Now Playing
Critics & Publications
Archives: A-Z Index
Advanced Search

Upcoming Release Calendar
Weekend Box Office
Film Awards & Top 10s By Year
All-Time High Scores
All-Time Low Scores
How Metascores Are Calculated
Discuss Film In Our Forums

sort by name

sort by score

38 12 Rounds
48 17 Again
76 Adventureland
48 Angels & Demons
54 Battle for Terra
xx Bruno
80 Coraline
40 Dance Flick
83 Drag Me to Hell
72 Earth
45 Fast & Furious
61 Fighting
34 Ghosts of Girlfriends Past
72 Gran Torino
73 Hangover, The
47 Hannah Montana: The Movie
51 Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs
54 Imagine That
41 Knowing
32 Land of the Lost
56 Monsters vs. Aliens
34 My Life in Ruins
51 My Sister's Keeper
46 Next Day Air
42 Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian
54 Observe and Report
25 Obsessed
48 Proposal, The
71 Public Enemies
61 Soloist, The
83 Star Trek
64 State of Play
55 Taking of Pelham 1 2 3, The
52 Terminator Salvation
35 Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
77 Under the Sea 3D
88 Up
43 X-Men Origins: Wolverine
34 Year One

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

sort by name

sort by score

67 $9.99
75 24 City
66 Adoration
74 Afghan Star
48 Alien Trespass
56 American Violet
82 Anvil! The Story of Anvil
57 Away We Go
77 Beaches of Agnes, The
62 Big Man Japan
28 Big Shot-Caller, The
78 Boys: The Sherman Brothers' Story, The
55 Brothers Bloom, The
82 Burma VJ: Reporting from a Closed Country
xx Call of the Wild
63 Cheri
62 Cherry Blossoms
63 Dead Snow
65 Departures
18 Downloading Nancy
58 Easy Virtue
71 End of the Line, The
77 Every Little Step
64 Examined Life
80 Food, Inc.
38 Gigantic
67 Girlfriend Experience, The
87 Gomorrah
89 Goodbye Solo
63 Great Buck Howard, The
79 Harvard Beats Yale 29-29
xx Home
82 Hunger
91 Hurt Locker, The
81 Il Divo
54 Is Anybody There?
72 Jerichow
54 Julia
74 Lemon Tree
36 Life is Hot in Cracktown
40 Limits of Control, The
42 Little Ashes
64 Lymelife
50 Management
57 Merry Gentleman, The
64 Moon
xx New York
62 Not Forgotten
xx Offshore
78 O'Horten
64 Outrage
40 Paris 36
54 Pontypool
71 Pressure Cooker
52 Quiet Chaos
83 Revanche
67 Rudo y Cursi
86 Seraphine
62 Sex Positive
70 Shall We Kiss?
77 Sin Nombre
59 Sleep Dealer
74 Song of Sparrows, The
53 Stoning of Soraya M., The
82 Sugar
84 Summer Hours
61 Sunshine Cleaning
27 Surveillance
42 Tennessee
63 Tetro
64 Throw Down Your Heart
80 Tokyo Sonata
63 Tokyo!
74 Treeless Mountain
88 Tulpan
74 Two Lovers
83 Tyson
83 U2 3D
60 Under Our Skin
69 Unmistaken Child
69 Valentino: The Last Emperor
22 What Goes Up
47 Whatever Works
54 Youssou Ndour: I Bring What I Love

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

Speed Racer
Warner Bros. Pictures


7.8

based on 37 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 265 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie

FILM:

GAMES:

Speed Racer (Wii)

MPAA RATING: PG for sequences of action, some violence and language

Starring Emile Hirsch, Christina Ricci, John Goodman, Susan Sarandon, and Matthew Fox

Hurtling down the track, careening around, over, and through the competition, Speed Racer is a natural behind the wheel. Born to race cars, Speed is aggressive, instinctive, and, most of all, fearless. 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. Speed is loyal to the family racing business, led by his father, Pops Racer, the designer of Speed's thundering Mach 5. When Speed turns down a lucrative and tempting offer from Royalton Industries, he not only infuriates the company's maniacal owner but uncovers a terrible secret--some of the biggest races are being fixed by a handful of ruthless tycoons who manipulate the top drivers to boost profits. If Speed won't drive for Royalton, Royalton will see to it that Speed never crosses another finish line. The only way for Speed to save his family's business and the sport he loves is to beat Royalton at his own game. With the support of his family and his loyal girlfriend, Trixie, Speed teams with his one-time rival--the mysterious Racer X--to win the race that had taken his brother's life: the death-defying, cross-country rally known as the Crucible. Yet, the ultimate test of Speed Racer's true racing grit will be at the pinnacle event of the World Racing League, the Grand Prix. But standing between Speed and the checkered flag are the world's best--and most cutthroat--competitors, fueled by a million-dollar bounty from Royalton to the driver who takes Speed out once and for all. (Warner Bros. Pictures)

GENRE(S):	Action \| Family/Kids
WRITTEN BY:	Andy Wachowski Larry Wachowski
DIRECTED BY:	Andy Wachowski Larry Wachowski
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: September 16, 2008 Theatrical: May 9, 2008
RUNNING TIME:	129 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	USA

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

Premiere Glenn Kenny

This is not a film occurring in an alternate or imaginary reality; rather, it is a film of NO reality, that is, a picture that changes the rules of its universe strictly according to its creators' whims.

Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips

At its best, it's buoyant pop entertainment focused on three things: speed, racing and retina-splitting oceans of digitally captured color.

Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea

Speed Racer offers a crazy, turbo-charged mix of cartoon kitsch, gamer action, and a wild new way to think of - and look at - movies.

Time Richard Corliss

Speed Racer announces the arrival of the virtual movie. If you watch the film overwhelmed by the assault of seductive visual information and wonder what you're seeing, here's the happy answer: the future of movies.

Variety Todd McCarthy

Aimed squarely at family audiences, the Wachowski Brothers' return behind the camera for the first time since the "Matrix" trilogy is a blur of video action painting and very loud sounds notable solely for its technical wizardry. In every other respect, it's pure cotton candy -- entirely non-nutritious but too sweet and pretty for young people to resist.

Newsweek David Ansen

Speed Racer creates a timeless, visually seductive world suspended somewhere between the pop '60s and the sci-fi future.

Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy

Filled with energy and visual pizzazz and at least strives for something more than dumb entertainment.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold

This one is a kiddie show all the way, with characters as broad and one-dimensional as a billboard, a vision of good and evil as simple as a bumper sticker and a tiresome chimpanzee mugging through every other scene like something from a bad Tarzan movie.

The Hollywood Reporter Kirk Honeycutt

Unlike a Pixar cartoon that embraces as wide an audience as possible, Speed Racer proudly denies entry into its ultra-bright world to all but gamers, fanboys and anime enthusiasts. Story and character are tossed aside to focus obsessively on PG-rated action and milk-guzzling heroes.

Empire Ian Nathan

It'll split the ranks like a pizza cutter: you might admire it as a Warholian blur of pop art, gawp and gasp at its Hot Wheels-for-real dynamism, or get a headache.

New York Daily News Joe Neumaier

The cast is generally game for playing cardboard cutouts, with Goodman having the most fun.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

There is one high note. You can approach Speed Racer as the trippiest stonerfest since Stanley Kubrick took his space odyssey.

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

It's hard to say whether the Wachowski brothers' live action take on the Japanese Speed Racer cartoons is more irritating because it looks like a Hot Wheels video game or because the brothers seem to think that there's a powerful family drama humming away beneath the flashing lights and spinning wheels.

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

If this action extravaganza represents the future of movies, it's going to be a sad, dead and awful future.

Film Threat Pete Vonder Haar

It isn't going to set the world on fire, but it's perfectly acceptable for what it is.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen

There's something here for everyone to dislike - the whole clan can have fun making fun of this thing.

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

It's a family film done as a trip film. It is a trip, but it's a bad trip.

Boston Globe Ty Burr

The movie demands you be a glutton for sensation and then has the nerve to ask why you're not hungrier.

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

Young boys are the only suitable audience for Speed Racer, the elaborate live-action adaptation written and directed by "Matrix" creators Larry and Andy Wachowski. And even they might feel an urge to squirm.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

At an exceedingly long 135 minutes, the film needs more than what might result from the explosion of a Crayola factory, and Speed Racer has nothing extra to offer - no heart, no excitement, no moments to cherish.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias

Borderline-experimental in the way it challenges the limits of perception. It's forward-thinking, visionary, and much of the time unwatchable.

Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer

So hyperfrenetic that, in the end, you wonder if the Wachowskis aren't trying to pull off an elaborate hoax – a deranged techno fantasia posing as retro-ish family fare.

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

Speed Racer is chaotic as a six-ring circus, gaudy as a transvestites convention and soullessly cute as a robot puppy.

USA Today Claudia Puig

Yes, it's a candy-colored Day-Glo world, but there's a liveliness missing from this lead-footed Speed Racer.

The New York Times A.O. Scott

This movie sets out to honor and refresh a youthful enthusiasm from the past and winds up smothering the fun in self-conscious grandiosity.

Washington Post Ann Hornaday

Chances are, after they've passed the two-hour mark, viewers will share the same collective, if unspoken, wish: Go, Speed Racer. Go.

Village Voice J. Hoberman

Gaudier than a Hindu-temple roof, louder than the Las Vegas night, Speed Racer is a cathedral of glitz.

Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov

There's more story, heart, and – cutting to the chase, the quick, and the dead – pure, unadulterated fun contained within a scant five minutes of Rockstar Games' new Grand Theft Auto IV video game than there is in the whole of Speed Racer.

Los Angeles Times Carina Chocano

The fakeness of it all overwhelms, dampening any real excitement. It's hard to care about characters so stiff and one-dimensional they out-cartoon the cartoon originals, and it's hard to watch them bop around like avatars in a flat, airless, digital world.

Chicago Reader Andrea Gronvall

Andy and Larry Wachowski barrel through this adaptation of the 60s animated series, hoping perhaps that no one will notice the story is as flat as roadkill.

Slate Dana Stevens

The state of mind brought on by Speed Racer the movie is more akin to that phenomenon by which young infants, exposed to more stimuli than their systems are equipped to handle, will simply shut down.

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

Such a dull, clunky, joyless mess, it's hard to believe the people who made it understand much about movies.

New York Magazine David Edelstein

Orgy, hell: The film is like a nightmare in which you're trapped in an arcade with screens on all sides and no eyelids. Based on an elemental but happily streamlined Japanese cartoon (an anime precursor), it's an eyesore, a shambles, with incoherent action and ear-buckling dialogue.

The New Yorker Anthony Lane

Though the film is not as criminally poor as "V for Vendetta," which the Wachowskis wrote in 2005, it struck me as more insidious.

New York Post Kyle Smith

This adventurously awful film is awful in many ways at once.

Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek

This isn't a picture filled with wonder and a sense of fun; it's so jaded and crass that I almost wonder if it's a highly unscientific experiment designed to gauge how little audiences will settle for these days. Manic and multicolored, Speed Racer is an excess of nothingness.

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

This toxic admixture of computer-generated frenzy and live-action torpor succeeds in being, almost simultaneously, genuinely painful -- the esthetic equivalent of needles in eyeballs -- and weirdly benumbing, like eye candy laced with lidocaine.

The average user rating for this movie is 7.8 (out of 10) based on 265 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

[Anonymous] gave it an8:
I have to say I really enjoyed the movie. I don't know anything about the animated series and how well/bad this ties to it but my kids and I have a good time watching this. I have to admit, the races is what really sells this movie for my family.

Danny H gave it a9:
To preface this review, while I have time upon time watched the Speed Racer anime, I was never a religious fan of the series. However, this was a genuinely enjoyable family movie. It had some pretty funny comedy, fight scenes that you wouldn't expect to be this good, car races (of course), and big explosions. And who doesn't enjoy all that? The characters were instantly likeable and the flashbacks, while kitchy, were both fun to watch and gave insight into the lives of the characters. For a movie that seems all flash at first glance, there is a LOT of substance. But, there is still flash, for better or for worse. The environments look beautiful but in the first and final races, the colors tend to blend together, even on a decent sized HD TV. So, the colors may hurt your eyes a bit. The only other problem I had was that the track races themselves were kind of boring. However, with the flashbacks and banter overtop the speeding cars, they still managed to be entertaining. In short, if you have kids, are a kid, or are a kid at heart, watch this movie. You'll be glad that you did. If you yell at the youngsters to get off your lawn, this may not be for you.

Morgan F gave it a2:
The effects were horrible. The plot stupid and confusing. The only times I laughed were at the absurdity of it all. And "cool beans"? WTF.

Oscar V. gave it a10:
I love this movie regardless what the critics said. It was fun and I was surprised by the deep family story. Made me tear up at the end when Racer X revealed his true identity.

DQ S. gave it a0:
This wasn't a movie. No. Make a list of the things that make up a movie and the only thing that Sped Racer qualifies with is: recorded sequences edited together. I'd rather watch the original sample material included with iMovie - Yeah, I'd rather watch the kids wash the St. Bernard.

Ben C. gave it a10:
I went in thinking "Well everyone hated this but I might still enjoying it." I came out thinking "WHY DOES EVERYONE HATE THIS?" I can't really describe what it was that I really liked about this, as a whole it just came across really well. Entertaining, genuinely funny and family friendly (GASP!). The World needs more films like this.

Colin C gave it a9:
Pure fun. I had a smile on my face the whole time. I'd never watched the cartoon and didn't actually expect much from this movie, other than cool visuals. Boy, was I surprised. The story really pulled me in. And the action of the racing kept me on the edge of my seat. As for the story, it even managed to bring a tear to my wife's eye. (Who really didn't want to watch it. I had to promise her that if she didn't like it, we'd stop after 20 minutes. When it was over, she thanked me for bringing it home.) Yes, it's campy and has it's tongue firmly in cheek, but it's also sincere, sweet and kick-ass rocking.

Speed Racer Warner Bros. Pictures

Speed Racer
Warner Bros. Pictures