I have fond memories of the old TV cartoon "Speed Racer". No, that's not right: "fond" isn't the word I'm after... I have vague memories of the old TV cartoon "Speed Racer". As I recall, there was a theme song, in which the hero (called "Speed Racer") was exhorted to "go". See Speed Racer go. Go, Speed Racer, go.

The big screen version is the first film the Wachowskis have directed since The Matrix and its sequels - although, come to think of it, I'm not so sure this isn't also a Matrix sequel: perhaps it's just the first one to be set entirely inside the Matrix - an earlier version of the Matrix, that is; one where verisimilitude wasn't so high a priority. The film has been described as the visual equivalent of an ice-cream headache. Those colours! See them and die! Perhaps literally... To make a point I needn't go into here, philosopher Saul Kripke used the example of a colour called "killer yellow", which causes one to drop dead immediately upon looking at it. The Wachowskis read about this and turned it into a research program. There are not only killer yellows but also killer blues and killer reds and believe me, some killer purples.

Fast, trashy, painful to look at - see it and love it. If you survive.