GatorDeb

Watched it yesterday. AWESOME movie. I REALLY enjoyed the races and visual style. I thought it was great, and I was worried because of all the doom and gloom in this thread. I watched Speed Racer when I was little (far from a SR fanatic, though) and I got chills when I saw the Mach V. The characters were spot on down to the clothing.

I liked it so much I want to see it on IMAX (saw it on a regular theater). The only two movies I've seen on IMAX are The Matrix Reloaded and Harry Potter V.

There is one thought that kept going through my mind: This movie is so much FUN. It was a blast. It might even surpass Iron Man in my book (and I thought THAT was great).

HDM purchase for sure!

CapRockBrewingCo.

I caught this yesterday while on vacation. The Wachowskis overflowed this film with eye candy, but that is not enough with a barely average storyline. I was honestly bored during much of the first hour. Hirsch wasn't convincing to me, but it's hard top his work as Christopher McCandless. Christina Ricci looked super hot though. Something about that short haircut with those eyes. It's interesting that the film had no product placement of any kind being in all made up fantasy world. Well, unless you count milk. Although it will look fantastic, I don't see myself buying this on blu-ray.

mdc3000

I hate Anime. I know lots of people love it, but I can't stand the style of it, so I've never watched the original Speed Racer...but I flipped out for the movie. I had a fucking blast. The Wachowski's created such a unique world, filled with those candy colours, insane editing and transitions and the most amazing part - real characters. Sure they're mostly archetypes but I thought the family dynamic was excellent...every scene with the family just worked and elevated the movie above the 'kiddie action pop' genre.

I'll agree that the stock market/gangster plot could have been trimmed by 10 minutes and the movie would have been better off, but it certainly wasn't a deal breaker for me. The racing scenes are exciting and the really silly Sprittle and Chim Chim stuff had me cracking up. I saw it in DLP and the movie looked gorgeous from start to finish - I'll have to see the IMAX version sometime this weekend as well, but I can't wait for the blu-ray - it will be stunning.

I'll admit that I wasn't really excited for this flick before this week. I thought the first teaser was kind of a trainwreck and the buzz hadn't been great...I was sort of hoping for it to fail. Now of course, I'm pissed off that my late showing last night only had 15 people in the theatre. I hope some good word of mouth gets out to help this one make some money...I just don't get the critical drubbing. Boring is not a word I would use to describe this movie... The Wachowski's really impressed me with this one - the sheer amount of work/vision that went into making this is very impressive.

Go Speed Racer!

GatorDeb

Ok, after mulling it over some more, this is officially over Iron Man for me Summer certainly has started off with a bang. Loved it. FUN FUN FUN.

treszoks

It felt about 30 minutes too long to me. They could have cut out a whole lot of the second half of the movie.

orderandlaw

RT is 2 hr 15 min. It slows down here and there w/ not the greatest dialog between the races...but it still seems fitting somehow.

The visual styles vary from race to house life.

Every time I saw John Goodman, I was waiting for him to jump up and bust some blocks with his head and go after Bowser and save the Princess.

Good humor here and there.

They did good by putting in the old Speed Racer theme.

I think a hit of acid would have been great for the race scenes.

I'd still bang Christina Ricci.

Was it worth paying the price of admission? I think if you went with the right people, or just don't expect a masterpiece, but just to have fun, you'll have a good time. It was great to see such a stylized film.

chris_sc77

Opening day it made $6.5 million.
Projected weekend take is 19.4 million.

discostu1337

sounds about right, although I expected the general population to actually like crap like this and spend billions! I rather see a Speed Racer 2 movie than another "Epic Date Scary Movie"

Zen Peckinpah

Looks like this will be Go Speed Racer GONE from the box office very soon.

Rammsteinfan

Glad to see Iron Man make 3 times as much as speed racer on its first day. No Speed no.

sye46

man.... whats up with all the hatred in here? do you guys get paid for Iron Man to blow Speed Racer away or something? I bet most of you haters didn't even see the movie.

I saw it last night... it was entertaining. It was a visual experience and I enjoyed it. I'm getting sick of this Iron Man fanboyism going on in this forum. Iron Man already made millions... its not like its underachieving. who the f*ck cares if it is #1 this week or not?

chris_sc77

The hatred comes from the fact that a lot of people like myself thinks SR looks horrible and if it would be successful that would mean they would make more films that look like this which would be not good.
The Wachowski Bros. are talented and I want to watch R rated films from them not PG movies that look like a bad video game.

Also. Box office mojo is reporting that Speed Racer only made %5.8 mllion and came in 3rd behind What happens in Vegas....

Matthew Chmiel

The look of the film is one of it's most important parts. You'll get it if you ever were to watch it.

CloverClover

I was disappointed, I thought it was overwritten in that convoluted wachowski monologue kind of way, and considering all the cliches they were throwing, it didn't need to be.

It had a nice energy going for it but I never understand why filmmakers with all the power in the world, just waste it, they could finance 30 indie movies with this budget, people with real ideas, and meaning to share instead of cliche after cliche and over glorified, here it comes, video game special effects

zero

Agreed, this movie was simply fun. I hope it does better this weekend.

Brack

Just a question, but for all the people complaining about the cliches, what would you have rather have seen on the screen? What plot would've sufficed? I'm not baiting, I'm actually curious what you think would've made Speed Racer better in the story department.

Sean O'Hara

When a big summer action extravaganza gets PWNed by a chick flick starring Ashton Kutcher, it's really bad.

xage

So much for "Ground Breaking".. After watching this movie.. the so called "car fu" action scenes are just "improvised" version of Star Wars Episode 1's Pod Race.

No wonder.... the special effects were mainly done by "ILM"

The movie was a blast. Even if its more than 2hrs, its still worth watching.

bunkaroo

I'm sure this has been asked before, but as someone who knows noting about Speed Racer and never watched the cartoon, is this worth seeing?

I like the other Wachowski's other stuff so I'm just wondering if there's anything the movie takes for granted which some people might know.

Brack

I'd say no. I remember watching the show and liking it, but I didn't really remember much except for the theme song and how the voice work was hilarious at times. I'd say the movie takes the show and completely turns it on its head.

jessecrx

I have been a SR fan my whole life and I went in expecting this movie to totally suck and thank goodness it totally blew me away. You guys gotta remember that this is a movie based on a wacky cartoon and it does a super job bringing the characters to life. It reminded me alot of stylized ways Dick Tracy was made with it's over the top villains.

Racer X was a total bad ass and both Trixie/Mom were super hot IMO. Great fun, and the crowd loved it.

I am going back to watch it again on IMAX and I hope it continues to do well over the weekend.

kstublen

I couldn't disagree with you more. I don't think it turns the show on its head. I feel it remained VERY faithful to the original cartoon series. The characters were all spot on, and the main ideas of the show were transmitted very accurately.

Brack

that's not what I meant. the racing, visuals, writing, delivery, were vastly improved. I agree the characters and themes stay pretty true to the show (just watched some of it on youtube )

Shannon Nutt

Variety is reporting $6.2 million for Friday. Regardless, that's Bombs-ville for the movie and for the Wachowskis - who probably won't be given this kind of budget for a movie again for a long time, if ever.

Guess we have our first casualty of the summer, folks.

The Antipodean

Hmmm, maybe they SHOULD have cast Keanu Reeves and Vince Vaughn....