AP

Emile Hirsch plays the legendary cartoon racer.

Speed Racer is a big bad boring movie that talks the audience into a cinematic coma and never recovers. Emile Hirsch from Into The Wild plays the legendary 60's TV cartoon racer with a good family and a knack for racing.

Speed Racer suffers from repetition and endless lectures as the boy wonder is constantly being beat down by either family wisdom or corporate greed. And when that doesn't work insert the brother and chimp for comic relief.

Speed Racer is written and directed to excess by the Wachowski brothers, they created "The Matrix" movies. Part live action but mostly animated this is a big step backward, flat as a pancake, and features no heart and soul. Even the frantic racing scenes make no sense.

Speed Racer runs well over two hours but feels like three. It's rated PG and features a surprising amount of inappropriate language not found in the original series. Worst of all, it's boring and annoying to a fault. Go away Speed Racer go away.

E-mail gcogill@wfaa.com