May 10th, 2008 by Brack
The Casa Cristo 5000 section of this film works marvelously. It is for all intents and purposes a live-action episode of Speed Racer. Speed drives the Mach 5, he wears a blue shirt and little red neckerchief and colourful villains try and run him off the road in elaborate ways. It’s simple, easy to follow and a whole lot of fun.
So it’s a shame the rest of the film doesn’t have that consistency of vision. The two track races we get that bookend the film play like video game visions of XTREME FUTURE SPORTS~! The visit to villain Royalston’s HQ plays like Willy Wonka’s Automotive Factory. The whole first third of the film just drags despite some great actors doing good work.
And there’s the abiding sense that there’s been two different versions of this film made and scenes from each have been stuck together to make this mess. This mainly comes from the cars our hero drives.
He starts with the Mach 6, but in the Casa Cristo drives the Mach 5 (Speed’s traditional car from the cartoon), then late in the film they BUILD the Mach 6, because they don’t have a car for the final race, even though the Mach 5 was OK in the last scene we saw it in. Which leaves you wondering, was that first race a flashback - which it wasn’t.
Now there is an explanation that can make sense of this, but it’s not obvious from the film. Instead I was left with the feeling that at some point a version of the film was made where the Mach 5 was the car and at another point a version was made where the Mach 6 was the car. Because I can’t get my head around some writing a plot this muddled and muddy deliberately, particularly when the actual dialogue, and how individual scenes play out, works well.
Oh wait, these were the guys behind the Matrix trilogy. I’ve answered my own question.
I’ve read the V for Vendetta director (whose name I forget, James Teigue?) acted as second unit director and I’d be interested to see if he was responsible for the Casa Cristo section, as it really felt like the work of someone different from the rest of the film.
It’s not worth going to the cinema for as it’s too long, and you feel the longness at the start of the film rather than the end. But it’s worth catching as a rental when it’s out on DVD, the art direction, the performances (the cast is great from top to toe, everyone seemingly cast for having great cartoony faces, even Matthew Fox’s wooden face is great for cartoony stoicism) and the whole middle section are worth watching it for.
In the meantime, watch these instead:
Speed Racer Goes Crazy
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Ghostface Killah - Daytona 500
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