Go, Speed Racer, Go!

Four Word Movie Review: Best film this year.

Now, I haven't seen every film this year. But of the ones I have seen, Speed Racer blows 'em all out of the water. By, like, a long shot.

Iain and I just saw this movie (in IMAX!!!11!)—his having never seen the Speed Racer cartoon as a deprived kid in Scotland, and my having adored Speed Racer when I was younger—and both of us fell hard for this film. And neither of us could figure out why the heck it got such terrible reviews—because it was, and I quote, "tootally fooking brill!"

[Minor spoilers below.]

Unlike Ironman and Indiana Jones, both of which we've been anxiously anticipating for what feels like forever, we probably never would have seen Speed Racer if Todd and Kenny Blogginz hadn't dragged our asses there. And also unlike Ironman and Indiana Jones, both of which left us decidedly unimpressed, we were practically peeing our pants with excitement while we watched Speed Racer and couldn't stop babbling about its awesomeness once it was over.

It's got the coolest female characters out of all three films by far; Christina Ricci's Trixie gets in there with the boys—flying her copter, working on the cars, and driving them—Susan Sarandon's Mom Racer is just an absurdly wonderful mom character, and Yu Nan's Horuko Togokahn is great as a sassy schemer who helps the family she wishes were her own.

As in The Matrix trilogy, The Wachowskis create a world rich with faces of different colors, where women keep up with the men and borders are meaningless, except for the sharp demarcation between right and wrong. That world is, of course, visually stunning, rich with heretofore unseen effects, dynamic editing, and cleverly choreographed fight scenes. I dig their aesthetic immensely.

And, ya know, it's a popcorn movie...but it's a good popcorn movie with a decent story (and, I might add, compellingly progressive in its anti-corporate, anti-corruption, anti-bully, pro-indy, pro-rebellion message), characters you care about, and well above-average blockbuster acting.

The only disappointment is its poor showing at the box office, which means that we probably won't get a second installment.

I'm not sure why the critics decided to hate this movie, but, at Metacritic, where the critic reviews average an abysmal 37 out of 100, the user reviews give it an 8 out of 10—a big disparity even for Metacritic—and IMDb's users give it a respectable 6.6 out of 10.

So listen to the wo/men on the street and ignore the critics big time on this one, and go see Speed Racer, preferably in IMAX, if you've got one nearby. It's the most fun we've had at the movies all year.