This Weekend @ the Boxoffice: 2008.May.12

[Cthulhudrew]

While visually interesting (and mind you, the overuse of colorful backgrounds often tires the viewer and draws focus from the cars), the acting direction left a lot to be desired. We all know Emile Hirsh, Susan Sarandon, Cristina Ricci and John Goodman can do better than that.

Fair enough. I actually disagree about the acting- I think everyone happened to give decent performances for the type of movie it was (essentially a family film). Sure, they can all do some amazing dramatic and/or comedic roles if they want, but that's not really what the film called for. They played their parts well, without going over the top or making them too "real". As Amellia said, they were essentially acting the roles of the source material- this is, after all, a cartoon movie- and IMO if they made them any more human than they did, it would have distanced them from the rest of the film too much.

 

[Amellia]

I also thought the movie was hilarious, as well as visually and conceptually stunning. Some of the humor might've been better appreciated by people familiar with anime -- but I swear, that scene where everyone's fighting each other in the hotel before the Fuji race had my friends and I laughing hysterically, out loud, for about fifteen minutes. My face and stomach hurt, I was laughing so hard. And just as I started to get ahold of myself:

"Oh my god, was that a ninja?"