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You probably think I’m kidding. There’s no way anyone could enjoy Speed Racer, a notorious box office bomb last summer that was also trashed by the majority of critics. I assure you this is no joke, and despite the fact that I’ve never seen a minute of the anime show it’s based on, Speed Racer is a great movie.

The plot follows the Racer family. Speed (Emile Hirsch) is a professional race car driver considered by many to be the best in the league. His father, Pops (John Goodman), builds cars, including Speed’s. They are an independent car company, until one day, a corporate big wig named Royalton tries to lure Speed into sponsorship. Speed turns him down, which leads Royalton to vow to destroy Speed’s career. Speed must now literally race for his life, while also proving to the public that Royalton is corrupt and is fixing races to make a bigger profit.

Written and directed by The Wachowski brothers (The Matrix trilogy), Speed Racer features their iconic action style, frequently using slow motion and kung fu while gliding the camera around it all. The action scenes are completely dazzling in this film, in particular the race down a mountain. But what is surprising about this film is that it has a surprising amount of heart and emotion in it. Each character is given ample screentime, so there is some emotional investment in between all of the exploding cars.

While many people made fun of the film for how unrealistic the CGI is, it’s supposed to look that way. The film is essentially an anime with real people in it, and from that mindset the CGI fits perfectly.

Speed Racer is an incredibly underrated film that is flawed (some of the slapstick humor doesn’t work at all), but it’s still a surprisingly terrific film that is definitely worth watching.