There's been much buzzing around the Cinematical virtual office over the past few days about Speed Racer. James pretty much liked it (for a kids' movie), Scott pretty much hated it, and Eugene seems, well, a bit disappointed. We just got back from taking the crew to see Speed Racer.
Last week at the same time, we were at Iron Man, and the theater was almost completely packed, with only front row seats left by the time the previews started. This week, same time, exact same theater, even, and there were maybe 20 people total. And I have to say, if the Wachowskis are aiming for the kiddie market with this film, as many seem to think, I think they've largely missed their mark. Aside from the largely empty matinee theater, there were a couple of signs during the screening that this movie wasn't playing well to the kiddie set.
Welcome back to another edition of Insert Caption -- the game where, in order to play, you need to really hate snakes. Hate 'em! Last week we asked you to write funny captions for a photo from Speed Racer, which hits theaters with a whole lotta color this weekend. Congrats to Anthony M. for painting a very bizarre, yet hilarious picture in our heads. (We still love ya BK!)
1. "Reasons To Burn Rubber (#5): Family-operated Burger King drive through. Fast. Hot. Creepy." -- Anthony M.
3. "Just keep your hands at 10 and 2, buckle your seatbelt, and are you sure you don't want to put some clothes on?" -- Nathan T. See full image and all captions
This week, well, you may know this guy from somewhere. Can't place the face? Here, we'll help -- it starts with an 'Indiana' and ends with a 'Jones'. Put it together and you have one of this summer's most anticipated films -- not to mention we've been looking forward to this sequel for the past 20 years. But before Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull hits theaters on May 22, you're going to want to get reacquainted with an old friend -- and that's where we come in: The winners of our three favorite captions will take home one Indiana Jones The Adventure Collection DVD boxed set, which includes: Raiders of the Lost Ark,The Temple of Doom & The Last Crusade. That's it to the right; ain't it purty? (Click to enlarge.) In honor of our friend Indy, it's now time for you to start whippin' out those captions! Sound off below ...
At the Long Beach Grand Prix, the roar of high-powered race car engines fills the air, a deep bass thrum cutting through the smell of exhaust in the early summer heat. Tens of thousands of race fans have gathered to take in the metal-and-rubber reality of racing, but in the Long Beach Convention Center, a small group of journalists have gathered to talk about a big-screen fantasy vision of the spectacle roaring around us, Cinematical was there to speak with the people behind Speed Racer: Emile Hirsch, Christina Ricci and Matthew Fox, as well as producer Joel Silver.
Emile Hirsch, relaxed and fairly amused, is asked about embodying a classic character. "It's pretty cool." He laughs; "I was a very big fan of the show growing up ... I would just watch it every morning with cereal ... sometimes soda in the cereal. ..." I then asked Hirsch if, after reading the script, he was worried about being Mark Hamill to Matthew Fox's Harrison Ford, that Speed would be out-cooled by Racer X. "Well, now I am ..." The rest of the sentence is unprintable, but Hirsch then mocked Fox's masked mystery man and spoke sincerely about Speed's virtues: "Yeah, (Racer X) is so cool ... No, no, no; Speed's got the nobility; Speed does the right thing; Speed is ... Speed's cool."
I'm very pleased that my Cinematical colleague James Rocchi both enjoyed Speed Racer and published his review before mine, and here's why: I couldn't wait for the damn thing to end. This garish, aimless film wore out its welcome (and its crayon box) after about 25 minutes, but the cinematic eyesore just kept lumbering on for two full hours. I know it's tough to keep kids still in a movie theater even when they like the movie they're watching, so I can only imagine what parents will be dealing with as Speed Racer's merciless stretches of blah-blah-blah hit the screen. Aside from three or four mega-flashy racing sequences, Speed Racer feels like the pilot episode of a Fox TV series called The Generic Family from Plastic World.
A young man named "Speed Racer" grows up to become a hot-shot car racer (imagine that), but when he refuses to sign with an evil tycoon, it kick-starts a third-act conflict that can only be solved by ... car racing! There's the whole of your plot in a nutshell, but I've left out the resoundingly clumsy flashback structure, the nominally interesting but ultimately pointless side characters, and several absurdly "emotional" moments that might have made an impact if they didn't occur on sets made entirely of bright pink styrofoam and glitter. There's also an allegedly mysterious character called Racer X, a button-cute and entirely superfluous girlfriend character, and (wedged in clumsily whenever things get dull) a mischievous little kid and his monkey sidekick.
If you're still trying to decide whether you want to go to see Speed Racer tonight, maybe this will help your decision. Yahoo has posted the first seven minutes of the film, which you can check out above. Man, if car races looked half that cool, I'd be a total fan.
I know, some of you aren't getting the whole appeal of this flick, and frankly, I've never been interested in the story until this movie. There's just something about a real-life cartoon that looks all sorts of cool. (I've always wondered what a cartoon-turned-live action film would look like if it was created in a more cartoonish manner.) And major props for making the theme song front and center. I remember how ticked I was when I left during the credits of Spider-Man and missed the theme song I had waited the whole film for.
Check out James' review of the film here, and stay tuned for Scott's review at 11:30AM.
Whether or not shows like Aqua Teen Hunger Force or The Simpsons succeeded in translating their television dynamics to the big screen depends on your point of view, but the release of Speed Racerthis weekend raises a more specific question about the viability of turning an animated series into a live action spectacle on the big screen. The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkleand Underdog both suggest how this goal can go wrong -- namely, by imploding on its absurd conceits. You may disagree with the inclusion of some of the following titles, all of which culled their material from animation, but it's fair to say that each of them takes its subject matter at face value, allowing the natural ingredients of the original sources to remain intact. Well, maybe not Super Mario Bros., but that one is a special case (fire away, if you must). Until somebody makes an Animaniacs movie with real actors, I'm sticking to this list.
Robert Altman's offbeat ode to the famous Fleisher cartoon starring the spinach-eating strongman and his darling Olive Oil is the great misunderstood work of the director's career. Robin Williams and Shelley Duvall manage to bring utterly ridiculous characters into a realm of believability that you could never imagine when watching the show. Suddenly, Popeye made sense -- goofy, almost surreal sense, but sense nonetheless -- in the real world. Thanks to veteran adult cartoonist Jules Feiffer's screenplay and a soundtrack so catchy Paul Thomas Anderson borrowed from it twenty years later in Punch-Drunk Love, the classic status of Popeye can't be denied.
I knew I was being a little conservative on my $62 million prediction for Iron Man, but HOLY JEEZ! The comic book adaptation had the tenth highest opening weekend in history, and the second biggest for a non-sequel. In addition to the $98.6 million Marvel's armored avenger made domestically, he also pulled in $96.8 million overseas, putting the $140 million budgeted film comfortably into the black. Last week's other newbie Made of Honor took second with a comparatively reserved but still respectable $14.7 million. Here's the rundown: 1. Iron Man:$98.6 million 2. Made of Honor: $14.7 million 3. Baby Mama: $10 million 4. Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay:$6.1 million 5. Forgetting Sarah Marshall: $6 million
Again, just two new ones this week: Speed Racer What's It All About: Andy and Larry Wachowski, the team behind the Matrix trilogy, adapt the classic 60's anime Speed Racer using a visual style reminiscent of Japanese animation melded with a modern video game aesthetic. Why It Might Do Well: The trailer was amazing, and Cinematical's own James Rocchi describes the film as "a blast of pure pop family fun" in his review, which you can read right here. Why It Might Not Do Well: The 40% rating on Rottentomatoes.com suggests this one may have trouble knocking Iron Man out of first place. Number of Theaters: 3,600 Prediction: $43 million
Well, as probably the biggest Speed Racer booster on this blog (I see the movie Tuesday night, and James's review was music to my ears), I guess it falls to me to report the bad news as well. If you believe tracking numbers -- and you might justifiably be skeptical about them (David Poland likes to hammer on the point that they don't capture the teen demographic) -- then there's good reason to think that the movie might come in a distant second to Iron Man when it hits theaters this Friday. The Hollywood Reporter's sources peg it at $25-35 million for the weekend, which would be perfect positioning for it to eat Iron Man's dust. Warner Bros.' efforts to control expectations notwithstanding, it would also be a pretty big disappointment for one of its major summer tentpoles.
I can't say I'm surprised -- as I warned a couple of weeks ago, this is an expensive brand-name release where the target audience has never heard of the brand name. As someone with a soft spot for the Wachowskis (I only abandoned ship on The Matrix after Revolutions rather than Reloaded, and one day I'll write up a defense of the latter film), I was hoping to see them return to the top of the A-list. But if we're being honest, the Hollywood Reporter's estimate seems right to me. So I'd settle for a bow that isn't embarrassing.
I don't know a lot about Speed Racer aside from what I've gleaned from the theme song over the years -- apparently, the young man's a demon on wheels -- so, in many ways, I'm the best possible audience for Larry and Andy Wachowski's new big-screen interpretation of the character. Originally a Japanese animation program exported and re-dubbed for the American market in the '60s, Speed Racer has now been revived and revitalized for now. And the Wachowskis have created a blast of pure pop family fun; Speed Racer's a bright, bold visual spectacle designed for kids.
And why shouldn't it be? Or, rather, how could it not? This is a property where one of the supporting characters is, after all, a monkey; any fully-grown individual hoping for an adult action film or racing realism is looking in the wrong place. Speed Racer plays like a car-crazed visual wonder -- it looks and feels like what pop artist Roy Lichtenstein would dream if you locked him in a room full of gas fumes, gave him only candy to eat and showed him nothing but Tron, Indianapolis 500 footage, episodes of the '60s Batman TV show and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. All at the same time. With the volume very, very high.
What were the top films at this year's Tribeca Film Festival? What have been the breakout performances of this year's fest? What does Tribeca need to do to be even better next year? And finally, is the question of if Iron Man's box office will take a hit from Grand Theft Auto IV lazy journalism, or just plain stupid? Joining the Rocchi Review this week along with your regular host James Rocchi is Cinematical's Editor-in-Chief Erik Davis to talk about all these topics and much more. Cinematical's podcast is now available through iTunes; you can subscribe at this link. Also, you can listen directly here at Cinematical by clicking below:
As ever, you can download the entire podcast right here -- and those of you with RSS Podcast readers can find all of Cinematical's podcast content at this link.
Not long ago we asked you folks to submit a bunch of questions for Speed Racerstars Emile Hirsch and Christina Ricci to answer, and guess what -- they answered them! Well, not all of them, but a few lucky individuals had their questions hand-picked, thrown up on a screen and presented to those two charming kids during another one of Moviefone's fabulous Unscripted installments. As always, you can check out an exclusive clip from their chat above -- one you will only see here on Cinematical. In it, Hirsch and Ricci talk about working with a green screen, and how "tripped-out" the whole experience is. I believe Ricci compared it to feeling very high. Hmmm.
But anyway, these two cats star in the new film Speed Racer, out this Friday in theaters everywhere. And, as you're probably already aware, Speed Racer was based on an old 14th century poem about two spiders who fall in love with an elephant. Kidding! Of course it's based on the "tripped-out" (just tying it all in) cartoon from the '60s. The live-action feature film was written and directed by Larry and Andy Wachowski (aka those Matrix guys), and it also stars John Goodman, Susan Sarandon and Matthew Fox.
Check out the Moviefone Unscripted chat over here, and watch as the two talk about kissing (with and without tongue), cutting hair, fighting and details on their "perfect drive." Speed Racer arrives on May 9, and you can check out loads of really cool images from the film in our gallery below.
We wouldn't have it any other way: just a few weeks after the Wachowskis' Speed Racer hits theaters, the Asylum will unleash its knock-off-of-the-month: Street Racer! (To read up on what Asylum is all about, take a look at my post about Allan Quatermain and the Temple of Skulls from a month or so back.) The plot: "After serving time for a tragic accident, in which a young boy is crippled, an illegal street racer finds himself dragged back into the world of high speed competition on the side streets and highways of Los Angeles."
If you thought that the company's efforts to make spartan, homemade versions of studio blockbusters were lovable, or in some other way admirable, take a look at their Street Racer trailer and you may change your mind. Obviously unable to come up with anything resembling the Wachowskis' blue-screen fireworks, the Asylum opted to essentially make The Cheap and the Furious and cynically tie it in to Speed Racer. Of course whether it's actually any more cynical than I Am Omegaor Transmorphers is an open question. And the film's tagline, which the Asylum is clearly proud of -- "You're never more alive... Or closer to dead!" -- is kind of awesome, in a horrible way.
The director, Teo Konuralp, made a no-budget sci-fi thriller called Feedback a few years ago that actually got some good reviews. If Street Racer represents "selling out," then he's sure found an odd way of doing it.
Welcome back to another edition of Insert Caption -- the game even Tony Stark would love if he wasn't a fictional character and completely made up. We're reversing the order of things for this installment; last week's winners are listed down below and after the jump, while this week's caption is, well, look down. Yup ... Speed Racer time! And this week we're giving away sooo much, it's impossible to list it all without running out of gas, er, space. One grand prize winner will race away with one Limited edition Speed Racer tool box loaded with a Soul Industry Tee, Hot Wheels 1:64 Mach 6, 1:64 Racer X, 1:24 Mach 5 and a Pullbax™ Mach 5; plus Speed and Racer X Lego Mini-figures, one Speed Racer t-shirt and so much more. Additionally, two runners-up will take home a prize package containing more shirts, backpacks and lots of other goodies. See the official rules for complete details and sound off below ...
Last week, we asked you to give us your most creative captions for a photo from the new movieIron Man (which, in case you didn't know, is quickly becoming one of the best reviewed superhero movies of all time). In exchange for your words of wisdom, we decided to toss a brand new LG "the V" cell phone -- plus a super cool Iron Man poster -- to 10 of you. 10! Why? Because we're completely out of our minds -- that's why! (And because we love our readers more than anything. Awww.) Congrats to our ten winners, listed below and after the jump.
1. "As you can see, Flavor Flav and I are now engaged." -- Nathan T.
2. "That's right, it's all fun and games until someone trips and falls on a Lite Brite..." -- Eric W.
3. "I want you to draw me like one of your French girls wearing this ... only this!" -- Martin E.
As if I needed another reason to look forward to Speed Racer, it looks like the first teaser trailer for December's Twilight will ship with the prints of the May 9th film. According to Collider, the trailer will ship "in the can" rather than attached to the print, which works as a strong suggestion to exhibitors that they should show the trailer with the film, but isn't a mandate. So if you're considering buying a Speed Racer ticket to get your first glimpse of Twilight, you should know you'd be taking a chance.
I'm quite curious to see the trailer, not because I'm a fan of the novels (which I now feel duty-bound to read) or think that Robert Pattinson is dreamy, but because I'm so fascinated by the singularly bizarre pop culture phenomenon that this movie represents. There's been a sort of droning hum in the film community about Twilight becoming a Christmastime mega-hit, but no one (save Kim Voynar) can find anything useful to say about it because no one knows what it is. Adults without children of the right age are completely out of the loop on something that -- we're told -- is going to absolutely burst out of the gate. This was not the case with Harry Potter, which raises a question: How explosive can Twilight be given its age and gender-specific appeal?
Before going to see Cloverfield, I read someone mention Michael Giacchino's fantastic musical score for the film. As it dawned on me that the movie proper had no musical score, I started to think that the writer had been making a sarcastic joke, and I hadn't read carefully enough to pick up on it. Of course, I was just being impatient: the music -- which is fantastic indeed -- shows up at the end. "Roar!", the beautiful 12-minute composition that played during Cloverfield's credits, is now available for a buck-ninety-nine, exclusively from the iTunes Music Store. Operatic and grand, it's a classical piece of movie music in the best John Williams/Jerry Goldsmith tradition.
iTunes has "Roar!" in its vastly superior "iTunes Plus" format, with a higher bit rate and no DRM -- so if, like me, you boycott anything with copy protection, it won't be off-limits. The movie itself is available for iTunes download starting today, as well.
Giacchino, one of Hollywood's genius composers of the moment, also scored this summer's Speed Racer, which makes me all the more excited for that film (though I seem increasingly to be the only one). He also has J.J. Abrams' Star Trekand Land of the Lost coming up.
There's been much buzzing around the Cinematical virtual office over the past few days about Speed Racer. James pretty much liked it (for a kids' movie), Scott pretty much hated it, and Eugene seems, well, a bit disappointed. We just got back from taking the crew to see Speed Racer. 
1. "Reasons To Burn Rubber (#5): Family-operated Burger King drive through. Fast. Hot. Creepy." -- Anthony M.
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Speed Racer
Well, as probably the biggest Speed Racer booster on this blog (I see the movie Tuesday night, and James's 
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We wouldn't have it any other way: just a few weeks after the Wachowskis' Speed Racer hits theaters, the Asylum will unleash its knock-off-of-the-month: 
1. "As you can see, Flavor Flav and I are now engaged." -- 
As if I needed another reason to look forward to Speed Racer, it looks like the first teaser trailer for December's Twilight will ship with the prints of the May 9th film. According to 
Before going to see Cloverfield, I read someone mention Michael Giacchino's fantastic musical score for the film. As it dawned on me that the movie proper had no musical score, I started to think that the writer had been making a sarcastic joke, and I hadn't read carefully enough to pick up on it. Of course, I was just being impatient: the music -- which is fantastic indeed -- shows up at the end. "Roar!", the beautiful 12-minute composition that played during 
Insert Caption: Indiana Jones DVDs_thumbnail.jpg)
Cinematical Seven: When an Animated Series Goes Live Action ... and Gets it Right_thumbnail.jpg)
Full 'G.I. Joe' Cast Photos!
