Movie Review: Death Race (2008)
The movie Death Race with Jason Statham, Tyrese Gibson, Joan Allen and Ian McShane is a loose remake of the movie “Death Race 2000″ even Roger Corman was broughtin as a consultant for the remake of the movie. The movie had some interesting trailers think like Fortress meets The Fast and The Furious. There are countless movies about prisons eventually becoming privatized and corporations in order to make money pit the inmates against each other in gladiator style battles. The Running Man is one example of such a film with Arnold Schwarzenneger.
A private prison holds a payperview type event called Death Race where violent inmates are pitted driving against each other with cars armed with weaponry and having defensive metal plating as well as oil, napalm and caltrops. The premise of the game is whichever inmate wins 5 races gains his freedom and his sentence pardoned. The shoe in for the race is a racer named “Frankenstein” so disfigured he has to wear a mask. Frankenstein dies winning his fourth race and the prison Warden Hennessey (played by Joan Allen) can’t let the ratings slide for the show.
Death Race is about an honest hard working man Jensen Ames (played by Jason Statham) who is a former racer that lost his license due to a drinking and driving incident. He was relegated to working at some sort of plant where everyone was downsized and laid off. Who is framed and setup, thrown in prison and forced to race as Frankenstein to keep the ratings up.
The movie is as predictable as anything you could imagine, senseless gore, prison violence and the races are choreographed so predictably, but the movie is fun to watch. Jason Statham plays his usual character type “Silent but Strong” a man of few words but of action. He reminds me a little of Sylvestor Stallone in his older movies without the slurred accent. That isn’t bad, I actually enjoy watching him and his style in most of his films. Tyrese Gibson plays one of the more amusing characters, a vicious racer named Machine Gun Joe who is also gay. He is known for all of his passengers getting killed in each race and going through several in a single race.
The movie plays out fast, and has a satisfying ending. Watching the cars unload on each other reminds me of the game series Twisted Metal for the Playstation and helped me to enjoy watching the film further. If you like car racing scenes, machine gun fighting, prison fights, murder, gore, and a movie with a happy outcome in the end then this movie you will thoroughly enjoy. Just don’t go into the film over analyzing anything. Know it is mindless and strap yourself in and enjoy the action for what it is.
Death Race (2008) 
Death Race (Unrated Edition)
- $12.98 List Price
- $7.49 at Amazon.com
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What a surprise, Tyrese is in an entertaining but predictable movie relating to fast cars and racing... he seems to have found his niche.
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