything else about the movie is utter scheiss?
 
This movie looks terrible. And when even the trailer looks bad with all the editing power Hollywood has then you know it'll be bad.

I don't see this appealing to many either, I'm guessing monday the Watchawski's are gonna have their first major bomb at the box office with this one.
 
I don't think the movie would be this bad on its own, but releasing it one week after Iron Man is a pretty awful idea considering how strong the word of mouth for Iron Man is at the moment. I guess they couldn't have predicted that though.
 
Souldriver said:
This is gonna ba Transformers all over again? It's visualy so overwhelming that nobody notices that everything else about the movie is utter scheiss?
no transformers was obviously bad if only for the fact that michael bay can't keep the god damn army out of a single one of his movies. that and the hilarious amount of stretching they did to keep the movie together. the whole thing was a mess, and even i had hopes in the beginning

speed racer has something called style. that comes from great art direction and slick editing. it also stays truer to its source material which wasn't american beauty by any stretch, but it's likable at the least, and well-executed on the silver screen
 
Mr. Spinnington said:
no transformers was obviously bad if only for the fact that michael bay can't keep the god damn army out of a single one of his movies. that and the hilarious amount of stretching they did to keep the movie together. the whole thing was a mess, and even i had hopes in the beginning

speed racer has something called style. that comes from great art direction and slick editing. it also stays truer to its source material which wasn't american beauty by any stretch, but it's likable at the least, and well-executed on the silver screen
If it stays true to the source material, than it wasn't even worthy a movie to begin with.
 
Souldriver said:
If it stays true to the source material, than it wasn't even worthy a movie to begin with.

I think Speed Racer (the movie) is an acquired taste. I went out Thursday night with some friends before the movie came out and they were ALL against seeing it. I really wanted to push them to see it, but at the same time, (considering the average college student) there's little appeal outside of nostalgia for speed racer. Let's face it, he's a dude with really strange style. Cheesy white pants with a white-collared blue shirt? Not exactly hawt or something a child of the 80s would recall (that was transformers).

At the same time, I rely on movie reviews so much because the cost of a ticket is just outrageous these days. Like srsly? Making the choice to watch Stark is easy when 92% of critics are saying it doesn't suck, but when I'm spending $18 to watch SR at a rotten 35%.....and in the end it turns out to be so fuckin daft (in a positive way)....kinda makes you wanna scream at those critics for being so wrong.
 
Mr. Spinnington said:
then what exactly were you looking for? a reinvention of the series?

this is 100% fanservice


And is there enough of a fan gathering to validate a movie on speed racer??? No.

My bet is that iron man will still be king this week-end. Another failure for the Wachowski brothers...ehhh Sibblings..
 
brandonh83 said:
It's one of the best scores ever written for a movie. I've been listening to it for the past few days, even before seeing the movie tonight and its fucking wonderful. Just like the movie. Holy fucking shit I thought it was incredible and the last race is one of my favorite sequences ever put on film because not only is it fast with incredible camera angles and visuals, but part of the race was extremely moving and added a whole other element to just the action.

This. The final sequence took my breath away in a way few films have done, ever...and I felt so satisfied walking out of the theater after it, unlike the bad taste Iron Man left in my mouth. I can still see that face shot of Speed with helmet on, lights reflecting all over it...solving his internal struggle while trying to overtake the two motherfuckers that stand before him and the Grand Prix win, all of this beautifully edited, framed and scored (Giacchino is the man). What an amazing moment. And it's the moment where the character comes full circle, and stands fully realized.

I think some reviewer at Aint It Cool touched on this, saying that the races aren't cheap excuses for action that stop the narrative like in so many films of this nature; instead, they ARE what drive the narrative forward, injecting another element of drama to them.
 
The Bookerman said:
My bet is that iron man will still be king this week-end. Another failure for the Wachowski brothers...ehhh Sibblings..
no one in their right mind expects speed racer to do well this weekend. Word is amongst studios is that Speed Racer is a big ol' bomb.


EDIT: Friday box office numbers are in. Speed Racer did HORRIBLE.

1. Iron Man (Paramount) – $14.75M - $3,588 PTA - $141.38M cume
2. NEW – Speed Racer (Warner Bros) - $6.5M - $1,803 PTA - $6.5M cume
 
Cheebs said:
no one in their right mind expects speed racer to do well this weekend. Word is amongst studios is that Speed Racer is a big ol' bomb.


EDIT: Friday box office numbers are in. Speed Racer did HORRIBLE.

1. Iron Man (Paramount) – $14.75M - $3,588 PTA - $141.38M cume
2. NEW – Speed Racer (Warner Bros) - $6.5M - $1,803 PTA - $6.5M cume

Sad. :(
 
Cheebs said:
no one in their right mind expects speed racer to do well this weekend. Word is amongst studios is that Speed Racer is a big ol' bomb.


EDIT: Friday box office numbers are in. Speed Racer did HORRIBLE.

1. Iron Man (Paramount) – $14.75M - $3,588 PTA - $141.38M cume
2. NEW – Speed Racer (Warner Bros) - $6.5M - $1,803 PTA - $6.5M cume

Fucking hell
 
Ouch poor Speed...and I know for a fact that WB spent assloads of money on marketing the thing. That number is gonna put it below 20 million for the weekend. Bomb. :(
 
duckroll said:
And all was right in the world. :D

Meh. Don't tell me this is the reviewers' doing.

EDIT: Btw, I plan to support this film with a second viewing and by buying it on blu-ray. Can't believe people are turning their backs on this great movie because of them critics and the "Iron Man word of mouth". Bleh.
 
EktorPR said:
Meh. Don't tell me this is the reviewers' doing.

EDIT: Btw, I plan to support this film with a second viewing and by buying it on blu-ray. Can't believe people are turning their backs on this great movie because of them critics and the "Iron Man word of mouth". Bleh.
Maybe people just dont have any interest in seeing it in the first place?
 
This tanking at the box office just means one thing - the market for shroom-inspired revisits of 70s cartoon nostalgia is very small.
 
holy shit, it really tanked. I was sure Americans woulda killed to watch it, oh well

the Wachowski going to be gunned down by Silver's henchmen and thrown in the East River at midnight

too bad they didn't do it after the retarded V for Vendetta...or before it
 
Anasui Kishibe said:
holy shit, it really tanked. I was sure Americans woulda killed to watch it, oh well

the Wachowski going to be gunned down by Silver's henchmen and thrown in the East River at midnight

too bad they didn't do it after the retarded V for Vendetta...or before it

Fucking hell, will you shut up?
 
sauce:http://www.slantmagazine.com/boxoffice.asp

It's difficult to imagine Iron Man having done as well as it did last week without the support of the critical community. This week the film hopes to maintain its spot atop the box office, which should have belonged to poor Speed Racer, the Wachowski Brothers' first non-Matrix film since their delicious Bound. The film should have been a contender, but critics have pissed on its grotesque, rapid-fire aesthetic, and when you're trying to foist the big-movie debut of a character like Speed Racer, every bit the B-lister that Iron Man is, you need all the help you can get. With a good chunk of its target audience still wanting to catch up with Iron Man for the first time (maybe even a second) this weekend, Speed Racer will be lucky to rake up $33 million. That means Fox's What Happens in Vegas won't be too far behind. Opening in approximately 3,200 locations, this surprisingly unhateable rom-com starring Cameron Diaz and Ashton Kutcher is garnering the better reviews, but it still has to complete with the likes of Made of Honor, Baby Mama, and Forgetting Sarah Marshall. $18 million seems likely for the weekend. Even lower down on the charts, David Mamet's new film, Redbelt, hopes to crack the Top 10, and given its performance last week on only six screens, it may just do that. Expanding into 1,000 locations on a small wave of critical acclaim, $2 million is in the film's cards. In select cities or limited release: The Fall, Frontier(s), Battle for Haditha, Poultrygeist, Turn the River, The Babysitters, The Tracey Fragments, OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies, Before the Rain, Noise, A Previous Engagement, Unsettled, Bloodline, The Memory Thief, Edgar Allen Poe's House of Usher, Refusenik, Surfwise, and Vice.

Box Office Forecast (5/9/08 - 5/11/08):
1. Iron Man: $49.2 million
2. Speed Racer: $33.3 million

3. What Happens in Vegas: $18.1 million
4. Made of Honor: $8.5 million
5. Baby Mama: $6.3 million
6. Forgetting Sarah Marshall: $3.5 million
7. Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay: $3.3 million
8. Redbelt: $2.1 million
9. The Forbidden Kingdom: $1.9 million
10. Nim's Island: $1.7 million

Kinda sucks, but it makes sense.:lol
 
duckroll said:
This tanking at the box office just means one thing - the market for shroom-inspired revisits of 70s cartoon nostalgia is very small.
Fuck, I wanted my G-Force movie. Wasn't someone famous doing the script? Like David Hayter or something.
Anasui Kishibe said:
holy shit, it really tanked. I was sure Americans woulda killed to watch it, oh well

the Wachowski going to be gunned down by Silver's henchmen and thrown in the East River at midnight

too bad they didn't do it after the retarded V for Vendetta...or before it
V was a weird movie, I liked it but it was such an awful adaptation and yet most of the scenes were directly lifted from the comic.
 
Lakitu said:
Fucking hell, will you shut up?

I'm not fucking hell, I'm Anasui

Prime crotch said:
V was a weird movie, I liked it but it was such an awful adaptation and yet most of the scenes were directly lifted from the comic.

yes, I'da considered a decent movie (not more than that), but the ghost of the graphic novel was way too present in my mind to close an eye to that abortion of an adaptation
 
I don't know what they were thinking when they green-lit this movie. A kids movie about a cartoon from 30 years ago? Why would today's children have any interest in watching an adaptation of a show they've never seen?
 
suaveric said:
I don't know what they were thinking when they green-lit this movie. A kids movie about a cartoon from 30 years ago? Why would today's children have any interest in watching an adaptation of a show they've never seen?

It's for the 30-40 year old druggies today that watched it as a kid and still harbor some fond memories of it. Clearly a small audience though. :lol
 
The Wachowskis just penned and produced V for Vendetta; they didn't direct. Still, it was an entertaining flick, and definitely worthy of the praise it got.

Speed Racer is just another case of the american masses being afraid of change and originality, not to mention anime references. They will eat up anything and everything they know as long as its their own (like their american hero, Iron Man).
 
crustikid said:
sauce:http://www.slantmagazine.com/boxoffice.asp



Kinda sucks, but it makes sense.:lol
Thats the forecast prior to friday numbers. It wont make anything near 33 million. More like 22-23 million based on friday numbers.

EktorPR said:
Speed Racer is just another case of the american masses being afraid of change and originality, not to mention anime references. They will eat up anything and everything they know as long as its their own (like their american hero, Iron Man).
Thats the dumbest thing ever. It isnt some pro-america slant. Hell I bet most americans think speed racer is an american cartoon. It's simply that Iron Man is a very, very, very good movie. And Speed Racer is very quirky.
 
Speed Racer has more in common with Charlie and the Chocolate Factory than anime. Please. It's one thing to defend the movie, it's another thing to make really dumb outlandish excuses for why it's going to be a total failure.
 
i hope with the reviews and reception this is getting that it will be impossible for anyone to do a sequel, catapulting the movie to cult status----or just another failed childhood-turn-blockbuster IP.
 
duckroll said:
Speed Racer has more in common with Charlie and the Chocolate Factory than anime. Please. It's one thing to defend the movie, it's another thing to make really dumb outlandish excuses for why it's going to be a total failure.

Aside from the color palette and some 'sugary' characters, I see it as being very anime-esque. Very.
 
Ok duckroll, you win.

Edit: Btw, I'm not mad or anything. I'm just overreacting to the poor reception this film has gotten, critically and commercially, because I loved the film, so just...don't mind me.
 
Milhouse31 said:
Outside of some US geek the franchise has no appeal. It's unknown to most part of the world.

I dunno about that, I think most people above the age of 20 know Speed Racer. But knowing what it is and actually thinking it's still cool or good is a different thing altogether.

EktorPR said:
Edit: Btw, I'm not mad or anything. I'm just overreacting to the poor reception this film has gotten, critically and commercially, because I loved the film, so just...don't mind me.

Hey, it's cool to love the film. I don't even think it was terrible or anything. I just think it's pretty telegraphed that the film would be pretty big failure unless it somehow got REALLY GOOD word of mouth. With how heavily it was targeted towards kids, along with the really weird art style and the longass running time that will never be the case though. I really don't think the anime "influence" on the movie has anything to do with it's failure in this case.
 
duckroll said:
Speed Racer has more in common with Charlie and the Chocolate Factory than anime. Please. It's one thing to defend the movie, it's another thing to make really dumb outlandish excuses for why it's going to be a total failure.

More like a PG-rated color-splashed version of Sin City. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory tried to re-capitalize an already superior original. You don't mess with greatness:

wonka1sp2.jpg
 
i wanna see this solely for the sfx (and fox). iirc, they're using some new techniques here, or something. regardless, it looks pretty nice.

duckroll said:
Speed Racer has more in common with Charlie and the Chocolate Factory than anime. Please. It's one thing to defend the movie, it's another thing to make really dumb outlandish excuses for why it's going to be a total failure.

uh, the movie's supposed to look like real-life anime.


http://moviesblog.mtv.com/2007/08/27/wachowskis-go-with-original-speed-racer-theme/
“[All] of it is in-focus, the front and the back, because they’re layering the film,” Sarandon explained of the technique, which hopes to make the live-action resemble real-life anime. “You know, in a cartoon, everything is in focus, right? Well, we don’t act like cartoons - we act like real people. But it’s very saturated, the look of it - it’s not an animated process over us, there are real people in this very bright world. Every color that was not in ‘The Matrix’ is in this movie.”
 
bud said:
uh, the movie's supposed to look like a real-life anime.

What it's supposed to look like and what it actually does is a different thing. I don't think anyone will be able to find any anime that resembles the art direction or style of the Speed Racer movie. Not the art style, not the script, not even the designs. It's totally Wachowski Fruity Druggie Land. Maybe they think that's what anime looks like, but it's not.
 
It looks like it will underperform domestically, but should do really well overseas and on Blu Ray/DVD.

It will make money and will be a cult favorite.
 
Cheebs said:
no one in their right mind expects speed racer to do well this weekend. Word is amongst studios is that Speed Racer is a big ol' bomb.


EDIT: Friday box office numbers are in. Speed Racer did HORRIBLE.

1. Iron Man (Paramount) – $14.75M - $3,588 PTA - $141.38M cume
2. NEW – Speed Racer (Warner Bros) - $6.5M - $1,803 PTA - $6.5M cume

Every now and then, this country does me proud.

/a single tear of joy
 
duckroll said:
I dunno about that, I think most people above the age of 20 know Speed Racer. But knowing what it is and actually thinking it's still cool or good is a different thing altogether.

I'm speaking for the French/Belgium part of Europe. I'm 27 raise by manga (DB(Z), Saint Seiya, Bioman, Fist of the north star, Grendizer, Astro Boy, ...) and never heard about Speed racer until it got referenced in US media.
 
I just saw it last night and I thought it was really good. Although I say you definitely should see this with someone(family, friends, significant other). The visuals at times were visually an overload for me but that was the whole point. It's like they were able to get that cartoon like in real life without it looking weird and out of place. I was a bit worried though a friend of mine said it was horrible. Not a movie for everyone though.. If your looking for something entertaining and just fun watch it. I hope someone asks me to see this movie again! :lol
 
EktorPR said:
Aside from the color palette and some 'sugary' characters, I see it as being very anime-esque. Very.

Flashy colors? Check.
Slapstick lulz? Check.
Shitty dialogue? Check.
Creepy incest vibe? Check.

I see quite the opposite. Very much so. Much of the hate is probably because it was made by Westerners. Had the same schlock come from Japan, you guys would have eaten that shit up.
 
Really, really enjoyed it and anyone who knows my posting history knows I'm not really a fan of The Wachowski Bros. or anything that's drawn in foreign countries (I'm xenophobic). It was a bit too long, and has some flaws, but it's immensely enjoyable and visually exciting.

I appreciate for a family movie that not every single character was completely one-dimensional, nor did it talk down to its audience. It's a family movie through and through, definitely with some schmaltz, but it's one of the better family movies I've seen in years.

I expect it to be polarizing to audiences and to do poorly commercially. I am kind of surprised how many people here are rooting for its failure. This community has a long tradition of hyping hollow, visually exciting movies that border on bad (anyone remember this place single-handedly making Equilibrium a cult movie?). And considering this one actually has a heart and terrific action sequences, I would think this place would be on it like Larry Wachowski on a Victoria's Secret sale.
 
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