Speed Racer

Review by Clint Morris

Speed Racer should come with a warning: Do Not Operate Heavy Machinery after viewing.

I’ll explain shortly.

This is the chronicle of an 18-year-old named Speed Racer (played by Into the Wild’s Emile Hirsch) whose born into a life of car racing, with his dad (John Goodman) fitting engines before he was born and his older brother Rex (Scott Porter) a champion, before his untimely demise.

Despite the odds being against him (seems most of the races are fixed, and have been for about 50 years) Speed, with the assistance of his Pop, Ma (Susan Sarandon), girlfriend Trixie (Christina Ricci), mechanic Sparky (Australia’s Kick Gurry) and younger brother Spritle (Paulie Lit) is determined to outrun every car on the field.

And, if you’ve ever seen an episode of the TV series this is based upon, you know he will.

For years now I was under the supposition that when baby Mikey came out of Kirstie Alley in Look Who’s Talking (1989) feeling a little light on his feet and high on life it was because he’d shared in the labour-numbing drugs mum had been taken. Not so, seems the bambino was merely "spinning out" because they’d be screening Speed Racer on the base of the pancreas.

Yes, drugs have now been broken down to fit into the cigarette burns’ of a film reel.

If Warren Beatty’s visually vivacious Dick Tracy had you drunk on colour and if Ang Lee’s well-meaning eyesore Hulk had you permanently viewing the world with split-screen vision, then Andy & Larry Wachowski’s (The Matrix) live-action (or is it?) tak on the popular 60s cartoon series will have you screaming for a shot of sepia! 

Quite simply, its visuals are that loopy, colourful, brightly-lit and ambitious that’ll it’d take a detective to find some plain ol’ white here! And believe me, you’ll WANT just a bit of white… or grey… after sitting through two hours of this crazy and coloured flare-up.

And there in lies the film’s biggest downfall: it’s too visually stimulating. There should be a code against using so many colours of the rainbow, in unison, like this. And with the camera thrashing about like Kim Kardashian in that video, the thing starts to hurt your eyes after a while – someone needed to pull this thing back. If George Jetson were watching, he’d want to “get off this crazy thing!” – I know I did.

And it’s not that the film is bad either, in fact, it’s quite good. It’s a good, wholesome, entertaining kid’s movie. It’s got great performances (John Goodman is as good as ever, Matthew Fox is a scene-stealer as Racer X), has a fatty but effective script (the kids in the audience of the screening I attended started to get a bit restless after the 90 minute mark – and it still had another half-hour to go; thankfully, the last 20 mins or so is action-packed), and some terrific action sequences (the car stuff is tremendous).

Regrettably, it’s hard to concentrate on most of that when the Wachowski’s insist on turning up the colour overlay, bleed, and saturation in every scene. I don’t know if the intention was for the film to feel like a 3D video-game or amusement park ride, but I tell ya, it made me just as nauseous.

If it’s a cheap and entertaining trip you’re after – look no further!

Those with heart conditions might want to visit Sandra Bullock in the theatre next door.

3 out of 5

Speed Racer
Australian release: 12th June, 2008.
Cast: Emile Hirsch, Matthew Fox, Christina Ricci, Susan Sarandon
Director: Andy Wachowski & Larry Wachowski