Death Race (**½)

Directed By: Paul W.S. Anderson (Mortal Kombat, Event Horizon, Resident Evil, Alien vs Predator)
Starring: Jason Statham, Connie Nielson, Ian McShane, Tyrese Gibson
Seen: November 14th 2008

**½ Out of ****

I haven’t seen the original, Death Race 2000, so to me this acts as the original, probably even if I should ever see the actual original. And I enjoyed it, because I went in to the cinema to see it for what it is. It doesn’t parade as high art or strong drama, so measuring it against those staffs is completely unreasonable. This is a movie about car races and death. Violent and bloody death in some cases.

Jensen Ames (Statham), famous race-car driver, gets framed for the murder of his wife and ends up in prison. After the economic collapse of the USA, prisons are now privately owned and wardens can do pretty much what they want with their prisons. Warden Hennessey (Nielson) has taken her prison, in which Ames ends up, and made a big race track of it. To make even more money, the cars are fitted with both high level offensive and defensive systems, including mounted gun-turrets, steel armour plating, oil release and more. Betting and pay-per-view on Death Race is extremely lucrative.

If any convict can win Death Race, an event stretched out over a weekend, five times, he goes free. Frankenstein (cameo by David Carradine, even though we never see his face) is a legendary driver who has four wins under his belt. Problem is, securing his fourth win came at too high a price, he actually died crossing the finishing line. The public doesn’t know this, since Frankenstein drives with a mask reminiscent of Jason Voorhees’ mask. Now Warden Hennessey wants Ames to take Frankenstein’s place, offering him freedom if he wins Death Race once, instead of letting the public know, and once Ames agrees to this we see that the return of Frankenstein is indeed a huge profit driver for Hennessey.

Expect lots of outrageous one-liners, an overflowing of car-racing action, and some bloody violence, as Director Paul W.S. Anderson is no stranger to bloody violence, he did bring us Resident Evil and Event Horizon. Death Race is violent fun that gives you exactly what the name says, death and racing, and what fun it is…