Death Race (Unrated Edition) Reviews

the opening sequence of this movie is so bad i nearly turned it off. high budget slop. it all starts with a driving action scene. explosions, machine guns, fire, cars speeding, crashes, all cut into a collage of partial seconds so disorienting that you'd be hard pressed to get any idea of whats going on. ultimately you learn its the end of a race and this is the do or die moment and obviously this is sci-fi because the cars are equiped with machine guns, smoke, oil slicking, napalm, etc. as well the main character we see here, frankenstien, drives with a rather menacing mask on and a beautiful girl sits by his side as a navigator. he dies but only after the girl ejects.
my problem with the first scene is not that its a bad set up to the story but the filmmakers think that a thousand cuts in a minute sequence will amp up the excitement. it doesn't. it simply has us sitting there saying to ourselves "what the hell is going on in this choppy mess" thankfully the film abandons this technique quickly and in further race scenes is a little less prone to extreme quick cuts. not that the later race scenes are good, they are only good at moments.

story: based on the original from the 70's and worked on again by roger corman, this film has little in common with the original. but lets be honest, the original wasn't much of a story either. you could argue that the script of both of these could have simply read "cars race, drivers try to kill each other....add girls." and you simply use the rest as filler around that. that being said there is somewhat of an interesting plot here although its not developed but rather used as a stand in for creating a good guy bad guy drama.
the plot centers around a driver, ames, who had won in the past (presumably not in the same context of racing). the death races are set up by a prison warden with the goal being that if you can survive and win 5 races you get a pardon. after frankenstein dies, ames suddenly finds himself set up for murdering his wife, and no surprise in the prison were the death races take place. he is asked to continue to race as frankenstein because these races are a kind of pay for view cash crop for the wardon. the race is different now. its a three part or time race (for no apparent reason). and takes part on the island that the prison is located on. its a sort've track set up through building obstacles. and more distinctly there are "power buttons" manhole cover like pads which the cars have to pass over when lit to activate different things mostly on the car; guns, defense, and a ground barrier with spikes that comes out of the ground. this is clearly a set up for a tie in game...but even so is rather limited even for game play. there is also a huge vehicle that is "introduced this race" in the second round and for what seems like to simplify the action by killing almost all the racers but the main two.
oh so anyway it becomes a vengeance thing...and of course he succeeds...duh. a few subplotish moments...nevermind.

what the movie is really about is racing, guns, and a handful of large breasted women for some sex to the equation (honestly even for how blatant this is...and believe me its blatant...they don't do it well or enough to even matter. its half-assed like everything else).

the truth be told, this is a half-assed movie. a half-assed plot, half-assed directing, half-assed action, half-assed everything...the acting is surprisingly fairly decent what there is of it. it doesn't really pretend to be anything else. and you know what...fine...its a cheap thrill and i enjoyed it. not a classic but mindless entertainment.

(6/10)

I'll admit that I let "Death Race" slip by me pretty easily during its theatrical run. Sort of wanting to see it, yes, but also becoming disillusioned with the current crop of Jason Statham action flicks, it wasn't on purpose that I avoided it but it happened just the same.

Along comes Christmas and I receive "Death Race" as a gift. Perhaps it was meant as an apology to Statham and much-maligned director Paul W.S. Anderson ("Mortal Kombat," "Resident Evil," "Event Horizon," and "Alien vs Predator") that it was the first movie I watched that day out of the many I had gotten from various family members. Somewhat eagerly I popped open the DVD tray, gently placed in the disc, and closed the player's door. I plopped myself down on my 7 foot long couch and was expecting just about anything at this point.

But maybe it was my total lack of expectations that got me to this point. I had done little to no research on the film - something I make a regular practice of - prior to viewing it and all I really knew about the picture was that it was a loose remake of the '70s Stallone vehicle "Death Race 2000." Forgoing the subtext and political incorrectness of that title, Anderson's "Death Race" is much more cut-and-dried, but just nearly as violent. The film takes place inside of a maximum security prison where the inmates have the right to earn back their freedom by participating in the online phenomenon known as Death Race; a show where the prisoners use heavily-armored cars to both race and fight one another to the death. The first prisoner to win five races regains their freedom.

Statham plays Jensen Ames, a man who is very obviously framed for the murder of his wife by the higher ups of Terminal Penitentiary, so that the corrupt warden (Joan Allen) can place him in the Death Race as the recently deceased, but legendary driver Frankenstein (called so because he had been "so horribly disfigured by crashes” that he must wear a mask). She offers him the chance at freedom if he, as Frankenstein, wins one more race. Things do, however, become complicated but I will not spoil that here.

Going into "Death Race" and hoping for a little substance is like renting an "Evil Dead" film and hoping that this time they hold the ketchup. "Death Race" is all about big guns, souped up cars, hot women, sustained action sequences, and bloody combat. While the unrated cut runs nearly two hours in length (and is the only version of the film I have seen even though both the theatrical and unrated edits are included on the DVD) much of that time is spent on the track with the tires squealing and the bullets flying. An HDTV and 5.1 surround is HIGHLY recommended for this film to get the most out of the experience. Anderson has paced the film incredibly well, even in its lengthier unrated cut, that he literally gives the viewer no time to breathe.

The action sequences are handled with aplomb and it was great to see Anderson come back from the rather tame "AVP" and deliver something as foul and hardcore as "Death Race." Fistfights feel rough and brutal, God knows how many 50 cal. rounds are spent during racing segments, and various people are either impaled, blown up, run over, machine gunned or stabbed. I don't think the added material found in the unrated print would award the film an NC-17 rating, but "Death Race" is a profane actioner that has a distinctly gritty look to it and doesn't care to shed a little (or a lot) of blood.

You could find fault in the simple fact that none of the cast do much more than shout expletives or give the camera a brooding look now and again. Statham has built his career on it, and others in the cast such as Tyrese Gibson (Machine Gun Joe) and the funny-as-hell Jacob Vargas (Gunner) - who has built his career on being the comic relief - do nothing more than look as menacing as menacing can be when the camera is on them. In fact, this can be attributed to the entire cast. Anderson was going for bleak, I suppose, and he nailed it in atmosphere and cinematography, but the acting is the flick's most - if only - forgettable aspect.

But we didn't check ourselves in to this ride for noteworthy performances; we came for the action, and there's more than enough of that to go around. Complaints from film purists’ aside, "Death Race" is a fantastic popcorn flick that delivers on its promise of nonstop action. Poor acting and flimsy script aside, those interested in an edge-of-your-seat action picture will definitely want to check this one out.