May 15, 2008

Speed Racer vs. Christopher Hitchens

By: Sonny Bunch

Peter Suderman was spot on when he said that the villain in Speed Racer, played by Roger Allam, is a dead ringer for Christopher Hitchens, both in appearance and accent. Check it out:

Royalton

Hitchens

Which is which? No man can tell.

I’ll be writing about Speed Racer later in the week, and I don’t think I’m spoiling too much by saying that I think it’s a massive failure on every level. But I will say this: This film could do a great deal of good in the world by making acid obsolete. I’ve never done LSD (it holds no appeal for me), but this movie looks exactly what I imagine a bad trip to be like. The Wachowskis were throwing colors up on the screen I never knew existed. So, y’know, it’s got that going for it.