NASCAR 3D 2004

Erik Lundegaard, Seattle Times: Its rampant corporate sponsorship is messy and distracting, and the athleticism necessary to triumph is still less intriguing (perhaps because it's less visible) than the athleticism necessary to triumph in, say, baseball. Read more

Ellen Fox, Chicago Tribune: True fans (i.e., the people who are most likely to buy tickets) probably know a lot of this stuff already, and they might be disappointed by the lack of drama and the brevity of 3-D racing action. Read more

Janice Page, Boston Globe: NASCAR 3D will delight fans of auto racing. Read more

Kevin Thomas, Los Angeles Times: In an amazingly compact 47 minutes, veteran director Simon Wincer outlines the history of the sport, evokes its culture and packs it with jaw-dropping statistics while never slackening the pace. Read more

Bruce Westbrook, Houston Chronicle: A galvanizing experience in terms of sight and sound. Read more

Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly: Entertaining, aficionado-oriented production. Read more

Rick Groen, Globe and Mail: Race day comes and the experience is mildly disappointing -- better at the speed game than a conventional camera, to be sure, yet still far from the real deal, and well below the standard set by our own God-given peepers. Read more

Philip Wuntch, Dallas Morning News: Deserves the widest audience of any non-feature-length IMAX film. Read more

Chuck Wilson, L.A. Weekly: Wincer offers the expected driver's-eye view of a championship race, but cuts away from it so frenetically that one never truly experiences the madman rush of taking a curve at 200 miles per hour. Read more

Gene Seymour, Newsday: Brisk, high-density advertisement for stock-car racing sports a glossy corporate sheen, but may be just congenial enough to convert a few skeptics. Read more

Jack Mathews, New York Daily News: This 40-minute film shows off the combined IMAX/3D experience at its best. Read more

Dave Kehr, New York Times: What Nascar: The Imax Experience is really about is huge objects hurtling toward the camera, which is to say right at your head. Read more

Peter Hartlaub, San Francisco Chronicle: Doesn't quite overcome its shameless self-promotion, but the film will satisfy the Lynyrd Skynyrd set while providing a decent explanation to those who are baffled by the sport's popularity. Read more

Jeff Strickler, Minneapolis Star Tribune: NASCAR 3D: The Imax Experience provides an insider's look at what goes on at stock-car races, both on and off the track. Read more

Mike Clark, USA Today: IMAX and NASCAR have to be one of the most harmonious match-ups since Elvis and a guitar. Read more

Ed Halter, Village Voice: Posits its working-class supporters not as protagonists but consumers, cheering on their just-folks race-car heroes for proxy fantasies of high-speed escape and high-tech goodies. Read more