Death Race
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Even though Death Race is made, as it says in the opening credits, "in association with Roger Corman", this Paul W.S. Anderson (Resident Evil, Alien Vs. Predator) action flick has very little in common with the legendary B-movie producer's biting satirical action/comedy, Death Race 2000, released at drive-ins everywhere in 1975.
Now souped up for today's cineplexes, today's version retains some of the names of the original characters, and just a few wispy plot threads. Not that this will really matter too much in the scheme of things, since Death Race 2000 is a campy cult classic forgotten in the mainstream, and probably entirely unknown by the bulk of Death Race's target audience. While I do own the DVD, I've never even seen Death Race 2000 on cable or satellite listings. I'm guessing it's not all that popular, so if you care to compare — don't spin your wheels. Death Race is more than just rebuilt, it's entirely reinvented.
So, as a standalone film, is it any good? That all depends on your point of view and your state of mind; I'm somewhere in the middle. I like muscle cars and muscular men, so the mega Mustangs, racy Rams, Jason Statham and Tyrese Gibson fired on all cylinders. I don't like flat, arc-free storytelling, so the constant barrage of sound and fury without a moment's respite got on my nerves.
Death Race has more in common with homage-movies like Doomsday, the Rollerball remake, and Escape From L.A. than it does Mad Max, 1975's Rollerball, or Escape From New York. It's a cheap imitation, but like any knockoff, it's cool to wear for a little while. While Anderson's speedy send-up would definitely have benefited from more intentional humor and less angst and schmaltz, the director can be given kudos for knowing what fans of extreme violence demand: There's hard-R mayhem-a-plenty here!
The vehicles are made for manslaughter, each one outfitted with machine guns, missile launchers, napalm sprayers, and even hubcaps that can kill. Drivers in this internet-aired death race — oh, yeah. Plot: Statham plays a wrongly accused convict in the not-too-distant future, who's forced to drive in a potentially fatal car race in order to clear his name — go through windshields, get run over, burn to cinders, are shot full of holes, or are otherwise eviscerated, slammed, crushed, spindled and mutilated.
While Statham and Gibson's ranges are pretty much nil here (which doesn't matter, given the material), they're balanced by an icy, intelligent Joan Allen (a triple Oscar-nominee) as the prison's sadist warden, and "Deadwood's" Ian McShane essentially playing Morgan Freeman's role from The Shawshank Redemption, but making it his own. McShane just rocks, plain and simple. (In fact, the movie would have left a much sweeter taste in my mouth had it had the balls to end on McShane's final line of dialogue. Instead, it drags on to tie up all the bows)
Overall, the overhauled Death Race is fun, fast, and forgettable.
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Reviewed by Staci Layne Wilson