Seriously, guys

[mabudon]

Naww, not crazy talk, just a little lament along the lines of Nark saying how the critics who slammed it should be terminated- seeing how effectively bad reviews worked against this film was a bit depressing in some ways, cos it truly is a balls-out fun fest and a refreshing change from the "gotta have jokes in it for the adults, real nudge-nudge stuff" bullshit that seems to pass for family entertainment these days- seriously how they got to the 2 hour mark without a single double-entendre is beyond me, but they did, just another thing that made the film totally unique

And you will want to pay US for recommending it, IF you actually catch it in theatres, the fuckin Republican attack machine has NOTHING on the Speed Racer smear campaign, fuck the democrats should hire whoever was behind it to fight the dirty fight against the Republicans, cos if they can kill Speed Racer they can kill anything

[anarky]

KH, Mrs A loved it as much as I did. She never liked the show. In fact, she only knew the guy's real name was Speed and he drove a car, and she thought there was a monkey involved somehow.

No lie, we're planning to see this AGAIN in IMAX.

[kidhuman]

I cant bring myself to do it. I shall be taking a movie in next weekend though with the kids, debating on Narnia or IJ. What comes out this weekend?

[Double_G]

What comes out this weekend?

Only Indy this week.

[Ran]

Narnia came out this weekend.

[RoIIo Tomassi]

Speed Racer is definitely something to be enjoyed on the BIG SCREEN.

I went in with absolutely NO expectations. I have never watched the old show. I know the kitschy premise and have probably seen clips, but never have I watched an episode from beginning to end.

It didn't matter. The plot is simplicity itself. Guy goes fast in a car.

You guys, this movie isn't heady or thought provoking, it isn't cerebral comedy, it isn't blood and guts or dramatic music crescendo heroics and sacrifice.

It's just FUN. You WILL have a smile on your face when you walk out of the theatre. And if you sadly do wait to watch it on DVD or basic cable, you WILL say 'man I should have seen that in the theatre.'

All we ( the people who HAVE seen it) are asking is that you circumvent that unfortunate occurence and go see it now. You will NOT regret it.

I just want ONE of you resisters to go see it, and then come back in here and tell all the other haters "They were right. That was AWESOME. I'm glad they talked me into it." Would that convince you?

[anarky]

Couldn't have put it better myself. It's not like we hated it and cooked up a scheme to get as many others to spend money on it. You know that none of us would have any problem saying it sucked if it did.

This really is one you'll regret not seeing on the big screen. Swear to God, if this doesn't hands-down take home several technical Oscars (especially cinematography and art direction), then the Academy will lose what little credibility it has left after giving Emenenama an Oscar over U2.

You WILL come out of the theater with a smile on your face. You will want to drive home really fast, and secretly hope there's a chimpanzee hiding in your trunk. And you'll wish Christina Ricci was your girlfriend. Okay, you probably already wanted that last one.

[Sleazer]

I didn't like that U2 song, I found it beneath them.

[anarky]

A U2 recording that's just the Edge farting while Bono loudly scratches his nutsack is better than Eminem at his best.

[anarky]

I didn't realize this, but Ebert Surrogate and Roeper gave Speed Racer two thumbs up.

Does that mean anything to you guys?

[mabudon]

I never heard that, fuckin aces, at least TWO reviewers actually watched the film before commenting on it, that's cool

[anarky]

By the way, for the record, just so y'all know: I'm not insisting anyone watch the movie. It is no skin off my back if you don't.

I just think you'll all enjoy the hell out of it, and, if you wait for the small screen, there's a good chance you'll regret not seeing it full-size.

[mabudon]

Seconded that, it's too much fun to miss, but not like the end of the world or anything, I figure we HAD to let the cat outta the shit-bag it was stuffed into by way of AWFUL press

[Double_G]

My friend and I were talking about this today. I still don't get it. This was supposed to be a big summer movie. Negative press has never really hurt the big summer movies. Just look at "Spider-Man 3" and "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest". Those got mostly negative reviews and yet they hold the two top opening weekend grosses of all time. When it comes down to it, I don't think people give a damn about what critics have to say when going to see the big summer movies. They could've said that "Spider-Man 3" or "Pirates" was the biggest piece of shit to ever be shown on screen and it wouldn't have affected its box office take one bit. If people want to see it, critics aren't going to stop them. With the big event movies, at least.

In regards to "Speed Racer", I can only come to two conclusions. One is that regardless of what critics had to say, there just wasn't enough public interest in the movie. I'd credit that to marketing. "Prince Caspian" kind of fell victim to that too, since its opening weekend numbers were less than stellar. These two movies had a relatively modest advertising campaign, but they were dwarfed in between marketing for not only "Iron Man", but "Indiana Jones" as well. If Warner Bros had put at least half as much money into the marketing campaign for "Speed Racer" as Paramount has for "Iron Man" or "Indiana Jones", they would have gotten quite a few more asses in the seats. I mean, Paramount took a superhero that nobody gave a shit about and turned it into a $200+ million grossing blockbuster (and counting). Now that's impressive. But marketing hasn't really been one of Warner's strong points. Their biggest money maker is "Harry Potter", which pretty much sells itself anyway. The other reason, which I don't really think is what happened but could have been a possibility, is that the Wachowski Brothers don't really have a good track record (in their directorial efforts). Sure, people went crazy for "The Matrix", but its two sequels were loathed by pretty much everyone, which didn't exactly help those two. That could have been a factor in people deciding whether or not to see this movie. I know, it sounds crazy, especially on a movie like "Speed Racer", where it shouldn't matter who's directing it, but I could believe it. Especially after I swore to myself that I would never watch an M. Night Shaylaman movie again after seeing "The Village". But I doubt the Wachowskis and the "Matrix" sequels were the reason "Speed Racer" bombed.

[anarky]

Yeah, the marketing has sucked.

The official game has no website. The movie itself has a website that has such an amazingly long address that it's impossible to remember.

They didn't air commercials that started out by telling Ebert and Roeper gave it two thumbs up, even. That's normally a given.

Sucky marketing on a movie that has to be sold first to fanboys, especially in the midst of so many other fanboy movies, does not a success make. And when the marketing sucks, the fanboys aren't happy (if I read ONE MORE FUCKING COMMENT ABOUT "THIS IS SO WRONG, IT'S SUPPOSED TO BE THE MACH 5, NOT THE MACH 6", I'm gonna kill someone), and the critics trash it, that's a bad thing.

I really wonder if the anti-corporate message is so strong that they wanted it to fail. Otherwise, why not market it?