MOVIE REVIEW - Speed Racer

"Here he comes, here comes Speed Racer, he's a demon on wheels".....remember that catchy theme song from the TV show? Well after 41 years, here comes the half live-action, half- animated movie based on the Japanese import cult TV cartoon from 1967-1969.

If you don't remember the show, Speed Racer was the first Japanese cartoon to come to America and have real success. In Japan it was called Mach GoGoGo. It was the story of the "Racer" family and their son "Speed". He drove the race car The Mach 5 that his dad Pops built at their house. There was Racer X, the unknown mysterious racer, as well as Trixie, and don't forget the monkey Chim-Chim and others. And they're all here. Speed was always righting the worlds wrongs in the show always through auto racing. I know it sounds strange, but we all watched it.

Welcome to present day movie making and the movie that never ends. SR is a two-hour fifteen minute mess. I know that may sound harsh, but overall it is true. But there are bright spots. SR is visually a very interesting movie. You'll see some effects you've never seen before primarily during the racing scenes. It's interesting to be sure, but even the this grows old after the glimmer of the first race or two wears off. Just too much of a cool thing. I will say, if that's your cup of tea this is a movie that should be seen on the big screen.

But that's where the accolades end. Hopefully the kids will be in awe of the racing, because they won't really get the story at all. I don't know if anyone really is going to get the story here in total. The plot is herky-jerky like some of the animation. The real offense though is the length. SR is just flat out entirely tooooooo long, and not by a little. Get out the razor blade and slice off 40 minutes and you'd be good to go. You and the kids may have a tough time staying engaged, or awake till the end. Also for you baby-boomers, little of this SR shows any resemblance to the SR that you remember from the show that ran at 3pm on bad UHF-TV stations after school. Usually right before Ultra Man! and Johnny Sock-O.

It's going to be interesting to see how SR does at the box office. I'm not sure who the audience is. 41 years is a long time to wait to make a movie for those who remember the show. Plus youngsters today have no recollection of this show which has almost completely disappeared from the landscape for the exception of the theme song. There have been a few follow-up series to the original show, but none that really bit down hard and held on. Funny bit at movies end you DO get to hear some of the original theme song from the Japanese version of the TV show. Kinda fun.

You'll recognize some of the stars here. John Goodman as "Pops", Susan Sarandon as "Mom", Cristina Ricci as "Trixie," and Emile Hirsch as "Speed." All have done much better and more meaningful projects but sometimes the temptation of a potential big dough summer blockbuster is just too much to turn down. Truth be told, I think this would have been a much better total animation project.

The green flag drops on Speed Racer and we're off. Only trouble is, it should have been green-white-checker...for a much shorter and more focused race.