So it's official. Speed Racer has crashed and burned at the box office. It's a shame too because there's a lot in this film that's worth recommending. The biggest flaw to be found here is the movie's painfully overlong two hour and fifteen minute running time.

In this big screen adaptation of the cult hit 60's cartoon, Emile Hirsch plays Speed, a young man who was clearly born to race cars. As a child, Speed would constantly dream of following in his big brother's footsteps – that of a professional race car driver. But when tragedy strikes, it becomes his mission in life. As Speed builds his reputation as one of the sport's best drivers, he is tempted by a big time corporate mogul to "sell out" as it were. And this is where the unnecessarily complicated plot begins to take shape.

First and foremost, Speed Racer is a visual dazzler. Seriously. I don't think I've ever seen anything like it before. It was like watching Tron for the first time. Directors Andy and Larry Wachowski have always been on the cutting edge of technology. Their Matrix films introduced the bullet time effect to the world. Speed Racer is an entirely different kind of world. A world of flashing lights, dizzying camera shots, and adrenalin pumping car races. At it's heart though, this is essentially a cartoon come to life. The Wachowskis are huge Speed Racer fans and it shows in nearly every frame of this crazy, ambitious, beast of a movie.

Hirsch is quite good here although one might think it a bit crazy that he'd follow up his stellar work in Into the Wild with a big budget, Hollywood extravaganza. Still, he manages to shine through, and in a film that's clearly more interested in style over substance, that's saying a lot. Lost's Matthew Fox does some nice work as the mysterious Racer X while John Goodman brings a little heart to the proceedings as Speed's loving father.

Had Speed Racer been forty five minutes shorter, it might have been a much better film. Dare I say, it might have even been a great movie. Sadly, the Wachowskis don't know when to quit. There are so many racing scenes that the action does become quite redundant and the gorgeous visuals begin to lose their luster right around the hour and fifteen minute mark. Still, as frustrating and flawed as Speed Racer is, this is the Wachowski Brothers' best work since the first Matrix picture.

It's really too bad this flick was a flop, because visually speaking, it does what a big, special effects laden picture should do. It completely transports you to a world you've never been to before. I've never been one for style over substance, but in the case of Speed Racer, I'm willing to make an exception. See it in Imax!

Grade: B-