Speed Racer

Saw Speed Racer, a film by the Wachowski sisters.  They were fresh off the sweeping cash roller-coaster that was The Matrix trilogy and I guess decided to indulge themselves in a giant, flashing, video-game-like cartoon of a movie.

Now, this is not a good film.  And some films that are not good are merely bad.  This one is amazingly bad!  Shot with actors mostly floating against a green screen, the backgrounds are filled in with eye-searing primary colors, cars and bushes floating along like an early playstation game.  I think all of the characters were composited together and suspect the actors only met each other on the red carpet.  At one point, a character is shown putting his hand on another character's shoulder.  From how they're standing, I think it just can't be that guy's arm.  I drew a diagram look:

Anyway the film is kind of a throwback: Speed is being pressured by corporate bigwigs (such Mr Crazy Arm in the image, above) to throw the race or to just become a pet racer of some kind.  But Speed just wants to be free, man, he's just gotta be he.  This reminds me of the films from the 70s and their rejection of society's rules (such as: don't be a jerk to waitresses about your chicken salad sandwich)

The visuals are all 90s video games however.  Teal, neon pink, blood reds, and searing greens are everywhere.  It's all so over the top and excessive.  At one point the villains bribe three bounty hunters to take out Speed: a pair of femme fatales who they pay with a velvet bag of diamonds, three soldiers of fortune who they pay with a suitcase full of cash, and a bunch of viking racers who they pay with a trunk full of furs.  Earlier in the film, a mob boss fires missiles from his office at a racer and his office is also a truck.  Insanity!  There's also a monkey called Chim-Chim.

So this film is nuts.  It's very much the kind of indulgent mess that someone would make just for themselves, while they still walked on water and could do no wrong.  There are a few neat, Matrix-esque fight scenes and I wondered if the villains being all fat-cats and suits may have reflected the Wachowskis themselves rankling at the money men telling them what to do.  The film is very fun, pure cheese, and will make your eyes bleed.  Highly recommend!