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05 / 11 / 2008
Review: After the gruelling James Bond press junket tour, I bet Daniel Craig could use a Quantum of Solace.

02 / 11 / 2008
Fantasy Rally: The results from Rally Japan are in - just one rally to go and still the lead keeps changing! See how your team fared or see the Japanese rally results. Any of the top ten could still claim overall honours!

23 / 10 / 2008
Review: Brad Pitt steals the latest from the Coen brothers: Burn After Reading.

23 / 10 / 2008
Review: Simon Pegg learns How to Lose Friends and Alienate People.

23 / 10 / 2008
Review: Ben Stiller directs stars aplenty in Tropic Thunder.

12 / 10 / 2008
Review: A few words on some recent movies: RocknRolla,
Death Race,
Hellboy 2: The Golden Army,
Space Chimps,
Stuck,
The Babysitters,
Starship Troopers 3: Marauder,
Son of Rambow,
Jack and Jill vs the World,
Made of Honor,
Meet Dave,
Doomsday,
Pathology.

15 / 08 / 2008
Review: You can mess with Adam Sandler, but You Don't Mess with the Zohan.

15 / 08 / 2008
Review: Mike Myers tickles some chakras in The Love Guru.

14 / 08 / 2008
Review: Toot and come in, it's The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor.

14 / 08 / 2008
Review: You can stop watching the skies now, it's The X Files: I Want to Believe.

31 / 07 / 2008
Review: Batman Began and now continues in The Dark Knight.

24 / 07 / 2008
Review: The Chronicles of Narnia continue with Prince Caspian.

23 / 07 / 2008
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22 / 07 / 2008
Review: Jules Verne never envisaged a 3D version of Journey to the Centre of the Earth.

09 / 07 / 2008
Review: Jet Li and Jackie Chan team up in The Forbidden Kingdom.

09 / 07 / 2008
Review: Will Smith keeps the streets safe and smelling of booze in Hancock.

09 / 07 / 2008
Review: M Night Shyamalan's latest, The Happening.

09 / 07 / 2008
Review: Spanish creepy-creepy The Orphanage.

09 / 07 / 2008
Review: A quick catchup of movies that don't get the full treatment:
Be Kind Rewind,
Street Kings,
What Happens In Vegas,
Superhero Movie,
The Ruins and
Teeth.

08 / 07 / 2008
Review: Bend that bullet Angelina! Wanted.

01 / 07 / 2008
Review: Those cats were fast as lightning - Kung Fu Panda.

24 / 06 / 2008
Review: Don't make Ed Norton angry - The Incredible Hulk.

24 / 06 / 2008
Review: Carrie and Big's wedding, it can only be Sex and the City.

11 / 06 / 2008
Review: Everyone's favourite pot-addicts are back in Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay.

04 / 06 / 2008
Review: Harrison Ford returns in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

04 / 06 / 2008
Review: Tube driver seeks suicidal man in Three and Out.

18 / 05 / 2008
Review: CGI fantasy motor racing in Speed Racer.

18 / 05 / 2008
Review: Your creases will fly away with Iron Man.

18 / 08 / 2005
Sudoku! Have a go at the online Sudoku game.

Plenty more
See the rest of the reviews here.

Speed Racer

Cast: Emile Hirsch, Christina Ricci, Matthew Fox, Susan Sarandon, John Goodman, Roger Allam. Written and directed by Andy and Larry Wachowski. Story: Comic book racecar driver. Running Time: 2hrs 15 minutes. UK Certificate PG.

Top marks for trying to do something different. It doesn't quite succeed but it's worth seeing as a curio.

Looking for all the world like a comic book adaptation, Speed Racer is in fact a Japanese TV series with a striking similarity to Wacky Races, "Speed Racer" being the name of the main driver. I mean, that's his name - he's Mr Racer, and they call him Speed. Talk about pressure from the parents. I'm going to call myself Wordy McMovie from now on. Speed is played by Emile Hirsch, who you may remember from Into the Wild, but it's more likely that you'll be saying, "who?" as he's largely forgettable. Fortunately we have Christina Ricci's impossibly huge saucer-like eyes to pump up the star quota, along with Lost's Matthew Fox and Racer parents Susan Sarandon and John Goodman, getting back to his Flintstones days.

Speed and the Racers live in a strange futuristic world where cars can jump and smash into each other like Scalextric toys, yet fashion has yet to advance past 60s-kids-TV-presenter level. Everything but the actors is perfectly seamless computer imagery, which gives the Wachowski brothers (of Matrix fame) the freedom to invent a glorious racing world with some pretty wild racetracks - if you've played the video game Wipeout, you'll understand. The visuals certainly are stunning and the stills don't do them justice - in fact they're so intense that they dominate the entire experience, making it feel more like a two-hour music video than a movie. As a result, the performers have to ham it up in order to be heard, giving it a Basil Brush type of stiltedness that can be difficult to penetrate. However, once you realise that it's really aimed at kids rather than adult audiences, it starts to make sense and you can start playing in the mud with the Wachowskis, boo at the pantomime villain and look forward to the nice warm feeling when everything inevitably works out in the end. Can we go for ice cream now?

Speed Racer is a visually beautiful comic-booky family movie. Style is everything here, and your enjoyment will depend purely on whether you can detach and enjoy the visual feast.

I enjoyed this film: 3/5

I think the average moviegoer will enjoy it: 3/5

Testosterone Satisfaction Rating: 2/5 - loads of racing but it's not real.

To enjoy this film you should be: young at heart.