Family Entertainment
DVD Corner: Speed Racer
Danielle Turchiano |
 |
 As brothers, Andy and Larry Wachowski could not be more different but for the passion they share for seemingly combining filmmaking with gaming. Often such differences in personalities will clash on-set, leaving a product that never quite finds its flow and instead feels like little skits: each directed in a different voice, but lumped together as one big work. While their critical hit The Matrix was the first in a long line of morphed-genre works in which the boys walked a dangerous tightrope of style over substance, it managed to find its ground with a common theme and thesis. Unfortunately their latest release, Speed Racer, plummets down the green-screen induced abyss that is postmodern filmmaking, creating an unfortunate mess out of a classic piece of pop culture history from our childhoods.
Speed Racer gained acclaim when it was a cartoon, so it should be comforting to see the Wachowskis tip their hats to the medium that made the franchise famous by incorporating some sequences that, although done with digital technology, feel drawn straight from an anime board. When overlapping said images with their live action stars and stunts, though, the result feels too campy and cartoonish to be taken as seriously as the emotional storyline seems to warrant.
 Emile Hirsch is the hero and title character (with the budding young star Nicholas Elia playing him as elementary-aged), and the Wachowskis certainly didn’t want to waste such raw talent, so they whipped up a convoluted tale of morality in a high speed sport. All Speed has ever dreamed of is being a race car driver, like his older brother Rex (Scott Porter); his father (John Goodman) owns his own car servicing company, so there is no question he will go into the family business. When Rex dies in a mysterious crash, Speed is not only competing against drivers who have been paid to take him out, too, but also the ghost of his fallen role model. Add into the mix the rival company who wants to sign Speed, the question of whether Racer X (Matthew Fox) is really Rex and the cheating, gambling and fixing of races (even the Grand Prix!), and the result is a 135-minute movie with so many characters that flit in and out (and often with bad accents) it’s almost hard to keep track of who everyone is, let alone why we should care. Oh yeah, and to keep with the original cartoon, Speed’s girlfriend Trixie (Christina Ricci), little brother (Paulie Litt) and pet chimpanzee are along for the ride, too—though they do little but carry out a couple of funny sight gags.
It’s hard to tell which Wachowski brother was pushing for the more involved, emotional details and which was fighting for the “cool” graphics and motion sequences, but it’s obvious that they couldn’t come together with a compromise. Speed Racer is entirely unbalanced: some scenes are so high-octane they hurt your eyes whether you are viewing them in high definition or not, while others drag in comparison with attempts and thoughtful and thought-provoking serious and sentimental moments.
 The color scheme is so brightly neon, it’s as if there are fluorescent lights shining behind transparencies of people and objects and projecting false images. Colors wipe the screen so quickly, it can be assumed the action is to simulate the speed of the cars, but the effect is simply psychedelic without cause. The futuristic imagery tries too hard to one-up that of the original, but more importantly, the intensity of this dark tale falls flat because the actors are not allowed to explore the depth of their characters and situations but rather are thrown into absurd setting after even more absurd setting. Ironically, despite the sensory overload of Speed Racer, the events that actually unfold are quite formulaic for this type of film, and by the time the Wachowski brothers “officially” make their reveals, the audience has already been in the know for the better part of an hour.
The special features on the DVD release (Warner Home Video, MSRP: $28.98) include two oddly simple featurettes (when compared with the overblown quality of the feature film) and a digital copy of the movie, which if chosen to download actually costs extra. “Speed Racer: Supercharged” is a standard making-of behind-the-scenes look at the film’s cars and racetracks, while “Spritle in the Big Leagues” is a behind-the-scenes set tour specifically with Paulie Litt, who the producers seem to think will be the next Bob Newhart.
 As if the bastardizations of Scooby-Doo or The Flintstones as live action features weren’t enough, the Wachowskis’ Speed Racer is yet another to add to that DVD shelf--or better yet, to toss in the trash.
Speed Racer is now available on DVD.
|
