Yesterday I picked Thelonious up early from school. I walked into the office at 11:50 and said, “I’m taking my son, Thelonious Fox.” It was so cool. I didn’t even have to make up an excuse. Which was good, because I was afraid the actual reason would result in the instant (and probably vehement) denial of my request for the early dismissal of my firstborn. Instead, the secretary just radioed to the playground and 5 minutes later a sweaty Thelonious strolled into the office.
“What’s up, Dad?”
“Ohhhh, I dunno. I just thought maybe we would ditch school and go see SPEED RACER!“
I have to say, that was one of the best decisions I have ever made. Speed Racer was incredibly good. I had seen Iron Man the week before and truly enjoyed it – Robert Downey, Jr. was perfection as Tony Stark. But, I have to say Speed Racer was better than Iron Man. And, just because it’s the kind of mood I’m in, I’m going to break it down list style.
Top Five Reasons Why Speed Racer Is Better Than Iron Man:
5. Casting. The casting in Iron Man was reallllllly good – but, Speed Racer was inspiring. Matthew Fox as Racer X? Dear god, it’s the first role he’s actually been good in – ever. From soup to nuts the best cast film since The Big Lebowski.
4. Trixie vs. “Pepper” Potts
3. Visually, Speed Racer was the “best looking” film I have ever seen. And, I don’t mean, “dude, the graphics were over the top!!!” Somehow, the cgi managed to be seamless, realistic, and understated – perfectly enhancing the storytelling. But, more importantly, the Wachowski brothers were able to visually interpret the methods of the original cartoon through the juxtaposition of dead pan close ups of the characters commenting on the story with the action taking place in the background. Iron Man kicked ass, but it looked like every other action movie out this summer.
2. Speed Racer had more monkeys than Iron Man.
1. Speed Racer (the movie) was better than the original. It’s like the Chronicles of Narnia. Everyone knows those were pretty good books considering when they were written. But the first Narnia movie totally ruled! It was way better than the book! It was actually suspenseful and interesting and had real action. Speed Racer is the same way (except the original Speed Racer cartoon was better than the original The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe book to begin with) – its way better than the original. I don’t know if you ever watched the old cartoon, but they didn’t make a lot of sense. Fully one third of every episode was Speed gripping the steering wheel as if his life depended on it and grunting. Ughhh! Another third was recapping what happened before the commercial break – 3 minutes of car race and then 1 minute telling you they had just shown 3 minutes of car race. The final third was a mish mash of the Mach 5 jumping into the air, Chim Chim, and Pops jumping up and down. The Wachowski brothers kept ALL of that, and at the same time formed a surprisingly interesting story with a real narrative structure you could follow. It’s like everything you loved about the original PLUS a plot.
Don’t get me wrong, you need to see Iron Man. But, do whatever it takes, even if you have to pull your kids out of school early, to go see Speed Racer right now!
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May 18, 2008 at 5:43 pm
rich
Dude, I read your title and I Was screaming inside SPEED RACER is WAY fricken better than Iron Man” and I was going to give you a little piece of my mind, then you “joyed” me by what you have written here. Speed Racer is an instant classic and I told my wife (who I took to Speed Racer on a date!!) that I now know what I want for Christmas… She laughs and says, “THIS!?!”
This movie made me laugh out loud, turn my head and scratch my face (and wipe away a tear that was making it itch in the first place) and long to get into the Mach 5 and go for a ride on those amazing race courses.
AND This was the “best looking” film I have ever seen!! I loved the “look” of “Hero”, and this mixed with the other-worldly supersatured colors of “TRON” (a favorite classic) Mrs Racer told speed that what he did when he was driving was “art”, this entire movie was beautiful piece of moving art.
May 18, 2008 at 10:01 pm
Lindsey
I was going to live in a blissful bubble wherein Iron Man was the only movie I wanted to go see, and thus I had no conflict of interest and my husband and I would just go see Iron Man.
Bubble popped.
Ah well.
June 4, 2008 at 4:11 pm
rich
OK, back to Speed Racer. Last night I took my 8 year-old niece (my 3rd viewing!) She likes to have movie night with Uncle Rich once in a while, and since I wanted to see Speed Racer again… well she had a good time. We started the evening at Burger King where she got her meal with a bottle of milk (She HATES soda! Go figure) She consumed her burger and most of the fries when we arrived at the theater and whined that she had not even opened her milk yet. “That’s OK, I will put it in my pocket and you can drink it in at the movie,” I told her. We got popcorn and red vines and sat down. ***spoiler alert*** So at the end of the movie, Speed is talking to Sparkey before the Grand Prix and Sparley tells Speed that he is looking forward to drinking milk at the winners circle. I turn to my niece and tell her that it is better to drink milk than soda or champagne when you win a race. She smiled and held up her bottle as if toasting the raceers. When the end of the race came, she was at the edge of her seat cheering for Speed and I looked over to her and she took her milk – which she had only sipped about half of her little bottle of Hershey’s vanilla milk – and smiled at me with a sly smirk … then when Speed got HIS bottle and drank that wonderful cold liquid, she held her bottle to her mouth and drank the rest in one big gulp. THAT was worth seeing, and I am glad I went a third time. Got Milk?