May the Ninth Be With You! · 7:44am May 9th, 2018
Today, 5/9, is the 10th anniversary of the Wachowskis' live action Speed Racer film, theater release date.
If you've never seen it before, watch it. If you have, watch it again?
I'm not going to really review it, but I'll try to convince you why you should give it a chance.
At first glance, there's so many reasons why you'd wanna stay far, far away from this. It's a live-action remake of a cheesy 60s cartoon. It's an American-made adaptation of Anime. It's jammed full of CGI effects. Maybe you don't care about racecars. Maybe you're skeptical of the Wachowskis after those Matrix sequels. Maybe you don't like chimpanzees. 
So you're probably thinking there's no way anyone would enjoy this unless it's ironic. (Not every movie can be a masterpiece like Dragonball Evolution 
)
But it's the opposite. This movie doesn't have a single ironic bone in its body. It's built on these campy tropes and melodramatic plots from 50 years ago, but it believes so sincerely in them that it makes them come alive. It asks you to take it seriously and care about what's happening.
The first few years of MLP Friendship is Magic's popularity, the whole world wondered if that was ironic too. It may have seemed intrinsically silly, but the creators cared enough to treat this show with utmost seriousness, instead of coating it with a protective layer of irony. They turned childish tropes into characters we deeply cared about.
Speed Racer financially bombed, and critics hated it. It had to compete against the first Iron Man movie in the same month, the humble beginning of the MCU. James Bond and Batman were also turning extremely dark and gritty around the same time. Kind of a pity the past 10 years of movies turned out this way.
I believe if you're here on this website, it's pretty likely you might appreciate Speed Racer.
I'm not saying it's my favorite movie ever, it's not what anyone would call profound (I'd pick Kurosawa's Ikiru for that), but at least it's the best action movie I've seen.
A lot of people will call Star Wars their favorite movie(s) of all time (#2 in America, in fact). Not merely because it's fun, but because the characters inspire them to be confident, caring, and courageous. I think people need something like that. Instead of Star Wars, I guess Speed Racer fills that same hole for me.
And by that criteria, I guess maybe it actually is my favorite movie. It's probably affected my life in far more positive ways than any profound piece.
Get it? May 9th?
Another kindred spirit who liked that movie, splendid.
It doesn't land anywhere the neighborhood of my favorite movies, but I remember being satisfied by it and the sincerity that transpired from it.
I’ll try to watch it
Huh. Maybe. I stayed away from it for all the reasons you gave, plus I watched Speed Racer reruns when I was in kindergarten, so it's a chance to spoil my childhood.
I remember there was an episode about a race through a volcanic mountain where all but a handful of people in the episode died. Probably that wouldn't go over well today.
If you're a vinyl (not Vinyl) nerd, possibly relevant to your interests?
I've always meant to watch this version of Speed Racer and never got around to it, so thanks for the reminder to seek it out.
4860485
Thanks for the link! I don't collect vinyl, but that has a really nice visual design.
the one disadvantage is you can't listen to it while driving a car...
4860626
What are you, some kind of filthy casual?
4860627
The needle jumps when my car jumps!