WISHING YOU ALL A VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HOPE THE NEW YEAR BRINGS YOU LOTS OF JOY AND GOOD FORTUN...
WISHING YOU ALL A VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HOPE THE NEW YEAR BRINGS YOU LOTS OF JOY AND GOOD FORTUNE X X
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My eldest son saw this film advertised when we were watching the television and he was so excited about being able to watch it as he is into cars and especially the Hot wheels collection which this is part of. The excitement on his face when Daddy bought the DVD was magical and throughout he was on the edge of his seat watching the cars!
The film is about the Racer family. The main character is the son, Speed who is very loyal to his family and works in the family mechanic business. All he wants to do really is follow his parents and elder brother and race. Pop Speed is very talented and has made Speed a racing car called the Mach 5 which he hope to race one day.
Another firm, Royalton Industries call upon the family and ask Speed if he will race in the Mach 5 for them but Speed turns them down. Royalton then start making threats to the Speed Family and try to destroy the Mach 5 so it will never be able to race.
Speed is then torn between racing for Royalton industries so they will leave
his family alone or doing as his family wish and staying clear of the Crucible Race. We learn that a few years previously Speed's elder brother was killed when racing in the Crucible so his family do not want the same to happen to Speed.
Will Speed race to save the family or will he continue only to dream. Also who will help if he does race and try to beat Royalton Industries?
This film was a joy for my boys to watch, especially my 6 year old. I did loose count of all the times he shouted out 'cool' at the cars and all the ooh's and wow's! He loved the film from start to finish and I was very shocked at the fact he sat and watched the entire film without once asking for it to be turned off. My 4 year old was not too interested in the story but he did also enjoy watching the cars as they both have a toy Speed Racer car to go with the film.
For me and my hubby who also had to sit and watch the film we were bitterly disappointed. The plot was weak and the film just seemed to loose the plot at times and made absolutely no sense.
The film was made using CGI animation which was very good and it was hard to try and stop the animation from the real props and characters. There was a kind of magical feel to the racing tracks as they were all strange and weird in shape and most of the track defied the laws of gravity, really it is not possible to drive up a vertical cliff face is it?
The characters all portrayed their roles as well as can be expected with the script they were given but I did enjoy seeing John Goodman in the film as I think he is a great actor and always makes the children's films funny with the faces he pulls. The rest of the cast were not know to me but do include, Emile Hirsch, Christina Ricci, Pauline Little and Matthew Fox. I know they could have made much more of the film if they were given more to work with.
The race scenes were very hard to watch and most of the time I did not have a clue what was happening as I could not see the cars, the races were all full of flashing lights and fast movement which I would say are not suitable for any one suffering with epilepsy to watch and I think this should be mentioned on the film case but it is not. My boys did manage to follow the races with the help of Daddy who was somehow able to follow the races more than me.
The stunts which the cars did were enjoyable for the boys to watch but to me they were very far fetched and over the top.
The music through out the film was appropriate but nothing really stuck out and made it memorable.
The DVD does have some bonus material which includes:-
Spritle in the Big Leagues - Tour the Movie set with Pauline Litt Speed Racer; Supercharged - Meet the drivers of the WRL; explore the films incredible cars and unbelievable race tracks
My eldest and hubby did enjoy watching these, especially the part where they were shown how all the cars were made and what special features each of them have, we again had lots of cool's and wow's during this!
The film was Produced by Joel Silver, Grant Hill, Andy Wachowski and Larry Wachowski and was written and Directed by The Wachowski Brothers.
The running time of the film is 129 minutes which is definitely long enough, especially for us poor grownups which have to sit and watch it and it has a PG certificate.
I will not recommend this film to adults but children who love their cars like mine will love this film. Again I will say that I do not feel the racing scenes are suitable for suffers of epilepsy.
The 2 Stars are for all the cool's and wow's which the film made my boys do!
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Nov 17th, 2008
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