Review: Eye-Popping 'Racer' Hits Bumpy Spots

'Speed Racer' (PG)(out of four)

At its core, "Speed Racer" is a family story about a young man's dreams and aspirations to become the best driver in the World Racing League. On the surface, it's an eye-popping festival of color and mind-blowing special effects.

All of this depth of intensity comes to you courtesy of that crazy duo, the Wachowski bothers, the creators of "The Matrix Trilogy" -- and boy did Andy and Larry have a blast with this one.

The big-screen adaptation of the 1960s Japanese anime television cartoon takes the roots of "Speed Racer" -- bad guys, good guys, car chases and races -- and turns it into a Willy Wonkafied 2-hour-and-15-minute kid's movie, which is where the film really disappoints.

Coming on the heels of "Iron Man," there was hope that "Speed Racer" would have the same machismo muscle, but the Wachowskis opted for a film aimed at 8-year-old kids.

Adults will feel like they've been put through a Chuck E. Cheese meat grinder in this $120 million spectacle. But as a family film, "Speed Racer" works.

When the movie opens, we see a young "Speed" who cares more about drawing race cars than paying attention to reading, writing and 'rithmetic. His older brother, Rex, is a spectacular racer, but as we soon find out, Rex's need for speed ends up doing the driver in.

Zip ahead a few years later, and Speed is grown up and determined to win the race that Rex never finished. In cartoon fashion, an unscrupulous businessman is about to get in his way.

The movie has a plot, but it's not something in which moviegoers will ever fully invest. Kids in the audience will grow restless when the CGI cars aren't careening over mountains, flipping over each other, and skyrocketing into the air.

Matthew Fox ("Lost") makes the most of his superhero part as Racer X. The character is the best in the film, but he doesn't get enough screen time. Fox said he did most of his own Ninja stunts, which are absolutely phenomenal.

Speed's romance with Trixie displays as a showcase for Christina Ricci to drive a racecar and play cute. Speed's little brother, Spritle, and a pet chimpanzee named Chim-Chim, will keep the kiddie set entertained. There are some funny moments in the Spritle-Chim-Chim catalogue.

Speed's father, Pops Racer (John Goodman), wears a mustache like one of the Mario Bros. and meanders through a pedestrian part as the patriarch of a mom-and-pop auto racing company.

Susan Sarandon as Speed's mom has some dialogue that is as bumpy as the fabled Casa Cristo Rally Speed wants so desperately to win.

"I go the races to watch you make art, and that's beautiful and inspiring and everything that art should be," she said.

As Alicia Silverstone said so righteously in "Clueless," "Speed Racer" is a bit of a Monet. It looks great from afar, but get up close and it's a bit of a mess.