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09 / 03 / 2010
Fantasy F1! Yes, there's a brand new Fantasy Formula One game! Check the rules or Enter your team by Friday night to qualify for the first race in Bahrain!

08 / 03 / 2010
Fantasy Rally: The results from Rally Mexico are in! Check the results, see how your team did or enter a new team. Next race is Jordan on 1st April.

17 / 02 / 2010
Fantasy Rally: The points awarded for a win have changed in the real WRC, so we've reflected the changes in our scoring too. Check the rules to see the details. Next rally is Mexico on 5th March, teams will be frozen at midnight on the night of Thursday 4th March.

16 / 02 / 2010
Fantasy Rally: The results from Rally Sweden are in! Check the results, see how your team did or enter a new team.

31 / 01 / 2010
Fantasy Rally: The new rally season is upon us - 2010 Fantasy Rally is now open! Check the rules or pick a team ready for the start on 12th Feb.

25 / 10 / 2009
Fantasy Rally: All previous years' Fantasy Rally results are online - Check the 2009 season.

02 / 08 / 2009
Reviews: Sorry, there won't be any more movie reviews for the foreseeable future. Events have overtaken me. Catch up on reviews you may have missed.

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

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.

Christina Ricci hopes that Emile Hirsch's runny nose has cleared up. 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.

Scalextric meets Wacky Races. 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.

Speed Racer was released in the UK on 9th May 2008.