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<< Previous   of   Next >> Warner Bros. photo  (click to enlarge) Emile Hirsch in a scene from "Speed Racer." (click to enlarge)   ADVERTISEMENT   "Speed Racer" Colorful: The "Matrix" makers, the Wachowski brothers, take on the Japanese cartoon TV series -- and it is, as expected, a technical marvel, a series of crazy car races and gaudy colors. The movie wears out its welcome and the video-game look doesn't really stick in the mind, but it'll keep kids in their seats. With Emile Hirsch. Rated: PG rating is for violence, language Now showing: Alderwood Mall, Everett Stadium, Marysville, Mountlake, Woodinville   CONTACT THE HERALD Melanie Munk, Features Editor munk@heraldnet.com   Published: Thursday, May 8, 2008 'Speed Racer' should satisfy kids: Take on 1960s Japanese cartoon looks like 2008 video game By Robert Horton Herald Movie Critic So the Wachowski brothers, those technically proficient moviemakers behind the "Matrix" pictures, use their Hollywood clout on … "Speed Racer"? Seriously, the made-in-Japan TV cartoon from the '60s? Yep. And the result, a live-action movie (well, sort of), is one of the weirder blockbusters to come along in quite a while. Stretching out to over two hours of gaudily colored computer-generated craziness, the Wachowskis have cooked up a movie that owes less to Japanese animation than it does to video games. We see glimpses of the youth of Speed Racer, who decides to enter the family business of competitive motoring. Although with a name like Speed Racer, it's hardly likely the kid would go into accounting. After high school, Speed (played by Emile Hirsch, from "Into the Wild") is poised to become the top driver of his time. In a long, drawn-out section of the movie, Speed is lured by the sport's ultimate corporate monster (ripe Roger Allam), who coolly informs the naïve lad that the sport is completely rigged anyway, and that he might as well sign himself over to the System. But Speed decides to fight the Matrix -- or whatever it is. Supported by his parents (John Goodman and Susan Sarandon) and loyal girlfriend Trixie (Christina Ricci), Speed races his gleaming white car around a swooping, non-existent track that was, of course, created entirely inside a computer. This is part of the reason the movie slips away like quicksilver. It flashes by at mach speed in fruity purples and yellows, and very little of what zips before your eyes feels, or is, real. I guess the races are exciting, although it's difficult to tell what's going on at any given moment, except that Speed's car can seemingly perform any three-dimensional movement at any time. There is no acting going on, but it's not that kind of picture. Within the cartoon terms, Matthew Fox ("Lost") does nicely as the mysterious Racer X, and Benno Furmann is good as Inspector Detector. Children should enjoy the chimpanzee and the kid who plays Spritle, Paulie Litt, who's clearly the re-incarnation of a nightclub comic. The movie achieves its goals, so give it credit for lots of mindless action. But it does wear out its welcome at 129 minutes. Maybe the Wachowskis were attracted by the villain's sinister explanation of bread and circuses: "It has nothing to do with cars or drivers," he tells Speed, "just the unassailable power of money." But thanks for buying your tickets, folks.

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