Death Race is a remake of the 1975 David Carradine/Sylvester Stallone flick entitled Death Race 2000. Of course 2000 was the cool thing to put on futuristic movies back then so today we just drop the whole thing. Death Race is written and directed by Paul WS Anderson who brought us such projects as Mortal Kombat, Alien vs. Predator, and Resident Evil. This time instead of Carradine and Stallone we get Jason Statham and Tyrese. Statham stars in this future setting where the world is in chaos. Prisons are so full that games are created to thin the herd. Joan Allen plays the Warden of the prison entertaining millions around the world with Death Race. Prisoners must race in totally beefed up killing machines tallying up a total of five wins in order to be set free. The star of the show is Frankenstein, a masked racer with 4 wins. When Big Frank dies in the opening scene of the movie, the Warden searches for a new Frankenstein to keep her ratings up without letting anyone know he died. The movie is nonstop action. The races are awesome and extremely well done. The storyline is completely ridiculous and cheesy but you have to clear your mind before seeing this. Just expect a popcorn car chase action filled movie.
Jason Statham is a family man who is framed for murder. It just so happens he is a former professional driver so he takes on the role of Frankenstein. Tyrese plays his arch enemy Machine Gun Joe. It doesn’t take long for this movie to get going. There are three big races and each one is fast, gritty, and action packed. I found myself hooked on the scenes and anxiously waiting to see the outcome.
The premise is stupid though. A race course is built on prison grounds. It’s not just any race course but a specially designed one that has lit up indicators on the ground that activate weapons on your car. It’s like a live action video game. Drive over one icon and your guns activate. Drive over another and your defense mechanisms like oil or smoke activate. It’s silly. This would never happen in any future. Then again are we really supposed to think this could be a future in the real world or are we just supposed to sit and enjoy this farfetched idea of prisoners racing to death with American watching? Yeah, I thought so.
Performance-wise we get nothing special. Statham is the same badass character he is in The Transporter. Tyrese is the same character he is in every movie. He’s the shout out to the urban audience. He’s flashy and cocky. The bad guy that you can’t help but love (see 2Fast 2Furious or Four Brothers, he’s the same in all three). Joan Allen is the bitchiest bitch that ever bitched. Ian McShane plays the wise Morgan Freeman in Shawshank type character who helps Statham. And Natalie Martinez doesn’t even need to to speak, she’s just there to hotten things up. So all in all, Death Race was a surprise hit for me. It’s by no means a great movie. But for what its meant to be, not taken seriously, I say it works.
IMDB – 6.5/10
Rotten Tomatoes – 40%
Movie Wiseguys – 7/10