courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures Emile Hirsch stars as Speed Racer, the title character in the Wachowski Brothers’ new adaptation of the classic animated show.

You've never seen anything like "Speed Racer." Let me say that again. You've NEVER seen anything like

"Speed Racer." This is no small praise. These days, when advances in special effects are being made nearly

every day, it takes a truly innovative and imaginative film to take the title of "never-before-seen." Even

the excellent visual effects of "Iron Man" had been seen before in some way or another. "Speed Racer,"

though, deserves this title.

The Wachowski Brothers' latest is a wacky and wondrous visual roller coaster, stuffed to the brim with

densely saturated colors and exhilarating action, but if the family drama had fallen flat on its face, not

even the gorgeous action scenes could have made up for it. Fortunately, this is not the case. The story of

the Racer family will have you up in your seat and cheering, "Go, Speed, go!"

Opening with a deafening bang of edge-of-your-seat action, viewers see Speed Racer (Emile Hirsch) as he

races through a track, his family in the stands and the announcers blaring over the loudspeakers. As he

races, he has a flashback of how his brother, Rex Racer, years ago set the track record, which hasn't been

beaten since.

It's a clever way to open the film, as the ghost of Rex's car is driving directly alongside Speed's most

of the way, the past mixing with the present liberally and creating a powerful emotional force to propel

the audience along with Speed at more than 700 kilometers per hour.

Soon after that, a big, bad conglomerate racing company, Royalton Motors, offers to buy out Speed's

family racing business, Racer Motors. From there, a rivalry ensues that will take Speed all the way to the

biggest racing event in the world: the Grand Prix.

Though the film's biggest strength comes from the wickedly cool racing scenes, there's a surprisingly

strong feeling of family that runs through the whole thing.

Hirsch, as Speed, is very good in the role. He's charismatic, humble, and energetic.

John Goodman is perfectly competent in the slightly over-protective role of Pops Racer.

Susan Sarandon, as Speed's mom, strikes a perfect balance of seriousness and cheese.

Paulie Litt, as Speed's younger brother, Spritle, is entertaining as all get-out, and his constant

hamming it up makes you wish more of the actors would have done the same. However, sometimes you wonder if

the film should have been called "Spritle and Chim-Chim," as he and the family's chimpanzee make almost as

many appearances as Speed himself.

The rest of the cast complements the family rather nicely. Matthew Fox from "Lost" plays Racer X, a

rival racer to the Speed family, who must team up with them in order to win. Roger Allam, who was in the

Wachowski-produced "V for Vendetta," plays the head of Royalton Motors and serves as a wonderful scene-

chewing villain. Christina Ricci, as Speed's girlfriend, Trixie, is also enjoyable, entertaining, and knows

when to take herself seriously and when not to.

The storyline, dialogue, and acting can sometimes get too cheesy by traditional film standards, but

because it is an homage to the cult favorite TV show, it ends up working quite well. The Wachowskis have

shown that they know how to direct a good balance of severity and cheese, like in their noir thriller

"Bound," and they put that talent to good use here.

Now that those preliminaries are out of their way, we can get to the real core of this movie: the racing

scenes. They will blow your mind, electrify your senses, and probably give you a small headache if you

don't bring along some aspirin.

The entire film is drenched in vivid colors from beginning to end, and the effects are on par with the

revolutionary nature of the effects from their groundbreaking "Matrix" trilogy.

The tracks and cars used are stunning and creative and make for some truly pulse-pounding action. The

races are juicy and heart-stopping, making the famed highway chase from "The Matrix Reloaded" look like a

kid playing with toy cars. They are so far above anything that has ever been put on celluloid before that

it's mind-boggling, and they will cement the Wachowskis' reputation as true visionary directors.

When the first race opens the film, you wonder how it can possibly be topped, but each subsequent race

floors the one before, and by the time the final race is being run, the shattered pieces of your blown mind

will have been left far behind. It's the kind of action that could make even Neo say, "Whoa."

Plot: B+
Acting: A-
Special Effects: A+
Overall: A