Short version: Speed Racer is strictly for kids, big time nostalgia-feeling fans of the original series and perhaps video game addicts.

Considering all I’d heard about and seen via trailers and clips about Speed Racer, I was almost concerned about what it would be like to watch it on a gigantic IMAX screen. I thought perhaps it would give me a huge headache or perhaps induce some psychotic state in me, or worse - my daughter.

Ah, but 11 year olds brains are hardwired for this kind of stuff, so not to worry - she’s fine.

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Ok, folks… here’s your chance to get a real taste of what Speed Racer will be like before you decide whether to plunk down your hard earned money for a ticket.

I’m not going to tell you what I think until I see a few of your reactions below. BTW, I will be adding my two cents to the list of Speed Racer reviews some time this weekend. I wanted my first viewing of it to be in IMAX so I didn’t catch a pre-screening of the film.

Last week I wrote that I thought it was a ridiculous theory that the release of the Grand Theft Auto IV video game would hurt Iron Man’s box office numbers. Instead I wondered whether the release of Speed Racer during the second weekend of the armored avenger’s run would put a dent in Tony Stark’s armor.

Well it looks like he’ll be holding up pretty well against the race car flick as well.

Everyone is buzzing about how the release of Grand Theft Auto IV (do people who like that game even know how to interpret Roman numerals? Ok, ok… don’t get all mad) is going to hurt Iron Man box office in it’s second week of release. The word is that GTA 4 is set to bring in $400 million in it’s opening weekend, and that gamers will stay home to play that instead of leaving their darkened bedrooms to go see the awesome Iron Man movie (yes, I’ve seen it).

I don’t buy the logic.

The last time a movie doing poorly was blamed on the launch of a video game the same weekend was when Halo 3 was released on the same weekend as… um… some Ben Stiller movie.

Yeah, right. That’s like blaming cow farts for global warming. Oh, wait…

Anyway, I think that there’s something else that could put a bigger dent in Iron Man’s armor than Grand Theft Auto 4:

Speed Racer

Strangely, when I first heard about the Speed Racer movie by the Wachowskis, I was reserved in my anticipation. Then, when I heard it was going to be sporting some serious CGI, I got depressed because I didn’t think it would meet my hopes.

However since then I’ve seen the movie trailers and they’re so cool my wife has to bring me down afterwards. It looks like it’s going to be true to my memories of the show.

In the upcoming movie version of Speed Racer, the Mach 5 is built by Speed Racer’s dad, Pops Racer, and it’s got some pretty cool features like the auto jacks and tire belts, just to mention a few.

As far as specs on the Mach 5 go it’s been said to have 5,000 horsepower distributed to all four wheels evenly. Whoa… I was really hoping for a little bit more than that. “-)

So that’s a bit of info on the movie version of the car, but did you know that there have been a few real Mach 5’s built over the years?

Another weekend, another Weekend Movie News Wrap Up.

This week:

Legion starring Dennis Quaid and Paul Bettany, Tom Hanks quits Fahrenheit 451, Nic Cage hunts for more National Treasure, Battlestar Galactica producer plans to make a television adaptation of Children of Men, Surrogates with Bruce Willis and Radha Mitchell and news on when we can expect to see a trailer for Star Wars: The Clone Wars.

For details on the above items, read on.

Geez, I’ve heard rumors about trailers that were supposed to be playing in front of the extremely weak 10,000 B.C. before I went to see it and since. Everything from the new Iron Man trailer, The Incredible Hulk and The Dark Knight to this new Speed Racer trailer. I sat through the damned thing and didn’t even have the satisfaction of seeing one single new trailer for anything coming out this year.

On the bright side, at least seeing the Indiana Jones trailer on the big screen finally managed to get me fired up about that one.
In any case, here’s a brand new trailer for Speed Racer, and I’ll be damned if it doesn’t actually look good to me! Now we all know that a great trailer does not a great movie make, but it’s a much better omen than a crappy trailer in IMHO.

Check out the new trailer below.

My buddy Alex over at First Showing shot me an email saying that he’s gotten verification that the Wachowski’s will-it-be-PG-or-won’t-it live action version of Speed Racer will have an IMAX version released along with the regular theatrical version.

If ever there was a movie that looks like it was destined for IMAX, Speed Racer is it.

So an early review of Speed Racer has popped up on AintItCool.com. Overall despite being very rough regarding completion of visual effects and not having the actual movie music soundtrack, it was fairly positive.

As far as the announcement early on that the Wachowskis intended on making this a G-rated movie - it never really set right with me. I certainly don’t have anything against movies that are rated G, but a live action version of a story involving villains, car crashes AND made by the Wachowskis?

I never really bought it. And the review mentioned above confirms it, unless some cuts are made between this and the released version.

I’m not quite sure what I think of this Speed Racer trailer. I don’t think one can really complain because it looks like it will be about the most faithful translation of an old cartoon series to a big screen live action movie. Earlier today we brought you a bunch of Speed Racer images and now the trailer those images are from is online.

It looks rated G. It looks really simplistic in it’s writing. And it looks more like a cartoon come to life than anything I’ve ever seen before with the super bright primary colors and effects. If nothing else it looks like the Wachowskis (who brought us The Matrix, as if you didn’t know) will once again contribute a groundbreaking film to the masses.

Trailer after the jump…