Proof of their feet of clay was smeared all over this $120 million adaptation of an obscure-ish manga featuring such odds ’n’ sods stars as Christina Ricci, Emile Hirsch, John Goodman, Susan Sarandon and a chimpanzee named Kenny. making Matrix movies), they were less accomplished at others. But the real lesson of Speed Racer was that, if the Wachowskis were good at some things (i.e. There have even been claims, in the more excitable corners of YouTube, that it helped advance the language of cinema. It shot straight off the track, too, creating a smoking wreckage from which the Wachowskis have arguably yet to recover.Īs is the way with extravagantly awful films, Speed Racer has since built a modest cult following. The result was 2008’s Speed Racer, a brain-bursting caper so infused with brightness that sitting through all 130 minutes was akin to having a party-pack of Skittles injected into your eyeballs. So when it was time for the dystopian siblings to move on from Neo and Trinity, and red pills and blue pills, their first step was to bring in the decorators and swap out the Matrix’s distinctive blend of noirish cool and muggy emerald colours.
If you haven't seen it yet, go watch the trailer as well.The Wachowskis’ original Matrix trilogy was black and white and green all over. Speed Racer arrives in theaters next summer on May 9th, 2008. With the support of his family and his loyal girlfriend, Trixie (Christina Ricci), Speed teams with his one-time rival-the mysterious Racer X (Matthew Fox)-to win the race that had taken his brother’s life: the death-defying, cross-country rally known as The Crucible. The only way for Speed to save his family’s business and the sport he loves is to beat Royalton at his own game. If Speed won’t drive for Royalton, Royalton will see to it that the Mach 5 never crosses another finish line.
When Speed turns down a lucrative and tempting offer from Royalton Industries, he not only infuriates the company’s maniacal owner (Roger Allam) but uncovers a terrible secret-some of the biggest races are being fixed by a handful of ruthless moguls who manipulate the top drivers to boost profits. Speed is loyal to the family racing business, led by his father, Pops Racer (John Goodman), the designer of Speed’s thundering Mach 5. His only real competition is the memory of the brother he idolized-the legendary Rex Racer, whose death in a race has left behind a legacy that Speed is driven to fulfill. The look when you pass by is actually very cool.īorn to race cars, Speed Racer (Emile Hirsch) is aggressive, instinctive and, most of all, fearless. The helmet under his arm pops outwards towards you, whereas the car is set in the background but is also 3D.
This was up on display at my local movie theater (where I went down to watch the The Dark Knight IMAX short for the second time) and looks pretty incredible in person. A trailer for the movie just debuted last week and now a week later the first poster has been discovered, too. Today I stumbled across the newest one from the Wachowski's, a lenticular poster for their upcoming Speed Racer movie. Although lenticular posters aren't anything new, they still manage to capture the attention of passerby's and even amaze film fanatics, that is, if they're well designed.
Since then a wide range of great lenticular (or visually 3D) posters have been released for everything from Jurassic Park: The Lost World to Spider-Man 3. One of the first great lenticular posters that I can remember was for The Nightmare Before Christmas in 1993.