True..I have a DLP stand alone projector that I break out for special viewings...five minutes into SPEED RACER I decided to go all out and hook it up..took about 45 mins...but it was worth it. I jumped up from my 48 inch Plasma to the 95 inch screen projection of my DLP...wife popped a bunch of pop corn, and we started the movie over and she, and I, and our kids were entertained by the movie and over-the-top effects...worth the extra effort.. Rob
I saw it in theater and I liked it, though it certainly had its flaws. Too long, waaaay too much subplot with the family characters, the final race wasn't nearly as exciting as the previous one (all the recurring racers like Racer X and Rain are gone, the villain was only briefly introduced in a single earlier scene, it's just in a stadium not cross country through deserts and mountains and ice caves, etc, etc). The racing scenes are AMAZING. I love how the cars actually fight each other. Matthew Fox was very cool as X. The corporate bad guy was pretty good as well. If only they had cut out 30 minutes of all the family stuff!
I was at Hollywood Video the other day and they had it to rent for 2.99 and the whole shelf was full. 2.99 is not the going rate for new released movies, I wont be surprised if this movies ends up in the dollar store, because nobody is buying it. I think some people won't buy it because of the preconceptions they have -- just like in the movie theater. They think they won't like it, so they didn't see it, nor will they purchase the DVD. Because in my experience, 7 out of 10 people who actually saw the movie were surprised and like it a lot. On the other token, 9 out of 10 people who saw the trailer don't want to see the movie.
A victim of a PR campaign that let it down? Interesting possibility. For while it isn't a great movie, it was entertaining and just as good as some of the other so-so movies that have come out in the past several years. For example, I found SPEED RACER to be better than both Spiderman 3 and Xmen 3.. Rob Scorpio
I rented it a few days ago. I had planned on seeing in the theaters, but due to the negative reviews, I had not. I liked it well enough that I will probably buy it - I think it has some rewatchability. It was really just a live action of the cartoon though, so if you didn't like that sort of thing growing up, you wouldn't like it now.
Considering both those movies performed better at the box office (and apparently video release) than "Speed Racer", I think it says plenty. The marketing for Speed killed any chance the movie had to succeed.
^ Yeah, but there isn't really much of a correlation between the quality of a movie and it's box office take. There will always be good movies that flop and bad movies that make a shitload of cash.
I saw it in the theater. It is well done but the film is way too long and there is way too much is crammed into the story. Perhaps this would have worked better released as two films?
I've seen it once before and decided "well, if people are saying they like it, maybe I was just having a bad day." So I watched it again. If I suffered from ADHD and an attention span no greater than ten seconds, I might have enjoyed it. But dear God, most of the movie is nothing but micro-fraction-of-a-second cut scenes spliced together. Even the "action" scenes leave me going "WTF?" Half the time I thought I was going to go into a seizure or just flat out vomit. Hell, I can't even tell what year it was supposed to be taking place in (the "old timey" race scenes were in black and white on a color television, the BadGuy(tm) said something about using a Commodore 64 as his first PC even though he was only in his 40s or 50s, and the old timey black and white racing scene was taking place sometime after the 40's.. whichever decade that was supposed to represent with their modern racing style). So.. again, WTF? Lousy story, unbelievable world, Spritle was even more annoying than he was in the cartoon, wretched cinematography (sure, it would have at least been pretty if you ever got a good look at anything for more than a fraction of a second), and.. just... blah. The only thing I liked was the hotel scene with the ninja. And then only when Pops showed up and the camera zooms into his Greco-Roman Wrestling Champion ring, followed by the ninja having his own "oh fuck" moment. That was it. And hell, even that scene was marred by the jarring cut scenes and spinning. That said, I could see why a really young child would enjoy it. I'm pretty sure it was made specifically for them in fact. But damn.
Don't worry Psion, I liked it and I don't ADHD either..though I do have a HDTV!!! It is amazing how some on this site can take threads like this and turn it around and use it to make some kind of negative thread about real people. So...in the spirit of my first post? The movie is good...NOT GREAT..it is good. And you don't have to have ADHD to like it, nor a stick up your ass too. Rob