Speed Racer?

Here’s a little story about my relationship with the new Speed Racer film set to release early next month. I first saw the trailer late last year and my initial reaction was not entirely positive. It looked over-the-top, cheesy and unentertaining (kind of like how I view the original anime show as being). I immediately wrote it off as audience fodder for the Summer masses that somehow always seem to still line up for that kind of junk.

Then a couple weeks ago I saw the end of a documentary featurette being played in the movie theater before the trailers started and I heard someone on the screen say the film was being directed and produced by the Wachowski Brothers. Suddenly I was intrigued. Surely the fine boys who brought us movies like The Matrix and V for Vendetta  could not have been the masterminds behind what still looked like a Spy Kids knockoff with race cars.

I went home and researched and found out that after a handful of directors and writers signing on and then abandoning the project from as early as 1992 all the way to 2006 the production company did indeed sign the Wachowski Brothers as co-directors and co-producers for what they were hoping to be a film that would broaden their audience out to demographics beyond the rated R media viewers.

Now I am truly conflicted. The trailer, even with my newfound knowledge of its creators, still looks cheesy and forced. But now its the Wachowski boys. But it still looks like a waste of a night and 20 bucks. But its the Wachowskis. But still! Maybe I can convince Adam to go with me to see it and we’ll judge its value together. I hope I am surprised and proven wrong.