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Movie Overview
Cast
• Emile Hirsch
• Susan Sarandon
• John Goodman
Director
• Larry Wachowski
• Andy Wachowski
MPAA Rating
PG - for sequences of action, some violence, language and brief smoking
Speed Racer (2008)

REVIEWS
NEWS
INTERVIEWS
OTHER
OFCS Rating: 44% Rotten
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D+
"The film is absurdly complicated for such a young demographic, and at 135 minutes it will be a monotonous chore for most others."  FromTheBalcony  Bill Clark

5/5
"Forget all the curmudgeonly criticism that argues for this movie's optical overload capacity - Speed Racer is a modern masterpiece"  PopMatters  Bill Gibron

D+
"Speed Racer is an ocular slap, but it's strictly empty calories; a joyless, over-plotted nostalgia machine that barely limps out of the starting gate...an inert sleeping pill."  BrianOrndorf.com  Brian Orndorf

A
"The Wachowski Brothers achieve a divine vision of psychedelic visual ecstasy while digging deep into an campy comic/dramatic tone that works for audiences of all ages."  ColeSmithey.com  Cole Smithey

"Speed is a driver but he's so much more, embodying the opposite of the film's anti-corporate argument. He's the Matrix victorious."  PopMatters  Cynthia Fuchs

2/5
"The performers have been reduced to merely aping their animated counterparts."  eFilmCritic.com  Dan Lybarger

1/5
"It's like watching somebody else play a video game. There's plenty of color and noise, with computers creating the semblance of rapid motion, but that's it."  eFilmCritic.com  David Cornelius

B-
"Unabashedly seditious in the vein of their previous movies, the Wachowski's "Speed Racer" has serious flaws, and barely enough color and speed to appeal to half of its target audience."  EDGE Boston  David Foucher

3/4
""Speed Racer" is a stylish, electrifying, intense and visually breathtaking catastrophe of a movie..."  Cinemaphile.org  David Keyes

3/4
"...there reaches a point at which one is essentially forced to surrender to the Wachowskis insanely broad modus operandi..."  Reel Film Reviews  David Nusair

D
"All its supposed innovative techie efforts did for me was make me dizzy and long instead for a good story."  Ozus' World Movie Reviews  Dennis Schwartz

3/4
"A phantasmagoric, candy-colored treat for the senses."  TheMovieBoy.com  Dustin Putman

3/5
"(...) Pretende conformar a todos: los fanáticos de la serie de antes y los niños y adolescentes de ahora. Lo logra a medias. En todo caso, un entretenimiento liviano y vistoso al que no habría que exigirle más que eso."  Uruguay Total  Enrique Buchichio

C-
"Who would have thought a movie this dazzling could also be so boring?"  EricDSnider.com  Eric D. Snider

0.5/4
"Speed Racer devolves into one of the most painfully ill-conceived borefests to ever grace a summer movie season and an easy candidate of one of 2008's worst films."  eFilmCritic.com  Erik Childress

B
"A two-hour-and-fifteen-minute sugar rush of a film, dazzling and exciting, a little too frantic and a little too long."  Film Blather  Eugene Novikov

2.5/4
"You have to appreciate the Wachowskis taking an awful franchise with a wholly uninteresting character turning it into a cheesy but fun pulp flick..."  Cinema Crazed  Felix Vasquez Jr.

D-
"The brutal sensory overload is coupled with a plot that starves the brain, a recycling of the silliness of the TV show unleavened by any saving hint of postmodern irony."  One Guy's Opinion  Frank Swietek

2/4
"At an exceedingly long 135 minutes, the film needs more than what might result from the explosion of a Crayola factory, and Speed Racer has nothing extra to offer -- no heart, no excitement, no moments to cherish."  ReelViews  James Berardinelli

2.5/4
"at once hyper-detailed and abstract, simultaneously drawing you in and pushing you out, with the ultimate effect of wearing you out"  Q Network Film Desk  James Kendrick

4/5
"... The Wachowskis have created a blast of pure pop family fun; Speed Racer's a bright, bold visual spectacle designed for kids."  Cinematical  James Rocchi

4/10
"Click here to read review"  Kinoblog.com  Jaroslav Vishtaljuk

4/10
"Cut from car to driver to announcer to audience and over and over again, ad nauseam. Such pretty racing scenes, so little to actually see."  Window to the Movies  Jeffrey Chen

7/10
"A flashy, colorful film that packs a ton o’ fun into its fast-paced frame."  JoBlo's Movie Emporium  JoBlo

2/4
"The Wachowski brothers adapt the classic 60s cartoon as a candy-colored visual sugar-rush that, despite its name, takes a while to cross the finish line."  Big Picture Big Sound  Joe Lozito

5/10
"Maybe it's all flash and little substance, but there's no denying the appeal of that flash...."  DVDTown.com  John J. Puccio

4/5
"Eikospente hronia meta to Tron (1982), oi aderfoi Wachowski fernoyn sti megali othoni ti pio abangkarnt mplokmpasteria toy (neoy) aiona metamfiesmeni se tainia gia paidia."  Movies for the Masses  Joseph Proimakis

"I never much cared for the cartoon."  3BlackChicks Review  Kamal 'The Diva' Larsuel

3.5/4.0
"While (it) may not win first place for the weekend, there's really no reason why it shouldn't... don't accuse me of being a Speed Racer apologist; I'm a convert."  MovieCrypt.com  Kevin A. Ranson

2.5/4
"This is a kids movie through and through, for better or worse. One thing's for sure: Chim-Chim rocks!"  Montreal Film Journal  Kevin N. Laforest

2/4
"It's kind of cool, but it's also more than a little like being trapped in a pinball machine while being asked to feel the Racer family's pain for the better part of two hours."  TV Guide's Movie Guide  Maitland McDonagh

1/3
"Speed Racer resulta extenuante, y después de tanto flash y colorín uno sale del cine deseando ir al oculista a ver si le han aumentado las dioptrías."  Off-Off-Critica  MalaBesta

"Imagine if the pod race in Star Wars Episode I was as bad as everyone said it was, and took itself twice as seriously, and went on for more than two hours."  Flick Filosopher  MaryAnn Johanson

3/4
"What I loved about Speed Racer is that the Wachowski brothers didn't even try to make it look realistic. It blows past exaggeration into the area of the sublime."  Aisle Seat  Mike McGranaghan

B+
"The Wachowskis have taken the iconic but decidedly low-tech 1960's Japanese cartoon character and put the pedal to the metal with dazzling effects and electrifying action."  Beliefnet  Nell Minow

2/4
"Comparable to dousing one's eyeballs in a sugary hyper-digitized Skittles soup."  Slant Magazine  Nick Schager

5/5
"Representa uma experiência visual fascinante, e mesmo que sua história traga problemas pontuais, isto não compromete a abordagem inteligente e ambiciosa dos irmãos que já haviam mudado a paisagem da ficção científica contemporânea com Matrix."  Cinema em Cena  Pablo Villaca

2.5/5
"[C]omplaints about Speed Racer's volume and visuals sounds like the lamentations of a bunch of grandparents pining for the days of penny candy and segregated fountains."  Film Threat  Pete Vonder Haar

1/5
"135 minutes of noisy, infantile and shockingly boring mind rot that will inspire only partial epilepsy in viewers whose ages remain in the single digits and complete ennui in those who have passed the big 1-0."  eFilmCritic.com  Peter Sobczynski

3/5
"This whizzy and outrageously colourful family action romp is a visually breathtaking hybrid of animation and live action. The story may feel about as gripping as a videogame, but the film is pure eye candy."  Shadows on the Wall  Rich Cline

3/5
"The colors in Speed Racer are ferociously bright and saturated; they don't appear in nature, but then nothing else in the movie does, either."  eFilmCritic.com  Rob Gonsalves

B
"Speed Racer may very well give your brain diabetes, and I state that as compliment."  Projection Booth  Rob Humanick

D+
"By trying to convince us that we're having a good time even as it pounds us senseless, Speed Racer moves beyond mediocrity and into the realm of active irritant."  Flipside Movie Emporium  Rob Vaux

B
"A very pretty, colorful roller coaster ride, a wonderful construction of visual imagination."  Laramie Movie Scope  Robert Roten

B+
"They even work the old SR theme Go, Speed Racer! Go, Speed Racer! Go, Speed Racer! Go! into the score which brought back [fond] memories."  Reeling Reviews  Robin Clifford

2/5
"It wouldn't surprise me to learn that the entire movie was paid for by the makers of Tylenol."  Cinematical  Scott Weinberg

1/5
"the summer's most irrelevant blockbuster"  Filmcritic.com  Sean O'Connell

"The Wachowskis blur the definition of "children's film" as much as the original cartoon challenged Western perceptions of "children's television"."  rec.arts.movies.reviews  Shane Burridge

8/10
"If you're into high-octane car racing, trippy Japanese anime and awesome visuals, this is spectacular, adrenaline-pumping family fare."  SSG Syndicate  Susan Granger

4/10
"The ultimate problem is that this is a film based on a lousy cartoon from the '60s that can only be properly called a "classic" through the muddied lens of Boomer nostalgia."  Antagony & Ecstasy  Tim Brayton
OFCS Rating: 44% Rotten
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