The film of the week this time is SPEED RACER.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0811080/

I remember when I first heard about Speed Racer. I was a huge fan of the tv series from back when I was kid, so the idea of a film sounded both terrible and amazing. The tv show was terrible actually, but in a charming way that my younger mind could not comprehend. Then the film came out and everyone hated it. Critics thought it was a overly flashy piece of crap with cheesy writing, and overly melodramatic acting. I can understand these complaints because they are all true. Speed Racer was never going to be a good film. It's not the kind of material that could be done in the modern era where an old series is given a gritty reboot. Not even Christopher Nolan could have done it. Speed Racer is not a great film. I don't think it could even qualify as a great one. Actually forget that, it is an amazing film. Yet it is also kind of terrible. In a way it is like Flash Gordon. Sure it's campy and over the top, but it is done so well that I really couldn't care less.

The film looks fantastic. I can't remember who it was, but some critic described the visuals as looking like the inside of a futuristic pinball machine. That pretty much describes it. Everything in this film is colorful, and crazy. The races are the best part. The laws of physics get broken constantly as cars bounce around like hot wheels cars, and throw random insanity at each other. The cars use anything to win from bee hives, to oil spills. They also fly around in slow motion and spin on the track for no apparent reason. Oh and the film has a scene when John Goodman fights a ninja. There is also a monkey that belongs to one of the characters.