Speed Racer

Last Wednesday, the Asian-American resource group within my company sponsored a pre-release screening of the new Speed Racer movie. Those of us who had registered for the event got to leave work to see a free film (popcorn and soda included), and then stick around for a Q & A with the voice actors from the English version of the original Speed Racer cartoon, Peter Fernandez and Corinne Orr. It was a great way to spend an afternoon.

The movie was better than I expected, though I have to admit I might have been in the perfect mood for it--ecstatic over being able to get away from the office during what was an incredibly stressful week. And the right mood always helps when going into a theater.

Speed Racer was a total popcorn film, meaning it was a visual spectacle, full of great effects and amazing action, but it won't get any award nominations for writing or acting. That's not much of a criticism, though. Popcorn films can be a lot of fun, and are perfect for summer viewing.

And I'm not trying to say the acting was bad. Emile Hirsch was perfect as Speed, staying earnest and childlike while injecting the role with a bit of an edge. Matthew Fox was solid as Racer X--staying masked and using a different tenor to his voice that kept this role from evoking memories of his well known character on Lost. I even thought Susan Sarandon and John Goodman were solid as Speed's parents. I worried that those two would be played for comedic effect and with a great deal of corniness, but they actually came off as loving and devoted parents and were the key characters in just about every serious scene in the film. I almost think the Wachowski brothers squeezed blood from a stone getting this random cast to each find the essence of the animated characters without seeming like cartoons, themselves. Like I said, no awards for acting, but this definitely wasn't a kitschy mess like the Flintstones or Scooby Doo live action films.

By the way, I should add here that I have a bit of a crush on Christina Ricci, who played Trixie in the film. I liked her when she was a chubby kid back in Mermaids and Casper, and then grew to lover her as an indie teen star in films like 200 Cigarettes and Pumpkin. Now that she's a nearly thirty, doe-eyed waif, she's still a favorite. To start with, she's got such striking features. And even if it's just the characters she plays and not her real persona, she's always come off as interesting and intelligent. In a way, she reminds me of my wife--a unique beauty with unique interests. The un-sorority girl--someone who will never bore and will always challenge you, physically, emotionally or intellectually.

Anyway, enough of my Ricci love. The summary is that although she has the fewest lines and least amount of camera time in the film (even the monkey gets more closeups), she still stole every scene she was in.

Overall, I would say Speed Racer was a decent film. I just read that it got killed in the box office this weekend, but it probably deserved a bit better. It wasn't that bad--it just fell into the nostalgia trap, where a studio makes a retro property into a film that's too kid-oriented for the thirty-something audience that grew up watching it, and too unfamiliar for the current crop of youngsters.

The film's effects were great (even if my old brain had trouble following the action at times), and the soundtrack was solid. If you're forced to attend a brainless popcorn film this summer, you could do worse than this one.