Speed Racer review

We saw the movie Speed Racer this weekend and it was actually pretty good.  It wasn't as good as the original series in the 1960's but it definitely could have been worse.  It had a relatively good story with the message that cheaters never prosper.  My children (boys 11 & 9) liked it and as I am sure, as most kids, liked the action and didn't care about the story which was kind of confusing at the beginning because they went back to the past, forward to the future, to the present, future, present, past, future, etc.  Boy it got confusing at times, probably too confusing for my 9 year old.  The racing was kind of strange to me, the cars were constantly going sideways, "drifting", and constantly spinning around bouncing and crashing into each other with little or no damage.  But that's what my kids liked.

Get your kids away form the terrible cartoons of this age and get the original version on DVD for them to watch.  The 5 seasons of the original Speed Racer TV series are available here.

     

                      

If you haven't caught the newest in the Speed Racer series, they have been showing Speed Racer - The Next Generation on TV and it is actually pretty good also.  They already have it on DVD if you want to check it out.

Iron Man Review

I saw the movie Iron Man last night with my 11 year old son and he said it was probably better than Spiderman 3. When asked, he said it was basically the effects and action parts that he liked, when I asked him what he thought about the story, he said "Boring, especially at the beginning."

My opinion of it is that I expected a little better movie. The anti-war theme is a bit tiring; can't they come up with anything new instead of the same old propaganda? They give the impression that weapons are bad in anyone's hands instead of the fact that they are bad only in bad peoples hands. They also give the false impression that all weapons contractors sell weapons to both side because they only care about the money and power. Yes, I am sure there are a few contractors that may be like this, working both sides of the fence, but if the exception is always shown as what is the norm, the normal end up getting viewed as being bad when it shouldn't be. It is definitely a great good vs evil message that needs to be heard.

It could be because I am jaded by Hollywood making the same kind of movies all the time. It's all about the money anyway.