SPOILER WARNING: Plot and/or ending details follow.

The race cars in Speed Racer are beautiful like candies

The movie opens with flashback of Rex’s racing days mixes with Speed Racer’s attempt to beat Rex’s record at a race. After the flashback is over, it is learned that Rex is killed in an accident in The Crucible race many years ago. When Speed becomes popular despite having not won a Grand Prix just yet, Royalton (Roger Allam), the owner of Royalton Industries pays the Racer’s family a visit. Royalton makes Speed a lucrative offer. After considering, Speed pays Royalton a visit only to reject the offer, angering Royalton while he learns that Royalton has been cheating and fixing races all the while.

When he does not qualify for the Final Grand Prix after Royalton’s effort to him out of the races, Speed with his Mach 5 joins Racer X (Matthew Fox) and Taejo Togokhan (Rain) to enter The Crucible in order to expose the Royalton’s dirty business. Since his family does not support him to enter The Crucible as that’s very dangerous race where his brother is killed, Speed and his girlfriend Trixie (Christina Ricci) fool his dad by telling him they are going on a skiing holiday.

Speed Racer (Emile Hirsch) and his supportive girlfriend Trixie (Christina Ricci)

As Pops Racer (John Goodman) and Mom Racer (Susan Sarandon) find out about Speed racing in The Crucible, they want him to leave the race but eventually show him their full support. When Speed wins The Crucible together with Racer X and Taejo, Taejo betrays them by not exposing Royalton’s secret.

Horuko (Yu Nan), Taejo’s sister comes to find Speed in order to give him a special access card which will allow him to gain a wild card entry into the Grand Prix race since her brother, Taejo is not interested in the race and she feels ashamed of his family’s wrongdoing.

In the end, Speed manages to win the Grand Prix with his new Mach 6 car and Royalton is exposed. Quite a happy ending and predictable plot but the movie is just awesome with the candy-like buildings, landscapes and cars. Speed Racer reminds me of colorful movie The Cat in the Hat but with a mixed of Hanna-Barbera’s popular animated series, Wacky Races with everybody trying to whack everyone’s else during the race. Maybe since Hanna-Barbera is absorbed into Warner Bros. in 2001, they incorporate Wacky Races into Speed Racer.

Overall, the movie is wonderful to watch as besides the never-seen-before stunning visual effects, it has its amusing moments especially with Paulie Litt as Spritle, Speed’s younger brother and his chimpanzee pet, Chim Chim.

My ratings: 8 out of 10.

SPOILER WARNING: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Angie Jones (Zoe Saldana) is GNN’s television reporter covering on site during a summit in Spain on the war on terror, in which President of the United States (William Hurt) has managed to gather the leaders of seven continents to address the issue on the global war on terror. Meanwhile, Secret Service Special Agents Thomas Barnes (Dennis Quaid) and Kent Taylor (Matthew Fox) are assigned to protect U.S. President Ashton (William Hurt). Moments after the President’s arrival, a couple of shots are fired and the President is injured. In the mist of chaos and disorder, an American tourist Howard Lewis (Forest Whitaker) comes forward with his HDV camcorder, which he believes he has recorded the image of the shooter.

As Angie Jones and her producer Rex Brooks (Signourney Weaver) is covering the tragic event on television, another bomb explodes and instantly claims many lives including Angie. While the movie unfolds, it will take us to eight different points of view, 23 minutes before the shooting occurs.

The main characters include Javier (Edgar Ramirez), Veronica (Ayelet Zurer) former lover of Enrique, Suarez (Said Taghmaoui) a possible terrorist, Enrique (Eduardo Noriega) an undercover police who protects the mayor and a young Spanish girl named Anna (Alicia Zapien).

Special Agents Thomas Barnes (Dennis Quaid) and Holden (Richard T. Jones) thought Enrique (Eduardo Noriega) is the main suspect

Right at the end as the story is finally revealed through all eight different angles, Howard Lewis, the American tourist is a real hero as he has saved Anna from a near accident while Special Agent Thomas Barnes manages to escape death despite having his car entirely damaged by a huge truck and after an impressive car chase on his partner Kent Taylor, of whom has betrayed the Americans and finally manages to save President of the United States. Suarez is the mastermind behind the assassination attempt, he even knows since the beginning that the Americans uses a double for the summit after the NSA has received threats but he’s killed in the end by the invincible Agent Barnes.

Really ingenious play of different camera angles, different point of views from different people of different background, this movie is surely innovative in terms of cinematography. Despite the mysterious fact that Agent Barnes can’t die (he has managed to dodge a bullet in an earlier assassination attempt on the US President previously), the little girl is saved and her mother is alive, the American tourist is also alive and kicking and is seen talking to his family on the phone in the end, and the US President is somewhat, kidnapped instead of being shot when there’s a point blank opportunity, the movie is otherwise, awesome.

My rating: 8 out of 10.