the vynsane asylum

I hear Speed Racer sucks...

True or False?

UKWildcat wrote:I hear Speed Racer sucks...

True or False?

I'd say false but it depends on who you ask. There are some people who loved this movie and some people who hated it.

I think it's going to be one of those that's polarizing, but will slowly develop a huge audience on home video. Hell, The Iron Giant is one of the fucking greatest movies ever, and it's by the guy who directed The Incredibles and Ratatouille, and I think seven people saw it in the theaters and hated it. Now it's this milestone of modern animated features (or features, period). Same thing goes for The Nightmare Before Christmas, which was a dismal flop.

I think it's in for a boost soon. Not here, maybe, but overall. It's apparently not opened in Japan yet. They'll eat that shit up. Then shit it out and eat it again.

anarky wrote:I think it's in for a boost soon. Not here, maybe, but overall. It's apparently not opened in Japan yet. They'll eat that shit up. Then shit it out and eat it again.

Hopefully they will, just as long as they don't see it as a bunch of gaijins capitalizing on their shit. But then again, that's what the original "Speed Racer" was, anyway.

Actually that's oddly kinda backwards- the original cartoon was actually the Japanese kinda stealing shit from the west -it's not supposed to to look like anything to do with Japan and this was done very intentionally. The movie will hit Japan REAL hard I think- I wouldn't be surprised if a slightly different film was actually released to the Japanese market, but mark my words this film is pretty much the final product of a journey that has enthralled generations of Japanese- it IS pretty much the perfect translation what anime/manga has been shooting for all this time, without the big eyes, it's basically "what if that shit REALLY happened in REAL life" and as such it fuckin destroyed the target and set the bar somewhere in space

Seeing it again was fuckin awesome, there was a bunch of shit that I just plain forgot about when X claimed to be not-rex- the way the movie jumps around all over the place at times really made it hard to fully "get" everything that was crammed in there the first time and I still need to see it a bunch more.

One of my fave weird time-twists was the helexicon- Royalton gives Speed the deal about what all shit will hit which fans, it keeps going back to the race, then flashes to even further ahead in the future (when Pops gets served notice on his pending copyright troubles) then back to the race, then Speed loses the race, THEN we close with royalton sayin "you walk away from me, sure go ahead, go to fuji, you won't even cross the finish line" and Speed saying "I'll do my best" even tho he's somehow already lost the race by that time.. WHEW it makes even less sense written down but it was too cool nonetheless

I also loved how Speed told royalton the story about how the 43 Grand Prix was what re-energized the "drive" to be a racecar designer, then later on Pops "reveals" the exact same story as if he's somehow illuminating someone- classic cartoon re-use of themes/footage, very cheesy yet very cool

And knowing the X deal made a lot of lines in the film a tad funnier, and I was paying better attention when X and Speed were first racing together and how they both had the exact same system of "plays" with the same names and everything

Also especially poignant is when Pops has his revelation about how Rex was killed BY Royalton for knowing that the whole deal was rigged and trying to do something about it

STILL my fave line of the whole thing was "fruity Racer X" and the "JESUS kid you CAN drive, hell I haven't been flipped like that in YEARS" and he's all laughing and totally NOT racer X, DAMN that scene REALLY got me

Here's another little something to watch for, and it literally just hit me a few minutes ago. It didn't stand out on either viewing, because it's some damned clever filmmaking.

When Royalton is talking about the '43 Grand Prix, and it shows the old black and white pictures of Ben Burns in victory lane, drinking milk, I think they superimposed an old picture of Richard Roundtree's head from one of the Shaft movies. If not from the movie, definitely from the same time period. He's got the 'fro and the big moustache.

It didn't stand out to me because I knew it was Richard Roundtree, and I knew present-day Ben Burns was also Richard Roundtree. It only just clicked with me that Roundtree doesn't look at all like Shaft anymore. (Hell, he looks more like Benson!)

And it would also explain why they used still pics for that bit instead of old B&W race footage, as they did elsewhere.

That is a brilliant use of digital manipulation there.

Sponge's version of the Speed racer theme song from the mid-90's was badass.
If you've never heard it, take a listen (bonus: The Ramones badass version of Spider-man).

Grimlock loved The Love Guru.


So I saw Speed Racer today at the cheap theater...
I didn't hate it, but I didn't like it either.
I was never bored, but I have no desire to ever see it again.
The whole movie was more of a sugar rush than an adrenaline rush.
Christina Ricci was crazy hot in it though.

What it needed was far more Chim-Chim.

Diabolical wrote:The whole movie was more of a sugar rush than an adrenaline rush.
Christina Ricci was crazy hot in it though.

What it needed was far more Chim-Chim.

I can agree with those points.

I'll pretend I didn't read that post at the 'con RB/DB

You're gonna LOVE the documentary I'm screening

I saw this at the $1.50 theater and I thought it was pretty darn good, considering the source material. The final race seemed tacked on, and when you are over 2 hours in a kid's movie you are boiling over into unforgivable territory, but the movie gives it a go on plot and collapses in on itself with flashbacks like the bowtie twists and turns of the tracks when it could have very easily played it safe and succeeded almost exclusively on a visual level.

And what a look! I thought the coruscant night chase had brilliant color, but the palette here is completely off the charts. i can't wait to see it on my plasma.

If the movie is a failure, this is not the failure of a hack. This one is going to live on in the annals of cult films, much like Flash Gordon, another camp classic.

Glad our recommendations were warranted to some degree

I must admit I was a little bit high both times I saw it (tho much moreso the first time, pretty much hardly at all the second) but I don't get stupid since I am pretty much used to the herb...

I know the other guys here were straight when they saw it and it hit them the same way, so it wasn't the slightly altered state that made the movie AWESOME

for 1.50 you got a HELL of a deal JON, I would see it several times at that price, and I can't wait to see it on the smallscreen myself- one observation, the film seems MUCH shorter the second time around- I thought the film was pretty much better than any psychedelic experience I've EVER had and that is encompassing a LOT

A DVD set of the original cartoons is scheduled for 10/7/08. Presumably to coincide with the movie, though this is unconfirmed.

No concrete word on whether the episodes will be newly remastered, or if there will be any extras. As crappy as the current DVD releases are, they're complete, and I'm not planning to drop $50 on a double-dip anytime soon.

While I was in Iowa I took the kids to see this on an IMAX screen.

Fucking Incredible.

Go Speed Go!!!

Ya know what I've been thinkin- how AWESOME a Mobile Suit Gundam film could be done up like Speed Racer