Live-action cartoon adaptations are usually a disaster. Not this. This is all the fun of Saturday morning cartoons as a kid brought to life in a visually-intoxicating feast. It has scenery-chewing villains, annoying sidekicks, family values and an anti-globalism message long before Occupy. I think critics expected the Wachowskis to make another Matrix or V. A chimp air-guitaring to Freebird and Viking racers in cars that smash with giant maces should have been clues to the spirit of this film.

Unwatchable.

Colorful, to say the least. Color-overflowing, to say a little more. Color-engulfed. The live-action version of the late-Sixties made-in-Japan TV cartoon is of course, in this day and age, only partly live-action: real people like Hirsch, Ricci, Goodman, Sarandon, and Fox inserted into a world of total artifice, a world of Madison Avenue utopianism, pop color, ping-pong nonsequential editing, CGI landscapes, video-game action

Vastly underrated

If a movie based on Speed Racer was any different, it wouldn't work at all.

Am I watching a movie, or a video game cut-scene?

I don't like the style. Not one bit.

You only want to watch this movie for bright colors and over-the-top CGI special effects. A lot of it is practically an animated movie. Just don't expect anything especially life-changing or especially concerned with fan-service.

Creative, cool, flashy... but completely overblown and too long. I thought this was supposed to be a kids movie.

Visually it's something you've have never seen before but that isn't enough to make it a good movie.

Strangely entertaining

This movie is beyond stupid. The horrific editing was seizure inducing and the novelty of the special effects wore off after around 10 minutes. What the fuck were the Wachowski brothers thinking?

This is a great movie. This is one of those occasions when I feel the critics were dead wrong. Yes the movie is silly, the plot nothing special, but its a film based on a cartoon. Its called "SPEED RACER" for Chirst's sake. A colorful mind blowing assault on your senses. A film I hope becomes something of a classic with age. A must own Blu-Ray (i'm sure the dvd is ok, but blu-ray has the whole package). Do not listen to critics and see this with an open mind. You wont regret it.

Despite being childish at times, it must be noted that this is a film of wonderful sights. There's just enough plot and characterization to get by on but what really makes this fun to watch is the astounding pacing and editing. Everything zips along in the coolest ways imaginable. All the hate this movie has accrued is undeserved.

Pacing is fast enough to enjoy the crazy visuals and action, and in that regard the Wachowski's deliver. Even with a 2 hour plus runtime it kept my attention throughout.

I know people didn't like this, but I thought it was perfectly made. I enjoyed the story and could follow along, the races were interesting, and Goodman/Hirsch/Fox/Ricci are all great at their characters. Add colors, a cool soundtrack, and some wacky homage to a classic cartoon and you get a surprisingly great movie.

Wonderful, fun, fast-paced. True to the spirit of the original.

good fun, too bad it came out at the same time as IronMan, also john goodman bashing baddies in slo-mo ftw

Unironically one of the best films of 2008. Speed racer uses it's fantastic visuals to create a movie of almost pure emotion. It's a film that knows exactly what it is and isn't and works within its boundaries to near perfection. Speed Racer is the fukkin hero of the people, hell yeah.

Screw the people who don't like this film. Spectacular visuals combined with a heart at its center that Dick Cheney'd shoot through an orphanage for, this is fantastic stuff.

Interesting film, nice for the fact that it is unusual, in its length, style of filming, use of special effects, video effects, etc. The acting is also quite specific to this film. The whole makes for a unusual experience.

I don't quite get it. By many conventional measures, this movie was not particularly "good". The plot is pretty cheesy, and the dialogue is not exactly Oscar-worthy. But I couldn't wipe the smile off my face while I was watching it. The Wachowski brothers clearly had a ball making this movie. The visual style of it is actually pretty incredible -- they basically went for "living cartoon universe", and they nailed it pretty well. Grab a big bucket of popcorn and buckle up.