Marvel Cinematic Universe: DVDs & Blu- ray Discs. Pictures (May 9 2. Warner Home Video (September 1. Dolby Digital 5. 1 Surround, Rated PG, Retail: $2. Storyboard: The classic Japanese animated racing adventure show gets suited and booted up to big- screen, live- action proportions, in a lavish and surprisingly entertaining movie that should provide high enjoyment for non- fans but not offend long- time followers either. The Sweatbox Review: If the Wachowski Brothers (Andy and Larry) took us into the blackest of the dark for The Matrix then Speed Racer is their rainbow colored antidote. And it could well be because I knew little to nothing of the source material from which they have derived their film that I had so much fun enjoying it! With a bit of a European background, I’ve always kept my eye on the comics and animated output of France, Spain, Germany and the Netherlands regions, albeit from a distance, but I’ve never really been able to plug into the Japanese manga and anime culture, primarily for the go- nowhere or too far out alien sci- fi storylines of the comics or the staccato, unimpressive animation in the majority of their television and feature endeavors. There have been exceptions, of course, but my (slow) warming to such landmarks as Akira, Steamboy and the Miyazaki pictures have mostly been through more mainstream commercial releases of those films, and not through my own digging into this material, which I find hit and miss and too often a disappointment to set aside any real time in which to discover the gems. How The Universe Works : Widescreen Edition MoviesTherefore, Tatsuo Yoshida’s almost iconic 1. Wacky Races to screens by just over a year) was only really known to me through reputation and a fairly recent push for a DVD box set that, like Astro Boy, passed me by. It’s shameful to have to admit it, but my drawing closer to the originals of these properties has more to do with the fact that I’ve been exposed to them through such entities as this live- action, Western take. I’ve no idea how hard- core fans found this Speed Racer film, but I can’t see a lot in it to disappoint that audience, even if it seems they didn’t show up to support the film in theaters. Edition: Widescreen: Rating: G: UPC: 786936244250: Additional Details: Genre. Here's how bidding works: If the current bid is $20, and you bid $. How the Universe Works Season 2 (DVD) : Delivering almost six hours of scientific exploration, the collection covers planets, weather. Branch Call Number: 523.1 HOW. Characteristics: video file,DVD. Find great deals on eBay for Marvel Cinematic Universe in DVDs and Movies for DVD and Blu-ray Disc Players. Find great deals on eBay. The limited-edition, 13-Disc Marvel Cinematic Universe. Strike Suit Zero Collector's Edition Strike Suit Zero. The upgrade system works well with the way. Universal Studios has been bringing unique entertainment experiences to millions of people around the world. We do this through our motion pictures and home videos, theme parks and attractions, television networks and. Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for How the Universe Works : Widescreen Edition at Amazon.com. Read honest and unbiased product reviews from our users./>. Speed Racer: Widescreen Edition. And yet it all works handsomely, the simplicity. The widescreen edition is marked in blue along the top. Indeed, it was at an screening so almost empty that it may as well been a “private” showing that I myself saw the film, still totally unprepared for what was about to splash out on the screen in front of me. I’d seen a teaser, read a couple of reviews that slated the onslaught of sound and imagery, and been prepared for something quite terrible and noisy. The draw of the Wachowskis didn’t do much to pull me in, my having been ultimately unimpressed with their second chapter of The Matrix or the endings to the third and their production of V For Vendetta, which crumbled to its knees after an absolutely brilliantly masterminded and intelligent beginning. That they had shifted attentions to what was ostensibly “a kids’ film” intrigued me, as did the cast and the subject matter. Whatever the circumstances, I sat down to watch Speed Racer and I came out humming the ridiculously infectious theme tune and unexpectedly singing its praises. An over the top assault on the senses, I’m still perplexed as to how Speed Racer crashed and burned so badly on theatrical release (making less than $4. US on a $1. 20m budget). While not a truly groundbreaking film in this day and age (the likes of Sky Captain And The World Of Tomorrow, Sin City and 3. Speed Racer excels at putting its pedal to the metal and raising the bar of such ventures. It’s also the first film to really ape the highly stylised approach the Japanese bring to their visuals: the Wachowskis famously such fans that they created a whole animated vision of The Matrix (released to home video as The Animatrix) to supplement that feature franchise. In what reminded me of the editing of such films as diverse as Forrest Gump, with its backwards and forwards flashbacks, and Ang Lee’s comic panels come to life feel of his flawed but underrated Hulk, the Wachowskis here duplicate what could be called the clich. It’s also just as amazing that in a film as simply packed to the brim with movement, either visually or in its storytelling, as Speed Racer, that it does find time to have a real heart and well- written dialog, as well as the prerequisite plot twists – even in a movie as “uncomplicated” as this one, it never speaks down to its intended age range and actually treats them with the intelligence to understand what’s going on: I’m not kidding when I surmise that most “adults” and critics probably didn’t enjoy the film because they couldn’t keep up with it, and rather than notice the smart things in play, couldn’t be bothered than do anything other than slate it. That’s unfortunate and unfair, since Speed Racer – as has been proven by a rash of names that “should know better” coming out in support of the film between its theatrical and disc debuts – rewards as a filmgoing experience in spades. For a film concerned with speed, it certainly races along, filling in our hero Speed’s backstory at the same time it sets up the current plot (about corporate sponsorship corruption on the racing circuit, the value of your folks, and how the little guy – the Racers’ family business – can come out on top in face of such grand competition from a ruthless and increasingly dangerously desperate and seemingly untouchable conglomerate). All during this, Speed Racer hops back and forth to introduce Speed as a racing- obsessed youngster, spurred on by proving he can fill the shoes of his deceased older brother (killed offscreen), by way of multiple split screens, anime- styled wipes, character transitions, audacious camera perspectives and primary colors that literally pulsate off the screen. And yet it all works handsomely, the simplicity (in a very good sense) and clarity of the performances being the power behind why the humans – and one chimp I may add! The versatile Emile Hirsch (in the title role vacated by Johnny Depp in an earlier abandoned concept) displays the fact that he’s going to go on to become one of the best actors of his generation to look out for, seemingly forgoing the glitzy Hollywood lifestyle to find decent roles in which he can give strong performances (the better than average teen comedy The Girl Next Door, Sean Penn’s Into The Wild), turning in a wholly believable character here, given the special effects circumstances. Even better – and providing the film with such a concrete grounding that without him I don’t think the film would have worked at all – is John Goodman, really really good here as Pops Racer, the inventor of the legendary Mach 5 speedster who is anxious his younger son will accept an invitation to join merciless rivals Royalton Motors and end up on the corporate and literal scrap heap as his older son Rex had done. After being sorely tempted by the promised high- life, Speed ultimately chooses family over financial gain, going up head to head against Royalton’s now out for the win at any cost opponents as well as the mysterious Racer X (Lost’s Matthew Fox, filling in for Keanu Reeves, who declined) who could be on anyone’s side. The races themselves don’t always work: at times there’s a feeling that one has been removed from a film and is watching someone else play a high- tech video game, or that Disney/Pixar’s Cars has been super- turbo charged. I would also suggest that the film suffers from one racing sequence too many, a cut that may be needed from a plot point of view, but would have equally brought the film in under a more audience- friendly two- hour mark. However, when the film hits the open road, for a Wacky Races, anything goes- style trek across desert, mountains and other dangerous driving conditions, Speed Racer really shifts into high gear, providing an exhilarating spectacle (my only wish being that the film had ended on such an expansive note instead of returning to the more confined track for a final victory lap). Wacky Races is a good property to evoke, as Speed Racer does seem to continue a line of hyper- real movies that kick- started in the 1. Yoshida cartoon: Those Magnificent Men In Their Flying Machines, The Great Race, Those Daring Young Men In Their Jaunty Jalopies all seem like the granddaddy to this kind of film, though it may have more in tune with the racing histrionics of a Grand Prix, Le Mans or a Death Race 2. Speed Racer – the film – seems to draw on all these sources, as well as Hot Wheels’ model cars sensibilities and pour the more outrageous elements into the digital melting pot: a sour Brit- type villain you love to hate in Royalton (Roger Allam, though he may as well be Tim Curry), stop- offs along the circuit (including a mad moment of ninja acrobatics in which Pops and mechanic Sparky come into their own), illegal racing tactics (which, truth be told, I wished had been even more outrageous) and some clever quick thinking to outsmart the villains all make their inevitable appearances along the way. But none of those films seem to place the viewer into the action the way Speed Racer does: for once, all the in your face color and noise is overpowering and overwhelming in a good way, putting you right in pole position. Though we swoop all over the place in terms of story and camera, the non- stop stimulation has never before combined to suggest the spirit of racing or the feeling of what its like to be behind the wheel of such a fantasy creation as the Mach 5. And much of this is also down to the supporting players: non- other than Susan Sarandon as Speed’s apple- pie Mom equals Goodman’s gravitas, while Christina Ricci – as versatile a young actor as Hirsch who is proving herself to be worth watching in any of the many varied projects she performs in – is every bit the bubbly girlfriend confection that Trixie is, and the story needs. In a nice bit of homage, Peter Fernandez, who voiced Speed and Racer X in the American dub of the original series, gets to be a race announcer here, and there’s even a place for Richard Roundtree, of all people.
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