SPEED RACER

Jeri Jacquin, Movie Maven

Opening this Friday in theatres based on the Japanese television series is the film “Speed Racer”.

This is the story of Speed (Emile Hirsch) a born racer who is totally at home behind the wheel of a racecar. When his brother Rex Racer (Scott Porter) dies in a tragic crash, Speed takes up the family business and is almost totally fearless.

Speed is offered a deal from Royalton Industries and when he turns it down it only angers the company owner. His father Pops Racer (John Goodman), designer of the Mach 5 racecar, as well as his Mom (Susan Sarandon) and little brother Spritle (Paulie Litt) are in jeopardy. Speed must find a way to face what is coming. 

The most important race is the ultimate death-defying cross country race called The Crucible. Speed must team up with a former rival Racer X (Matthew Fox) and Rain (Taejoto Togokhan) to stop Royalton from taking over racing.

Once Speed saves his family he attempts to win the race that took his brother’s life. He is supported by his family and his girlfriend Trixie (Christina Ricci) to not only make his family proud but regain honor for the sport he loves.

FINAL WORD:  This is most definetly a kids’ movie. The special effects and colors are wild and the screen rarely sits still from start to finish. The story itself has a lot of lessons for the kids.

Hirsch does a good job as Speed but there isn’t a lot of character change as most of the time he is racing. Goodman as Pops and Sarandon as Mom both seemed comfortable in their roles. Ricci as Trixie is still cute as a button and her doey eyes make her role just as sweet.

Fox as Racer X seemed a strong character with a lot of secrets and not just who he is behind the mask. Litt as the young Spritle Racer is a lot of laughs and always getting himself into trouble.

One point worth mentioning is the story the character Royalton tells and runs on about regarding racing. It is a long rant that is just too difficult to follow for children and can be a slow point.

This film is brought to the screen by the Wachowski brothers who were responsible for the fantastic special affects for the Matrix trilogy as well as “V for Vendetta”.

TUBS OF POPCORN:  I give “Speed Racer” three tubs of popcorn out of five. This film is a nice trip down memory lane for the adults who were part of the “Speed Racer” phenomenon before Japanese anime became so popular. The kids will enjoy it for its fast pace scenes and special affects.

So buckle up and hum along to the movie theme and ‘go Speed Racer goooooooo!’