Directed by: Paul W.S. Anderson
Premise: A remake of Death
Race 2000. In the future, prisons have become privatized and owned by
entertainment companies. Inmates participate in webcast car races in an attempt
to win their freedom.
What Works: Death Race is an unabashedly
stupid picture. The filmmakers know this and go for the visceral fun of the
speed, explosions, and grinding metal, not pretending to have any higher
aspirations, and viewers who spend their days playing video games like Twisted
Metal and watching monster truck rallies will probably enjoy it. The best
element of Death Race is Joan Allen as the icy prison warden. Allen plays
the role like a dungeon mistress, cool, controlled, and almost stoic, but with a
hint of sexuality that comes across as very dangerous like Sharon Stone in Basic
Instinct.
What Doesn’t: Although Death Race is not
attempting to be a great statement on dehumanization or human rights, the film
is still troubled by its vapidity. The opening crawl sets up expectations of a
film about a future where human beings have become barbarians roused by immoral
entertainment provided over the web. After the crawl, however, the film becomes
a futuristic racecar version of The
Longest Yard. Unlike similar themed films such as The
Running Man, Death Race does not make a link between the inmates,
the game, and outside society. For anyone familiar with director Paul W.S.
Anderson’s filmography, which includes Mortal
Kombat, Resident
Evil, and Alien
Vs. Predator, this does not come as much of a surprise but even for
Anderson this is low. Where his other films at least got the action right, the
race scenes of Death Race are not all that well done either. Similar
scenes were done far better in The
Fast and the Furious, The
Road Warrior, or even the pod race of Star
Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace. The competition in Death Race is a mishmash of poorly edited crashes and explosions that have little sense of
geography, fail to capture the excitement of speed, and make very little sense.
Bottom Line: Death Race, like its predecessor, is intended for play on the late night cable circuit. But for all of its speed and firepower, the movie is just not very thrilling.