It's a throwback to the early days of motorcar racing.

It's absurdly colourful, proving to what limits CG can be pushed if you're all sniffed up on paint thinners.

It's the racing equivalent of TV's 'Gladiators' show, with crazy circuits that would have grown-up men fondly remember their racing-cars-on-a-track toys of old.

It's a swan song of the family values of the '50s and '60s (minus the "love" revolution).

It's from the same brothers who brought us 'The Matrix' and has plenty of racing at incredible speeds.

So it should be good, right?

Yes and no. Personally, I thoroughly enjoyed the unending blast of colour and the laughable '60s-in-the-not-too-distant-future world in which it's set. But, most of all, I loved the ridiculously fast racing action.

If you're hoping for the kind of melt-your-brain sci-fi of 'The Matrix', then you'll be disappointed. A genre-changing film this is definitely not. But, as with the writers-directors Wachowski Brothers' other post-'Matrix' attempt, 'V for Vendetta', 'Speed Racer' gets better the more you watch it.

It won't suit everybody's tastes, but if you enjoy visual experimentation in movies, then you'll find the orgy of colour in 'Speed Racer' spellbinding. Throw in the outrageous racing scenes, and you might have enough reason to guffaw by the time the tyre-melting final race comes to a knife-edge close.

It's probably a movie that'll have more of an appeal to petrol heads, diehard fans of the Wachoski Brothers, and the sci-fi fanatic who doesn't mind a dash of colour.

But if you're a highbrow, colour-blind, speed-limit driving movie-goer, then 'Speed Racer' won't be for you.

Extras:

The Special Features include the obligatory behind the scenes look - albeit in an enjoyable format - and a look at the cars and racetracks featured in the film.