REVIEW: 'Speed Racer's' good action sequences ruined by annoying announcers

First of all, I must say that before watching the "Speed Racer" movie, I had never seen an entire episode of the cartoon. Sure, I've seen pictures and clips and all that jazz, but never an entire episode. So after watching the movie, I decided I better watch a couple of episodes before I start ripping on the movie. I wanted to make sure that all of the faults in the movie weren't carried over from the old cartoon. They weren't. The cartoons are much better.

Normally, this is usually the part where I tell what the movie is about. However, in classic Wachowski Brother fashion, the movie is kind of confusing. These are the same guys who brought you "The Matrix," so you're probably going to have to watch the movie a couple of times before you completely understand everything. Basically, from what I got out of it, Speed Racer is a racecar driver. (And with a name like that why wouldn't he be? That's like my name being "Super Cool Movie Reviewer.") One day he finds out that the racing league is a big corporate scam and all of the race winners are predetermined. So Speed makes it his mission to bring down these companies.

Now, let's start with the good stuff — the actors. There's Emile Hirsch, John Goodman, Susan Sarandon and Christina Ricci — who, by the way, has some great lines, including "Hubba hubba." I'm definitely going to have to start saying that more often. Also, like all of the other Wachowski Brother movies, there are good action sequences. They even throw in the classic "super slow-mo" for good measure.

All right, now on to the bad stuff. Aside from the story being difficult to follow, I really only have one gripe, but it's a big one. The movie switches scenes so often it's enough to drive a person crazy. At the beginning of the movie Speed is involved in a race and is about to set the course record. However, you can't really get into the race because they are giving you the entire back story of Speed throughout the entire thing. They show three seconds of the race, then boom! back to a scene when Speed is a little kid. Annoying! They also find a need to constantly have announcers scroll across the screen during all the races. That's even more annoying!

Kids won't care about this though, and I think they'll really enjoy the movie. So here's the deal: If you have a younger relative that really wants to see this movie, take them to see it. Shoot, even offer to buy them their ticket. Just tell them that they have to give you a quarter for every time the movie cuts away from a race. You will leave the theater a wealthy person.