Directed by: Paul W.S. Anderson
Starring: Jason Statham, Ian McShane, Joan Allen, Tyrese Gibson, Natalie Martinez
Released: August 22, 2008

With never seeing the David Carradine & Sly Stallone version from the 70’s, I went into seeing ‘Death Race’ with absolutely zero preconceptions, and honestly, expectations. This Summer has been filled with numerous movie premiers where I couldn’t wait for Friday to get here soon enough. This simply wasn’t one of them… it was more along the lines of the fact that it was Friday night, I had nothing better to do, and I had a craving for theater popcorn. But somehow, amazingly, I found this movie to be strangely entertaining. In fact, I’ll go so far as saying it was a damn good action movie and if you like explosions, car crashes, and massive amounts of violence (and, admit it, who doesn’t), you’ll have a good time watching the carnage unfold on the screen.

‘Death Race’ follows Jensen Ames (Jason Stathem) as he goes from steel mill worker to convicted murderer after the suspicious death of his wife. In this bleak look into the not-too-distant future, the U.S. economy has completely collapsed, leading to an enormous spike in crime. Prisons have become so crowded that private corporations have stepped in to pick up the slack… for profit of course. Prisoners are used as modern-day gladiators, with their gruesome and deadly races streamed to millions online pay-per-view style. Now, if you’ve seen the trailer, you’ll know right off the bat that Jensen was obviously set up, and not surprisingly, this does not bode well with him. Did the warden, a truly cutthroat bitch by the name of Hennessey (Joan Allen) plan the murder to get Jensen to take over for the fan-favorite driver Frankenstein?

Okay, so the story isn’t the film’s true highlight, I’ll be the first to admit that. Throw in a baby daughter in need, a few psychopathic baddies, a wise-cracking pit crew headed by the always excellent Ian McShane, and you get the general idea. The one piece of the movie I think worked perfectly, however, were all of the inter-spliced pay-per-view clips. Sadly, as over the top they were, I could actually imagine them being real and playing on DirecTV later tonight… and sadly, something I could see a living room full of people shoveling over their credit card numbers to check out. Which brings us to where this movie really shines: the races.

All of the race scenes were shot in a way to make you really feel the chaos of the track. The camera is shaky, the cuts are quick, and you’re given a good idea of what it would be like to be sitting in the passenger seat of “Frank”’s souped-up, armored Mustang. We get some very interesting views of shells being ejected from cars, vehicles flying through the air, and whipping by the camera at what feels like 200 miles per hour. The use of traditional special effects techniques with all of the car sequences adds a gritty, realistic feeling to the film… I’m happy to see that all new movies aren’t relying on CG so much as to destroy the film’s sense of realism (*cough*crystalskull*cough*). There are just some things that need to be done by traditional, dirty, means… and explosions, collisions, bullet wounds and crashes are some of them… and this movie doesn’t have a short supply of any. Dishing out a good supply of all, is the impressive Dreadnaught. This massive vehicle makes for some of the most memorable moments of the film, including two that you just can’t help but say “daaaaaaaaaamn!” to. You’ll see.

I never thought I’d be praising a Paul W. S. Anderson movie after the abortion that was ‘Alien vs Predator’, but overall, I found this movie to be an excellent throwback to the excessive action films of old. We’ve had a few of those lately with “Wanted” and “Doomsday”, and this one joins the bunch nicely. So here’s what I suggest you do when you get to the theater: get your ticket, grab some popcorn, take a seat, switch off the brain, and enjoy! This is defintely one I look forward to seeing again.