I’ll see it when it comes On-Demand. Somehow Directors that suck remaking a property that sucks doesn’t thrill me. Maybe I’ll go to Great Adventure, get on the ‘Great American Scream Machine’, and pretend I am watching Speed Racer.
You can say that again.
Actually, The Matrix was the first movie to do that, incidentally by the same Wachowski brothers. The only difference, they decided to name it “The Matrix” instead of “Ghost in the Shell” 
(I’m talking more visuals and style than plot. Did I just say the word “plot” in reference to The Matrix?)
This is undoubtedly true, but it’s still no proof of a universal truth. The very essence of this argument is about exceptions to the rules, so any such “random” sampling would still not preclude anecdotal exceptions.
In any case, I saw Speed Racer on Monday, and I’m gonna call “exception.” It’s another of those rare but delightful cases of the majority of critics just not getting it. Or at least, as is usually the case, of reviewers lamenting the movie they’d hoped it would be rather than doing their job and reviewing the movie it actually is. There is a very long and tragic list of movies that have suffered the same fate, the fate of Reviewer’s Hubris: when a movie’s reception is sabotaged by reviewers who are annoyed that the movie they’ve seen is not the movie they wanted it to be. (See Ishtar, Last Action Hero, My Giant, Made in Heaven, Parents, Cloverfield, and of course almost every movie that Paul Verhoeven has ever made.)
You know how I know that critics “don’t get it?” The Entertainment Weekly reviewer put in the following quote:
[
](Speed Racer | EW.com)Yeah. Didn’t get it.
Speed Racer? Forgettable?
Yeah, right. I doubt that anyone considers it to be high art, but if it’s so forgettable, then why is Speed such a pop culture icon?
He is?
I mean, I remember having seen the show as a kid, but t me it was never more than just another cartoon. Certianly not as good as Spider-Man, for instance.
Look - to you, and to the Wachowski Brothers, Speed Racer may be an icon of your childhood, but if box office receipts are any indication, your in a distinct minority. There’s nothing wrong with niche fandoms, so long as they realize they’re niche fandoms - and to most of us, Speed Racer is just another random piece of pop-culture detirous.
Yeah I’m gonna have to say that having been a child in the '70s and '80s Speed Racer barely registers on my radar when remembering cartoons from my youth. It’s news to me that he’s a pop culture icon.
I’ve seen numerous references to Speed Racer on TV – on Family Guy, The Drew Carey Show, and Friends, just to name a few. I’ve also seen a good amount of Speed Racer merchandise in stores. This is true even though it’s been more than 25 years since Speed’s heyday.
That’s not the mark of a “forgettable” cartoon. Sure, some of you guys don’t remember much of him, but that’s just a reflection of personal tastes. We could argue about whether he’s an icon or not (and I think he is, albeit not on a top-level one), but he clearly hasn’t been forgotten.
The movie is a perfect eye-candy CGI flick that Dads and sons can enjoy together.
The pacing of the racing sequences is literally breathless, and the filmography and coloration is astounding.
If you don’t have a kid to take, you never liked the cartoon and you’re over 40, then you probably will give it the same “Meh” treatment the critics did.
I went in there with nothing but vague memories of the cartoon and zero expectations and I was seriously entertained. So was my young lad.
I can’t tell you how many times we would glance askance at one another during some pulse-pounding scene and we were both like “This is SO awesome!”
It was like a two-hour, futuristic rollercoaster ride that we couldn’t let go of. I thought it was cool, but I can respect those that don’t like it. Whatever. It’s a movie, and not a particularly life-changing one. It’s just FUN.
I’ve heard rumors of a Stephen Spielberg live action Ghost in the Shell. Now that could be quite awesome, though probably like all of his other movies, it should leave 20 of the last 30 minutes on the cutting room floor. 
Nuh uh. What about Fist of the North Star? That was done live action years before The Matrix. It shouldn’t have been, but it was.