"Speed Racer"

Some pop culture heresy is about to transpire here.

First:  I liked Iron Man very much.  It's a fun, cool, exciting movie, and Robert Downey, Jr. is so at the top of his game, he's about to become one of the biggest movie stars in the world.

However.

I fucking LOVED Speed Racer.  If I could inject this candy into my veins and feel all the time the way I felt while I was watching this movie, my face would eventually cramp up from my ever-present grin of childlike glee.  It's tracking at something like 35% at Rotten Tomatoes, and I can only assume that it's because "serious" movie critics have either a) never seen the source material, which the movie captures perfectly, or b) forgotten how to have fun.  This is a movie for kids, but unlike most kids' fodder nowadays, it doesn't talk down or pander to them (except for one monkey-poo joke, but no movie can be perfect when it's aiming to entertain the midget set).  It's exciting, fun, filled with eye-popping action scenes, and grounded in surprisingly heartfelt emotion.

If you don't take your kids to see this, you are a bad parent; if you see it and don't love it, I'm sorry that your over-developed sense of irony has killed your inner gee-whiz.

I'm not even a fan of the cartoon, but I unreservedly LOVED THIS MOVIE.

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Not-for-kids addendum: Holy shit, Christina Ricci's Trixie is SO MOTHERFUCKING CUTE.  You can upgrade my Mach 5 any time, sweetie.  WOOF.