Media

Movie Renter's Guide - September, 2008

 

"Speed Racer" (Blu-ray)

Synopsis

Speed Racer (Hirsch) grows up under the mesmerizing influence of his brother Rex (Porter) who is a star race car driver.

Now a star himself, Speed has the opportunity to break his brother's record, but pulls back at the last minute.

A company called Royalton's Racer Motors invites Speed to join their racing conglomerate, but he refuses. His girlfriend Trixie (Ricci) is impressed with Speed's integrity and advises him while he decides what to do with his life.

An officer of a government agency comes to the family and asks Speed to help in the investigation of a certain group that has infiltrated the racing industry and caused its corruption.

At stake is not only Speed's career, but the future of his entire family.

 

Commentary

What makes this movie quite interesting is that it lays the groundwork for melding live action characters into a completely CG environment. The racing is spectacular due to state of the art CG, and this is the reason I suggest renting it for a view, even though the story itself is not all that exciting.

Technical

The image quality is incredible on the Blu-ray disc. I don't know what bit rate they used, but it must be way up there. Surprisingly, only Dolby Digital 5.1 is available as the sound track, no Dolby TrueHD or DTS-HD Master Audio. Nevertheless, DD 5.1 hangs in there for the ride.

Extras

There are two separate discs with extras, including a game called the Crucible Challenge. The other disc has more standard extras like Touring the Movie Set, and Behind the Scenes.