An eclectic masterpiece. Don’t go in expecting a good car movie or you will not enjoy yourself. I watched this movie in a state of fasting and had a similar revelation comparable to Moses or Muhammed after receiving the law of god. It came to me in the pancake scene. No longer did I see it as a franchise remake, but as a fusion of a man’s childhood memories as they are brought up in a state of longing for simpler times but warped by a lifestyle of gender bending hormones and life changing reconstructive surgeries. I couldn’t just watch a movie, but instead saw 6 layers of movies all seemed into one amalgam of color, beauty, hunger, and speed. There is lots of speed in this movie. That is one of the criticisms of this movie is that the racing is too fast and it doesn’t make sense, etc. Well watch this movie after you have been fasting for 6 days, and your metabolism is so slowed down that you take in every frame like you are sitting in an art gallery digesting a classical canvas for hours.
Lana Wachowski originally was the one getting the billing for this one. Later on they downplayed his/her involvement and sold it as a another wachowski bros. movie. However his transvestite bias is stamped all over this movie. The middle rally race in particular where trixie pretends to be speed and the japanse girl pretends to be Rain and vice versa. Lots of gender confusion.
It is a movie that has criticisms about corporate sponsorship and control. Recent allegations in the NBA about refs fixing the games show that this theme is still an issue that is relevant today. The feeling of being a child are so perfectly captured with the scenes about pancakes, Spridels food binges, and Speed’s classroom fantasy’s. But what makes this movie so special is that in the same way Speed Racer dub was not a pure translation of the japanese original, so too does this movie have that perfect blend of American interpretations of how a japanese product should be reworked to fit into what an American enjoys.
No longer are the gadgets the main focus of the race sequences, as they take a backseat to a super spinny arcadey type hot wheels on teacup amusement park ride style driving sequences. Car purists will cringe, salivating fantasy junkies will appreciate the non literal interpretation of what makes racing exciting (I.E. nothing, which is why they have to change everything). In Japan very few people can own and drive cars like in America, so it doesn’t make sense for American’s to have the same kind of fantasies about cars that they do. Thus to me it makes more sense to have the racing in this movie be very fantastical and unrealistic so that Americans who can race in real life have more of an outlet into the unlivable.
Luckily for everyone who hasn’t seen this movie yet, it bombed at the box office, so a blu ray release should be out shortly. It will probably be the first blue ray movie of current generation movies (I.E. not Blade Runner, or old Westerns) that I will find worth purchasing. Also this movie makes John Goodman a believable judo champion, and Susan Sarandon more attractive than ever (pancakes…).
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