The Rahals review Speed Racer movie

TheMag.com asked Bobby Rahal, winner of the 1986 Indianapolis 500 and owner of IndyCar Series team Rahal Letterman Racing, and his son Graham Rahal, recent winner of the IndyCar Series Honda Grand Prix, to take a break from Indy 500 preparations to watch a special screening of the new movie, "Speed Racer," which opens nationwide on May 9. This is what they had to say. As told to David Higdon

Graham: The movie revolves around a family of racers, so obviously that struck a chord given my background. Speed decides to stick with his family's team as is the case here in the IndyCar Series with Marco Andretti [who races for his father Michael's team]. But I'm doing just the opposite. Dad always told me to do my own thing, carve my own path. I get asked every day why I don't drive for my father's team, but right now, driving for Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing is the best thing for us.

Bobby: Graham says it was his destiny to be a race driver but I never pushed him into it. Just like the main character in Speed Racer, from the moment he was a kid Graham loved cars and racing. He even watched videotapes of old races with me just like the father-son in the movie.

Graham: Well, I certainly never watched Speed Racer, and maybe that's why I was so bored with the movie because I couldn't follow the plot. Of course, I understood the family story line and the Racer X stuff and all that, but the rest of it? What a mess.

Bobby: I suspect you would have to be a religious Speed Racer fan to make much sense of it, but even still, this is a movie that I imagine mostly kids will enjoy, not their parents who grew up on the cartoon. The kids might like the racing scenes. Personally, the computer animation graphics assaulted my senses.

Graham: I hoped the racing was going to be more realistic, but there was nothing realistic about it. Well, I shouldn't say that. When Speed won the race and downed the milk, that's what drivers do after winning the Indy 500. So that was cool, and I hope to be doing that someday.

Bobby: Kids may like the fantasy element, but I felt it was over the top.

Graham: And when they weren't racing, the dialogue was dull and cheesy. I was drawn into the racing scenes, but they got repetitive. I could hardly sit through the movie. I felt every minute of the two hours.

Bobby: Only highlight for me was that there was nothing about NASCAR in it.