I just saw -

Well "Just" is a relative term

this week I rented three movies

1 -  "Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story" -  This is a spoof of music-star bio-pics.  John C O'Reilly goes to town as the clueless Dewey Cox, a fictional Rock Star who shoots to fame and then learns all sorts of interesting life lessons.

The story begins with Child Prodigy Nate Cox practing Chopin  at the Cox family's poor Alabama farm house.

Dad exhorts Nate and his normal brother, Dewey to go outside and play.

"Let's go, Dewey!" Nate exlaims "Nothing horrible can happen today!"

That sets the tone for this film.  it's funny.  And the musical spoofs are really funny. Song writers from near and far wrote style pastiches to evoke various eras of rock and roll.  The comedy is fast and loose, but the characters stay true to themselves.

I give it an B+.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0841046/

then I saw

2 - "Speed Racer" -  this is a live action movie based on the Anime that was syndicated in the early 1970s in the United States (Along with Kimba).

I recall watching the original cartoon as a kindergarten age child and having my intelligence insulted even then.

The cartoon took such incredible liberties with Auto racing, physics, geography, cause-and-effect and english diction that it can make Looney Tunes seem calm and rational by comparison.

This live action movie preserves that.

It's a live action cartoon, and every inch as brainless as the cartoon ever was. Like having a 500 pound Puppy jump on you and lick your face.

I just turned off my brain and went with it.  As a live action cartoon, I laughed like a retard and enjoyed it.

Dennnis Washburn, one of my best friends and major cinemaphile simply couldn't make that leap of suspended disbelief.  He wandered away half way through the thing.

It's worth noting that this film is by the Wachowski brothers who also did The Matrix. 

This film is an act of raving fanboy love for Speed Racer.  If you didn't like the Original cartoon,  you won't like this one.

John Goodman, Susan Sarandon, Christina Ricci and Mathew Fox are in this movie, making it top heavy with acting talent.  A kid named Emile Hirsch  acts his heart out, trying to find the heart of a cartoon character, and coming fairly close.

Paulie Litt played Sprittle Racer and made a bid to take back the title of most annoying animated character EVER back from Snarf.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IO3ZbQiGNkk

Mixed Success.  I totally identified with his day dream of being an anime hero.

Roger Allam takes his villain role so over the top that he has to borrow other people's mustaches to twirl.  He needs an entire Staff of evil moustaches to show how evil he is, and he seems to be having a real blast.

But the most subtle and nuanced performaces were from Willy and Kenzie, who played Chim Chim.

That says something.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0811080/

C+ mainly for adrenalized fun.

After that I saw -

3 - Futurama - the Beast with a Billion Backs. 

I love Futurama. It IS a cartoon and unabashedly so.  Some how, by just not taking it's future all that seriously and randomly jamming science fiction tropes in,  it works.

This is a film about Love, Loss,  Romance,  Dating, Jealousy, Conspiracies,  And a Giant monster from an alien dimension.

All at once.

And some how it works.  It's funny.

One of the better science fiction shows. This movie is the second of four direct to DVD sequels to the defunct cartoon series.

I hope it makes piles of money and piles of sequels.

I give this one an A. 

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1054485/