When Speed Racer (Emile Hirsch) follows in his brother Rex's footsteps as a racing driver for his father and starts winning races, he suddenly receives interest from powerful companies wanting to sponsor him.

But as he gets involved in the businesses side of the sport, Speed finds himself involved in a dangerous world of crime which threatens his family.
With the help of Racer X (Matthew Fox), Speed decides to save the people he loves and bring the evil companies to justice by doing the one thing he does best: race.

Although racing movies are certainly not new to Hollywood, this is definitely no Days Of Thunder!

Lying somewhere between Death Race 2000 and PlayStation staple Wipeout, Speed Racer is a frantic explosion of kaleidoscopic mayhem.

While the Matrix was clearly inspired by Eastern culture (both in the origins of the source material, the embracing of martial arts, stylistically, and tonally), Speed Racer incorporates it all, and gives the directing duo even more opportunity to jump into Japanese culture with both feet.

By throwing in elaborate, over the top effects and shots, it shies away from trying to recreate a realistic visual look in favour of transferring Jap-animation techniques straight into the physical world.

From the impossible racetracks, the mind-blowing driving manoeuvres, and the elaborate caricatures of characters – all edited with comic style cutting and drenched in rainbow colouring - this is a film purely based on imagination.
And it carries it off perfectly, melding story and style in complete harmony and carried by a confident and competent cast of actors from both sides of the pond.

While the PG rating suggests 'family friendly', younger audiences may start shifting in their seats with the 135 minute runtime and an intricate plot surrounding industrial share prices, topped off with lashings of anti-conglomerate sentiment.

But as soon as one of the many racing scenes kicks in to gear, you can be sure that ages six to 60 will be on edge of their seats until the finishing line.

8/10 – Psychedelic madness that puts the pedal to the metal.