Summer Movie List No. 8 - Speed Racer

Rational people look at this movie and roll their eyes. Here's three reasons why I've decided to be irrational and look forward to this movie.

1)It looks like they're playing it absolutely straight and that's damned interesting. Anime, in general, is something that excites its base audience and produces either furrowed brows or snarky comments from everyone else. I'm interested to see what happens when you take the dead serious tone of anime and translate it to a living cartoon, which is obviously what's happening here. It might work and if it doesn't work, you can at least file it under "I" for "interesting failure." More than anything, Speed Racer strikes me as an experiment in what audiences are interested in, and the box office is going to tell a lot about what that is, and what the future of this sort of thing will be.

2) It's a family film. From the guys who's last film involved fetish kung-fu and more philosophy discussion than that coffee house across from campus, the idea of turning around and making a family film is really odd. I didn't think the Wachoski siblings (one of them has undergone or is undergoing a sex change operation, rumor has it) had it in them. But what an interesting way to bring in the entire family. You've got bright colors and monkeys for the really young kids, crush worthy guys and girls and kung-fu for the tweeners, nostalgia for folks like me (Speed Racer was a nickname of mine in High School. Don't ask) and action for everyone. It strikes me as visionary to see that come down the pipe - especially when we're facing a summer of "The Dark Knight" and other films that will nail our collective jones for brooding.

3) I never really gave up on the Wachoskis. Sorry. I still think they can churn out entertaining and possibly revolutionary fare. My hope is "Speed Racer" is just entertaining and doesn't get too lofty, but it's very possible we're in for a style and method never before attempted. I think they can pull it off, even though after $200 million and four years in production, the last two Matrix movies left me with a resounding "eh." I'm not expecting an "eh" from Speed Racer.

Honorable Mention) Christina Ricci as an innocent grrrrrl with a bob. I'm not sure she's ever been hotter, to be honest, and I own "Black Snake Moan."