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Speed Racer (Widescreen Edition) | 
 enlarge | Directors: Andy Wachowski, Larry Wachowski
Actors: Emile Hirsch, Christina Ricci, John Goodman, Susan Sarandon
Studio: Warner Home Video
Category: DVD
List Price: $28.98
Buy New: $4.99
You Save: $23.99 (83%)
New (58) Used (35) Collectible (2) from $4.00
Rating:  178 reviews
Sales Rank: 934
Format: Color, Dvd-video, Subtitled, Widescreen, Ntsc
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Subtitled), French (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled)
Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Region: 1
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
Number Of Items: 1
Running Time: 135 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.1 x 5.4 x 0.6
MPN: WARD026369D
UPC: 085391176398
EAN: 0085391176398
ASIN: B001CD6FKI
Theatrical Release Date: 2008
Release Date: September 16, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed.
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Product Description
Studio: Warner Home Video Release Date: 09/16/2008 Rating: Pg
Amazon.com
An over-the-top, sensory overload experience determined to replicate its frantic, television-anime origins, Speed Racer is wild enough to induce a headache or wow a viewer with one dazzling effect after another. Adapted for the big screen as a live-action feature, Speed Racer is written and directed by Larry and Andy Wachowski, the sibling team behind the intensely satisfying The Matrix and its busier, less interesting sequels. Where the rich mythmaking of The Matrix was entirely accessible, however, Speed Racer's overwhelming and gratuitously complicated story exposition is an enormous challenge to follow, let alone embrace. After a while, one simply surrenders to the unbroken din of dialogue concerning corporate chicanery, corruption in the sport of racing, and a value conflict between racing as a family business versus multinational cash cow. At the same time, the film's hyper-real equivalent of the old Speed Racer cartoon's great whoosh of color, motion, and edgy production design--such as inventive uses of scene-changing wipes, bold framing, shifting perspectives--are more overbearing than fun. Emile Hirsch plays Speed Racer, younger brother of a deceased racing legend, Rex, and son of car designer Pops (John Goodman). The latter invented Speed's Mach 5, and is singularly unimpressed by an offer from a giant conglomerate that would lock Speed into exclusive racing services. Speed opts instead for family loyalty, incurring the wrath of the conglomerate's unctuous head (Roger Allam). With family honor on the line and the affections of girlfriend Trixie (Christina Ricci) behind him, Speed hits the track in hopes of fulfilling his destiny as a master racer. The cast is largely enjoyable, including Susan Sarandon as Speed's mom, Matthew Fox as mysterious Racer X, and a pair of chimps as the irrepressible Chim-Chim. All well and good, but in a movie that lives or dies by the excitement level of races that look like computer-animated Hot Wheels action, Speed Racer is a dreary adventure. --Tom Keogh
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| Customer Reviews: Read 173 more reviews...
 not worth your hard earned cash January 6, 2009
Irene M. Riedl (Upstate,NY)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
What a disappointment. Like Alice in wonderland meets Mario Andretti. Bad acting,flashing lights and colors. I'm sorry I spent that much and geeting so little in return. Both young and old in our home agreed.
 Not quite the sum of its parts January 4, 2009
Stephen Broome (San Diego, CA)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
There are plenty of good points about Speed Racer. There are plenty of efforts made that -- taken on their own -- are very respectable for their attempts if not the execution. Unfortunately the Wachowskis seem to have forgotten some very basic elements of storytelling amidst all these attempts, and the results are a movie that's mediocre at best.
Speed Racer begins telling story of a young Speed Racer who's never had any interests other than racing from the time he was a grade school student. With his big brother setting the example as a famous race car driver, he ends up following in his brother's footsteps despite him leaving both racing and his family under lousy conditions. Determined to be great - but also racing directly against the memory of his deceased brother - he dominates the competition and is eventually offered a chance to race for Royalton Industries, the top company in racing headed by the creepy announcer from `V for Vendetta'. The smarmy sales pitch doesn't win over Speed, and his refusal to race upsets the owner, who then chooses to try and kill him for his refusal. As a side-plot, Racer X (played by Fox) is busy crusading against the criminals who have ruined the game he loves.
It's a pretty basic setup that presents an odd problem. While I often lament the lack of patient storytelling in modern movies, I'm not sure this plot needed two hours and 15 minutes to execute. It's especially notable when the main character is so drab. The performance by Emile Hirsch as speed racer, is, well:
Not campy
not convincingly serious
Sort of semi-brooding
Not really humorous
completely lacking in chemistry with his on-screen girlfriend.
Not menacing or intense at all when he tries.
Hirsch's Speed Racer exists in a strange, uninteresting, no-man's land that mirrors the cg background and human actors in the entire movie. You're never completely attached him, he's simply a protagonist, not a hero. And like most video game the "talky parts" just feel like cut scenes in between boss fights (or in this case races in new locations). Part of the problem in this comes from the aforementioned visuals. While it's fine to dazzle with bright colors, there aren't moments of quiet that are convincing enough to provide a real build to the races. Everything feels to be going at the same speed. Normal conversations should not have existed in the same lane as the races. In fact they shouldn't have even been on a freeway.
There are some great visuals here, there's no doubt in that regard. Constant references to manga and anime storytelling devices are made, and most are successful.Characters make speeches while backed up by montages that illustrate their point.Speed lines, that old staple of manga and anime, is transformed into a very well done live version where backgrounds transform in live action and give an interesting escalation to the action. It works although I'm not sure if it holds much interest to those who aren't old-school anime fans. In this way it's reminiscent of Ang Lee's efforts to infuse comic book storytelling into his Hulk adaptation. It looked amazing to me, personally, but how many non-artists really cared?
In the end this doesn't work as well as it should have, but there's a certain level of respect deserved for a bold attempt and a nice integration of some very good cg. Essentially it IS a live-action anime, which is what a lot of us have wanted to see (imagining what Cameron's adaptation of Angel Alita is going to be like, etc.). Now the question is `should we ever have been anxious to see this?'
i originally wrote this review for my site at coalminds dot com
Speed Racer by Brandon M. Moskos December 29, 2008
Brandon Moskos
I was pretty disappointed in this film. I thought it would've been a lot better. I bought it because Emile Hirsch is one of my favorite actors, (See "Into the Wild" if you haven't seen it yet!) I found the movie to be quite boring and I really found it difficult to watch the whole thing. The acting was average and so was the story. I give it a C. I think younger people under 15 would enjoy this movie more than older people. Quite disappointing.
 fun December 28, 2008
Daniel E. Nelson
great film, all the fun of the original series with updates. The actor who plays Spridal is annoying, and his segments should have been edited (or dropped completely...).
Thank you December 24, 2008
Claudia Haunreiter
Thank you for getting this movie to me so fast. My brother loved opening it on his birthday!!!
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