Speedy Recovery

Without doubt the riskiest $100m spent by a major studio this summer, this kinetic kaleidoscope of Day-Glo colours (based on a 1960's cult dubbed Japanese TV show) will divide opinions like few recent mainstream movies have. It certainly won't win the epileptic vote.

Let's give out the gold stars first. The visuals – Manga style blurs and traces, seamless swish pans and neon hues so bright they make Dick Tracy look monochrome – are pure 21st century cinema. As with The Matrix, the Wachowski Brothers fill the widescreen frame with a stylistic panache all of their own.

In visual sexiness terms, this is Salma Hayek by firelight wearing a transparent nightie.

Casting is bang on too, top-lined by Into the Wild's rising DiCaprio-alike star Emile Hirsch and doe-eyed bobbed cutie Christina Ricci, plus fine turns from parents John Goodman and Susan Sarandon playing (almost) every scene seriously.

Lost's Matthew Fox is also decent as a masked vigilante driver who may or may not be young hot shot Speed Racer's deceased brother.

In the moments when all the psychedelic background whooshing takes a rest and the foreground camera remains static, there are a bunch of choice moments for all of these likable actors.

The problem is that around two hours of the overlong 135m running time are quite the opposite. It's a relentlessly hyper barrage of car shaped and shiny digital effects, which might be too much to take for casual cinemagoers.

As much as I admired the show-off editing and phenomenal technical feats (you'll never see more detailed CG in your life), it doesn't encourage viewer engagement. The jazzy retro score, whilst amusing, is also at odds with the futuristic imagery.

The film may have been more effective with an expanded plot, rather than the wafer-thin 'I love racing, boo! all racing is fixed, yay! let's clean up racing' scenario. There are an awful lot of pretty backdrops and speech-making, chiefly from the villainous British promoter (naturally), as smoke and mirrors.