Short of giving the film away for free, I don’t know what else Warner Brothers can do to convince folks that Speed Racer is, as Lord Joel Silver puts it, “fresh and unique”. Perhaps a loop of Christina Ricci undoing her suspenders would do the trick. Kids dig a disrobing Ricci.
I’m apparently in the extreme minority in thinking that Speed Racer looks bonkers in a borderline brilliant way, but how can you not love that shot of Speed deploying hydraulics to bounce over a pursuing car, which then passes underneath Speed and seemingly through the lens of the camera (windshield, human driver and all)? I’m still a little concerned that we’re not seeing completely finished sequences (without which I’m not entirely sure how this mayhem is going to cut together), but the gonzo artistry on display is unlike anything I’ve ever seen. It might add up to a lot of cacophony, but at least it won’t be half-assed political posturing like the mis-adapted V for Vendetta.
A five-minute preview might seem excessive, and, to be honest, there’s very little in this Yahoo! reel that we haven’t seen in one of the multitude of trailers currently available online. Really, it comes down to Ricci and the suspenders. Doesn’t it always?
26 comments
In regards to V: Once again, we disagree Smith.
agreed jeremy…true fact: doctors play "V for Vendetta" on repeat to help insomniacs sleep…works everytime!
Jeremy, you need an enema… especially when it comes to your feelings about V for Vendetta… You are quite misguided…
Have any of you defending V actually read the graphic novel? The movie was a dumbed down piece of crap that was an insult to Alan Moore. He didn't even want his name in the credits, knowing full well they made a shit sandwich out of his fantastic book.
I was starting to think I was the only one in the lower 48 who didn't like V for Vendetta.
The V movie, at least, didn't hurt my eyes with its weird pastel tones.
Speed Racer looks like it might hurt my eyes, but only in the good way.
V FOR VENDETTA was a poor adaptation of a really intelligent, solid graphic novel. It stripped out all the really bold and controversial ideas, made the characters less interesting, introduced terrible dialogue, and threw in some entirely unnecessary popcorn movie action sequences.
Ideally, V FOR VENDETTA would have been directed with a Kubrickian edge by someone far more interested in preserving Moore's controversial look at government.
I predict Speed Racer is going to be a bomb of Nagasakian proportions.
It'll bomb, for sure, but I stil can't wait to see it. Never have I seen on the horizon a better excuse to buy some mushrooms.
V for Vendetta is awful.They took a big dump on the graphic novel and slowly used each page to wipe their bottoms. A travesty.
and speed racer looks set to be even worse….
Speed Racer has a different kind of look going for it, and I think a lot of people are having trouble with that. Has the cheesy/cheap vibe of the original cartoon in its look, which makes it look to me somehow bland and over done at the same time. What we've seen does have a sort of unfinished quality to it. We'll see. I am looking forward to it despite my comments. More than the other releases on that date, actually.
Wait a minute…people are upset about one of their childhood favorites being adapted for the big screen? HOLY CRAP!
Everything you wrote Jeremy is dead fucking spot on.
I have less than no interest in watching Speed Racer. But sooner or later I'm going to have to wonder why, as a grown man, I believe I should.
I have up until now suspected my demographic to be the only one.
This movie looks HORRIBLE. A neon CGI nightmare. And am I the only one who thinks that when Hirsch has his helmet on he looks like Jack Black driving that car? REALLY?
V for Vendetta the movie was better than the graphic novel. Plot threads that didn't pay off and extraneous characters were eliminated, as was the ridiculous falling-in-love-with-a-computer subplot. And the bio-weapon angle makes more sense. Alan Moore himself admitted that he made a mistake in assuming that it would take nothing less than a full-on nuclear war to push a democratic society in the direction of a police state. In light of recent experience, he and the rest of us know that it doesn't take that much.
The special effects look cheap as fuck. You don't want the audience to realize they're looking at a green screen, no matter if ur watching SIN CITY or THE SPIRIT…yeah, it's not supposed to look 100% realistic because it's a fantasy world, but u still gotta be able to combine the actors with the CGI in a 3-Dimensional way, and that's all I can think of when I see these shitty trailers and clips. That and John Goodman's fatter than ever, half-dead delivery…I miss the pre-97, 'Roseanne' Goodman. Dan, as fat as he was, never had that many chins. I hope it bombs cuz I'm sick of these fucking remakes, TV remakes, cartoon remakes, superhero shit, whatever…is it really that hard to write an ORIGINAL screenplay? Whatever happened to good ol' fashioned plagiarism? That would be a 100 x more welcome than another fucking remake.
Oh, and Vendetta sucks because it sucks…Personally, anything the Warshowski Brothers are involved in is flat and boring to me, from their bright, generic Super 35 cinematography used in the past, (yeah I think Super 35 sucks, but there are cases when it can be overlooked, like with Cameron or Jackson), or their overblown style. I think they're OVERBLOWN if any two directors can be, and I've always felt that The Matrix was a fluke for those who do love it, (unloved by me).
I have to agree that it looks CRAZY in a way we haven't seen. Name ONE MOVIE that looks as wild as this. I love in the trailer when Speed as a kid is looking at the clock in school waiting for the bell to ring. A MUST SEE MOVIE.
I want to see this movie. I really do. It'll be an "escape movie"… go to the theater and forget your troubles for a couple of hours.
It doesn't have to be There Will Be Blood… what do you expect? It's Speed Racer!
PS – Love the Wipeout out feel to the racing segements, but then I loved that game.
I'm sure it's been said, but this looks less like Speed Racer and more like F-Zero the movie. Except the cars don't hover.
If I'd seen that image unaccompanied by the article, I'd have sworn it was a bad 80's sci-fi starring charlie sheen.
Meh. I couldn't even find the Speed Racer cartoon interesting as a kid. Now it is expected that adults will shell out $10+ to see this overblown POS?
No thanks.
Summer meet your first turd-Speed Racer.
This movie will be THE movie to watch for people on LSD.
i hate this site.
Whoever said this is going to be a bomb of "Nagasakian proportions" is tacky + wrong. It's coming out slightly ahead of the big summer blockbusters. It'll hold its own for a few weeks, come close to V numbers, then drop fast. If it's actually good, it'll find a nice DVD audience/following among the anime dorks & nostalgic geeks. Also, I wanna spend the rest of my life with my face between Christina Ricci's knees.
I miss the old curvy Ricci. Still, there's worse places to spend the rest of your life.
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