Death Race Review

Death Race is loosely based on the film Death Race 2000 (an interesting film with hilarious special affects and a pretty good cast) except it lacks the political preachiness of the original. Death Race is set in the future after a collapse of the economy. Our hero is a hardworking factory employee, an ex-con, and a former race car driver. His factory gets shut down and he only got paid $300 for 120 hours of work. Cut to him being set up for his wife's murder and 6 months later heading to the Death Race island prison. The female warden (also one Pamela Landy from The Bourne Ultimatum) is a hardass bitch and she is responsible for bringing him to the prison. Another driver (the best supposedly) is named Frankenstein and he dies in the beginning. However, she keeps his legend alive and wants our hero to impersonate him. Why? TV ratings. This storyline is completely bogus. Not at all believabe, but who cares? It's all about the ultimate in auto destruction. Frankenstein is an audience favorite who just won't die. Hilarious.

The race has three stages. During the first stage, it's clear that one of the racers acting on the wardens orders killed his wife and stole his daughter. This movie has a lot of interesting little funny parts, but I think the movie is good for one reason: it's so fucking bad. I mean, terrible plot aside, it is really bad. The unintentional comedy is high and I would recommend it to everyone. LOL.

Now back to the film. The original had a somewhat political message. So far, this one has none to speak of. No worries. It will be all about fast cars and big wrecks. Also, Tyrese has a line about "racecar reflexes" that is hilarious! Not because it's funny, but because he is so serious as he says it. In stage 2 they teamed up to survive (and our hero gets revenge on his wife's killer). But in stage 3 we will have the final "battle". An attempt at winning your freedom. Stage 3 will have sabotage, intrigue, and more blood and guts than the previous stages combined! Do you want to know what happens? Well, like Tyrese says, real brave coming over here. LOL. What does that mean? Not a damn thing. I give this film 5/5 on the "weird action movies that you can watch because they are unintentionally entertaining and have good action" scale. I put it somewhere inbetween Mad Max, Commando, and Death Race 2000. Don't worry about the many plot holes and terrible lines, but enjoy the insane action and ridiculous premise for what it is: FUN.