Speed Racer
Warner Bros. Pictures | Release Date: May 9, 2008 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
37
METASCORE
Generally unfavorable reviews based on 37 Critic Reviews
Positive:
8
Mixed:
14
Negative:
15
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
60
The Hollywood ReporterKirk 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. Read full review
60
EmpireIan 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. Read full review
60
New York Daily NewsJoe Neumaier
The cast is generally game for playing cardboard cutouts, with Goodman having the most fun. Read full review
50
Entertainment WeeklyLisa 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. Read full review
50
ReelViewsJames 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. Read full review
50
The A.V. ClubScott Tobias
Borderline-experimental in the way it challenges the limits of perception. It's forward-thinking, visionary, and much of the time unwatchable. Read full review
50
TV Guide MagazineMaitland 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. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalle
If this action extravaganza represents the future of movies, it's going to be a sad, dead and awful future. Read full review
50
Film ThreatPete Vonder Haar
It isn't going to set the world on fire, but it's perfectly acceptable for what it is. Read full review
50
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. Read full review
50
Baltimore SunMichael Sragow
It's a family film done as a trip film. It is a trip, but it's a bad trip. Read full review
50
Boston GlobeTy Burr
The movie demands you be a glutton for sensation and then has the nerve to ask why you're not hungrier. Read full review
50
Rolling StonePeter Travers
There is one high note. You can approach Speed Racer as the trippiest stonerfest since Stanley Kubrick took his space odyssey. Read full review
42
Christian Science MonitorPeter 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. Read full review
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