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Uptown Magazine - Winnipeg's Online Source for Arts, Entertainment & News

May 8, 2008


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A remake done right

The Wachowskis' live-action adaptation of Speed Racer is a fun re-working of the anime classic

(Speed Racer, opens Friday)

Even Sunday afternoon's loud and smokey sewer explosion in Chinatown couldn't outdo the excitement high of watching the Wachowski brothers' live-action adaptation of the classic anime series, Speed Racer.

Fanboy fascists might object to a re-working of the 1960s show but, as the abominable trailer for Get Smart before the screening indicates, remakes are a disappointing reality of the film biz these days. Obviously, nothing can compare with the speed-talking of the original Tatsunoko Productions' cartoon (a genius incidental by-product of translation and plot condensation).

As with the Chicago-born duo's most successful movie enterprises (see: The Matrix trilogy, V for Vendetta) the overarching theme is that of David-like struggle against evil domineering corporations and The System. In Speed Racer, this struggle is embodied in the proudly - defiantly! - independent car designer Pops Racer (John Goodman) and his racer Racer sons Rex (Matthew Fox) and Speed (Emille Hirsch), who regularly go toe to toe with the maniacal, corporately sponsored World Racing League (WRL) mucky-mucks and their piloting peons.

Sure, the Wachowskis' emerging thematic is naÔve and kind of a ridiculous thing for the the writer-directors of a $120 million studio 'family picture' to be invoking, but by film's end (guess what happens.), once graphically immersed in their world - even if it's not the same as the original cartoon - it's a hard shtick not to fall for. Even, despite their muted (subconscious?) and still-present product placement for corporate behemoths such as Motorola, Adidas, Diet Coke and Paul Frank.

According to industry-reporting/publicity-whoredom, the entire movie was shot in front of a green screen at the German Bebelsberg Studios in Berlin (for which ruling krauts doled out a $13-million subsidy), fomenting the dazzling array of CGI and special effects that one now nonchalantly expects from projects tied to the Chicago-born brothers.

And here's the thing about the much-gossiped-about CGI: the otherworldly trailer makes the movie look like a flop-in-waiting on the scale of the live-action Thunderbirds adaptation, but once you're trained to watch from inside the hyper-reality of constant electric colour and seething imagination, the Wachowskis have got you. (Male readers: think of it like when you suspiciously heard of the premise for Sex and the City, and then watched all 94 episodes on DVD.)

As far as remakes go, the Wachowskis' Speed Racer is as fun and imaginative as they come.
— Walter Forsberg

Putting the 'soft' in 'soft-core'

Sly Stallone doesn't quite 'perform' in The Italian Stallion - if you get our drift

(The Italian Stallion, May 9 & 10, 11:30 p.m., Cinematheque)

Whether it's Paris Hilton, Kristin Davis or even Jimi Hendrix, celebrity sex tapes always seem to get people going. And, although I've never seen any of these stars' less-reputable works of cinema, the chance to see Sly Stallone bare all in this week's midnight movie at Cinematheque got me really excited.

Made in 1970 by Morton Lewis, Party at Kitty and Stud's was a crappy, 71-minute soft-core bore - likely forgettable to most who watched it (even those in the 17th row requiring extra napkins 'for their popcorn'). But, when a young actor named Sylvester Stallone made it big with 1976's Rocky, rising porn star/director Gail Palmer certainly remembered the party. Palmer acquired the rights to the film (Stallone's first starring role), re-cut it and added a 'prologue' in which she sits at a Steenbeck and infers she's in the midst of cutting out some of the film's more X-Rated bits, to ready it for release.

Indeed, Palmer's marketing ploy is one of the most interesting things about what was re-released, post-Rocky, as The Italian Stallion. Watching the actual film, it's easy to see that the original production involved little more than a title, an apartment, a few days with a 16mm camera and a couple of hungry actors - Stallone has explained that his participation, for a $200 fee, resulted from the need to eat. The dialogue is laughable when present at all, and most of the film proves that Sly's stone-faced, idiot-glaze acting style was destined to be his trademark from the start of his career.

Even though I relished the hour or so I spent laughing with friends while watching The Italian Stallion, I have to report that, like most highly hyped celeb porn materials, this one is probably overrated. Sly can't get a hard-on to save his life and his fake humping skills are seriously lacking. In light of the embarrassment this job has caused Stallone, I'll give him the benefit of the doubt and speculate that his impotence maybe had something to do with the 1970s styling of female pubic hair.
— Walter Forsberg

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