Sunday, November 10, 2013

First SPEED RACER Trailer

First SPEED RACER Trailer

The first trailer for SPEED RACER appeared on Entertainment Tonight last night and as expected, it didn't take long before it hit online. The upcoming adaptation of the 60's anime stars Emile Hirsch, Christina Ricci, Matthew Fox, Susan Sarandon, John Goodman, Kick Gurry, Paulie Litt, Roger Allam, Ji Hoon Jung, Melvil Poupaud, Richard Roundtree and Christian Oliver. The Wachowski Bros. handled the direction of the film, based on a screenplay they cowrote together.

Plot Summary: Hurtling down the track, careening around, over and through the competition, Speed Racer (Emile Hirsch) is a natural behind the wheel. Born to race cars, Speed is aggressive, instinctive and, most of all, fearless. His only real competition is the memory of the brother he idolized legendary Rex Racer death in a race has left behind a legacy that Speed is driven to fulfill.

Speed is loyal to the family racing business, led by his father, Pops Racer (John Goodman), the designer of Speed's thundering Mach 5. When Speed turns down a lucrative and tempting offer from Royalton Industries, he not only infuriates the company's maniacal owner (Roger Allam) but uncovers a terrible secret of the biggest races are being fixed by a handful of ruthless moguls who manipulate the top drivers to boost profits. If Speed won't drive for Royalton, Royalton will see to it that the Mach 5 never crosses another finish line.

The only way for Speed to save his family's business and the sport he loves is to beat Royalton at his own game. With the support of his family and his loyal girlfriend, Trixie (Christina Ricci), Speed teams with his onetime rival mysterious Racer X (Matthew Fox) win the race that had taken his brother's life: the deathdefying, crosscountry rally known as The Crucible.

Based on the classic series created by anime pioneer Tatsuo Yoshida, the liveaction "Speed Racer" will showcase the kind of revolutionary visual effects and cuttingedge storytelling that have become the benchmarks of the Wachowski brothers' films. I doubt this will really rub anyone the wrong way (like Transformers).

Speed Racer is an older property that has managed to remain relevant but doesn't have as much popularity as a Superhero or Fantasy property that warrants a big budget bigscreen adaptation.

What I'm saying is, this film is sort of an unexpected bonus, one that doesn't carry a lot of fanboy scrutiny. It looks like an all ages fun popcorn movie.

I Am Legend, on the other hand. The two part episode, "The Mammoth Car", would have made the perfect piece to adapt Speed Racer into movie form, unfortunately for us, this is not the Speed Racer that The Wachowski Brothers wanted to make, or made, for that matter. As I said in my last posting, I raved about the portrayal of Spridle and ChimChim, which I still hold to be true. The portrayal of these two iconic characters seems inspired, from a writing and directing standpoint.

This film should have looked like concepts of the future born of the 1938 World's Fair, a sort of clean alternative future, meets the 1950s or even early 80s pop culture. Instead we get this cotton candy, pink bubble gum, and chocolate flavored frozen yogurt temper tantrum spawned nightmare known as the Wachowski Brothers' Speed Racer.

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